OTW and AO3 Racism Discussion (2020)

OTW and AO3 Racism Discussion is a fan conversation that was rekindled by the OTW's release of their newsletter "This Week in Fandom" on June 10th, 2020. It was the first time the OTW addressed racism within fandom spaces following the George Floyd protests that had been ongoing around the world. However, it did not comment on the OTW's own stance on racism within fandom, much to the dismay of some of its fans and users. 
==Overview==
===Historical Context: George Floyd Protests===
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, was killed during an arrest after Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis Police Department officer, knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes as three other officers looked on. Floyd's death lead to global protests against police brutality.
During this time many organizations posted messages of solidarity with Black communities and Black Lives Matter. Some also noted donations they would be making and actions they intended to take within their own organization to combat racism. Not all organizations made such promises however, and posts of solidarity were often met with heavy scepticism.
===This Week in Fandom===
As organizations continued to release statements in solidarity of Black Lives Matter, it became a talking point on twitter that the OTW had made no statements on their website or social media. On June 10th the OTW released their newsletter, "This Week in Fandom", which discussed some of the issues surrounding racism within fandom. However, they were heavily criticised for failing to address their own stance on racism within their organization or their platforms.
The newsletter also cited two scholars, Stitch and Dr. Rukmini Pande, on the topic of racism in fandom, however due to the OTW's lack of engagement with the topic they soon asked for those citations to be retracted. This was discussed around many circles on Twitter but also opened both up to harassment.Stitch detailed the experience of some of this harassment in a blog post, Antiblackness in (Service of) the Archive: A Statement, published on June 16.
The newsletter itself has 40 responses, the majority of which noted the absence of any acknowledgment of racism within the OTW, and some pointing out the lack of engagement with Stitch and Pande's work before it was retracted. 
Some took issue with these comments:
==Open Letter==
Following the release of the OTW's newsletter a group of fans and fandom academics created and release an Open Letter to the OTW on Racism in Fandom. The open letter urged the OTW Board to "take immediate steps to help make fandom a space where all fans, particularly Black, Indigenous, and ethnically marginalized fans from all over the globe, can thrive." as well as three suggestions for moving forward. 
==OTW Statement==
On June 20, 2020 the official OTW twitter posted its intention to properly address the criticism toward it and publish a statement on the matter., Jun 20, 2020. Four days later, on June 24, the OTW released a "Statement from the OTW Board of Directors, Chairs, & Leads." In the statement the Board apologised to "anyone who has suffered from our inaction in making the OTW and AO3 a better environment for Black fans and fans of color." and outlined upcoming changes to the Archive. 
===Response=== 
The OTW's statement has 162 comments. Many commented positively on the OTW's commitment to maximum inclusivity of content.
Others reinforced their support of the OTW reaching out to advocacy groups. 
Some called for a concrete timescale for the implementation of the listed features the OTW was looking into.
==Censorship vs. Antiracism==
==Archive Warnings==
Much of the discussion before and after the OTW made an official statement revolves around the possibility of adding new archive warnings on AO3. Two of the main suggested warnings were for slavery and racism. Many others argued against implementing new warnings in general, or against some of the specific warnings proposed, for a variety of reasons. Various people pointed out that there is a major difference between fanfic about racism and fanfic that is racist, and that creators can be expected to warn for the former, but racist creators are either unaware of their racism or deliberately trolling, so wouldn't warn for their racist fanfic in either case. Others argued over whether the effort required to enforce the new warnings was worthwhile, or whether adding a racism warning would lead to adding even more warnings for other forms of bigotry.
Someone asked Franzeska about the reasoning behind which archive warnings were selected when the archive was first set up. Franzeska replied,
This answer led to a side conversation about how Franzeska's involvement in the OTW contributed to its poor track record on racism., 25 June 2020., fail_fandomanon, 2020-07-02. Franzeska was already known and criticized for the racism in her 2016 meta Your Vagina is a Bigot; My Vagina is a Saint.
Others were frustrated that the discussion about racism on the AO3 was being boiled down to debates about archive warnings, as there were other conversations surrounding the topic being had. 
==Further reading==
* What's up with the AO3 and racism?
* AO3 Content Discussion (2016)
* End OTW Racism
* [fandom racism] Thread explaining at length why it’s well past time that AO3 added warnings related to racism & racist tropes a Twitter thread by freetofic with links to other comments/discussions happening on Twitter. (13 June 2020)
* Ao3 does not exist to solve deeply embedded social problems, a twitter thread by @scarlettbbydoll (June 13 2020)
* Mythical Dragons & Wild Unicorns: A Decade Later a timeline of discussion about race and fandom from 2016-2020, with references to Racefail, by Dreamwidth user wistfuljane (15 June 2020)
* Here is a document compiling actionable anti-racist changes that can be made to #AO3 shared by @coynsundry (16 June 2020)
*OK I'm going to weigh in on the tagging/content moderation conversation happening right now a Twitter thread by Casey Fiesler (17 June 2020)
* I am getting really frustrated with the discussion around AO3 and antiracism(archived link), a twitter thread by @rahaeli (18 June 2020)
== See also ==
* Don’t write George Floyd fanfiction
* 2023 OTW Management Controversy
* Just got a second official warning (post by le-bjorn)
==References==
Category:Organization for Transformative Works
Category:Archive of Our Own
Category:Fandom Occurrences
Category:2020 Events