Hey y’all! It’s Nami, your Master of Laws! I wanted to address what seems to be a huge misconception that I didn’t realize was occurring until I spoke to some friends in the community. People seem to be under the impression that Tara alone made all the decisions that occurred in the summer of 2022, and that is not the case. These decisions were made with two other former members of the Small Council.
As it was brought to our attention on Twitter that it sounded as if one of those members might have been former Small Council Member Brian H, I do want to clarify that he was not involved. I apologize that it sounded as if I was implicating him in my tweets. I, and IAFC, did not want to name names and point fingers at members who stepped down; unfortunately, by not naming names we made it sound as if he might have been involved, which was absolutely an oversight and therefore we offer our sincerest apologies to Brian H.
Note: It was also brought to Nami’s attention later (after the live panel in March 2023) that last summer, screenshots had been taken of current Small Council members. I, along with the rest of the Small Council, was under the impression that Brian H’s position at IAFC was not known outside of friend circles as he was not active on social media. I understand now that this was not the case and again, I am so SO very sorry that my tweets made it seem like Brian H was involved in the mistakes made last summer, and that my further ignorance about the fandom’s knowledge put him negatively in the public eye again.
Full disclosure: When everything happened in the summer of 2022, decisions were very rushed, and the full council was not consulted. It was a situation that originally involved only the people who had been informed about the issue separately (by concerned parties in the fandom) , and this was part of the oversight.
When this complaint was initially bought up in May of 2022, it wasn’t filed as an official complaint until approximately a week after the convention. It was mentioned in private social circles before that, but it was not brought to Ice & Fire Con until a week or so later, which is why it was not addressed until that time.
At the time it also seemed like the person who made the original complaint was satisfied by the resolution (the warning). We absolutely want to clarify that if the original complainant was not satisfied with the resolution at that time (which, in retrospect, seems to be the case), we are seriously sorry. Most of us are neurodivergent and some of us are on the autism spectrum; so if a request is not specific, we often miss the implied action you wish for us to take. We request that for future complaints, please be clear with us because we will do almost anything for safety. Many of us are just not very good at reading between the lines and frequently miss “implied solutions” that should be clear to others.
In May 2022, the three Small Council members (Tara and two others) decided that the picture was going to be taken down and that a warning was going to be given to the two people in question. This warning was decided on by those three members and was given after there was a social media check on both men to see if there was any connection to white supremacy (and this check was performed for years of posts). The search did not show any obvious links to white supremacy, nor had we had previous complaints about these attendees, so a warning seemed like an adequate resolution – again, because we did not understand that a request was being made along with the original complaint – and we are very sorry for this misunderstanding.
Additionally, when the Small Council received the complaint, they also reached out to people who knew the perpetrators to investigate the occurrence. The Small Council members were told the perpetrators were playing the “make you look” game (which is apparently something people do in the Midwest). However, one of the Small Council members who was part of this decision insisted that this explanation not be included in the reply to the person who had filed the complaint; therefore, it was unfortunately not addressed at all.
Essentially, there was behind-the-scenes work done, and the perpetrators were not just immediately believed at their word. This was another part of the reason why the perpetrators were not banned since they were “playing a game” and claimed they had no idea the sign was co-opted by white supremacists. Since this and the social media vetting was not disclosed, and all of this led to the perpetrators only getting a warning, it is completely understandable that the response seemed insufficient.
In August of 2022, when everything came to a head on Twitter, it was at first only handled by those three mentioned above (the two former members were the only other ones active on Twitter and Tara was only informed as the organizer). Decisions were rushed and thus things were not discussed fully. Tara personally was not at home during this and made it very clear that their phone was on >10% battery and they could not handle it right away, but other members of the conversation were in “we need to fix this IMMEDIATELY” mode.
The Small Council member who oversaw Twitter at the time posted as soon as she could, without checking with the entirety of the Small Council. The rest of the Small Council were shown what happened in a screenshot of the Twitter post after the fact. Once Tara got home (about an hour after the Twitter reply), Tara informed the Council that they were going to ban the perpetrators.
Just to be clear: things on Twitter had escalated to “why didn’t you ban them” when it was already decided that they were going to be banned behind the scenes.
Again, we realize this response was still slow and should have been the original resolution in May, but I want to emphasize once again that most people do not know about the white supremacist takeover of the OK symbol and the seriousness of a white American using that symbol in a public place.
To reiterate: the lack of that initial ban was because the Small Council members who dealt with this issue in May were all white and this resulted in an inadequate understanding of the seriousness of the situation. They didn’t know how serious and directly connected the OK symbol was to white supremacy. I (an Indian woman) only knew this about 6 months before last summer. Unfortunately, if you’re not active in POC spaces, and specifically black spaces, it isn’t something that you know. Ignorance is NOT an excuse, but it is an explanation of why anti-racist folks accidentally act in a way that allows racism to fester.
Additionally, as three white people made this decision, they didn’t know that a common white supremacy tactic is to gaslight people who see white supremacist actions into thinking the perpetrators are doing something else. The tactic of white supremacists to gaslight other white people into ignoring white supremacy activity is not well known by white folks. When you know those tactics, you’re well-equipped and aware to watch out for them. Unfortunately, the three members who made these decisions did not know about these tactics and did not realize that the perpetrators’ words and justifications couldn’t be trusted.
After all of this went down in August, certain Small Council members quit and voiced their disagreements about how things went down. The people who stepped down are not bad or racist, but I want to make it clear: they participated in the initial May decision and the immediate, and inadequate, Twitter response. It was absolutely a case of ignorance, but they were a part of this decision, despite the fact that the way that they stepped down made it seem as though they had nothing to do with these choices.
The purpose of this post is to clarify that other Small Council members did have a part in the decisions made last summer. Of course we understand their decision to step down. But it seems as if the ASOIAF community has assumed that Tara alone made these choices, and has thus continued to direct calls for accountability to them alone – and it needs to be clarified that while Tara has been the only person involved in the decisions this summer who actually has tried to be accountable by continuing to take the full blame for these mistakes, they were not in fact alone in their decision.
Tara alone has owned their mistakes, posted an apology in August on the IAFC website, and has followed through on making sure IAFC leadership executed the action items outlined in that apology, and has stayed alone in the public spotlight to make amends by trying to be accountable.
– NAMI, Master of Laws, April 2023