Regarding the circumstances surrounding a hate symbol being displayed in the IAFC 2022 group photo:
As head organizer of this convention, I want to apologize for a lack of clear communication and thus what seemed like a lack of action regarding the issue with the people who flashed a hate symbol in our group photo. I also want to apologize for the fact that the action we did take, such as it was, was also inadequate.
The Small Council and volunteers for the convention did not witness or even notice this until it was brought to our attention soon after Ice & Fire Con 2022. While myself and the others who were involved in handling the complaint that we received in May believed that we did our due diligence in researching and resolving this matter, we absolutely understand that what we did was not enough. We also see now that the lack of clear communication on our part only served to make things worse.
Ice & Fire Con is an event for EVERYONE, and everyone should feel safe at our event. We have long strived for this to be the case, and we regret that in light of recent events we absolutely failed in doing so.
Part of the problem is due to past policies that we are now updating. While we have always acted quickly when complaints were brought to our attention, due to past experiences we have always done our best to keep these situations as private as possible. This is namely due to the sensitive and private nature of these complaints and while immediate bans were put into place, in those situations it was always in the best interest of the people lodging the complaints that things remain as private as possible.
In this situation, we see that our old policies did not work. When the original complaint was brought to us, a member of the party in question was contacted and specifically asked about the hand gesture made in the photo. They were shocked and insistent that they had no idea that this hand gesture, which they perceived to just be the “made you look” game, had been co-opted by white supremacists.
We did not immediately take them at their word. We went through years of posts on their friends-only social media accounts to be certain that they hadn’t posted anything that would show or hint otherwise. They were also immediately told that the gesture was not allowed, and future evidence would result in removal/ban from the convention.
Unfortunately, I as organizer was counseled to not reveal these details to the original complainant. We ensured that the offending photo was removed from social media, but we understand that this, combined with the lack of transparency on our part, made it look as though we were hiding things. We also now understand that a common tactic of white supremacists who use these gestures is to pretend they are innocent, or that they do not know what the gesture means. We also see that if our organization had more diversity in leadership, we would have known of this tactic earlier. With that knowledge, these individuals have been banned from Ice & Fire Con. We apologize that this action is a “too little, too late” response.
On that note, as previously mentioned we have been working with a diversity consultant to do our best to move forward. As most of our Small Council and many of our volunteers are attending another convention at the moment, it will be mid-September at least before updates are made to our website etc., but we are committed to putting the following in place:
1. We are updating the zero tolerance policy to include the caveat that “ignorance is not an excuse”.
2. An anonymous complaint form link will be added to our zero tolerance policies page
3. The complainant will be able to choose whether they want their complaint to be made public (with certain caveats due to privacy laws).
4. We have already added a person of color to our Small Council, who has experience in anti-racist and inclusivity work in other fandom spaces.
5. We have one additional Small Council position that is immediately available to a POC, with the only requirement being that they have attended IAFC at least once.
a. Please note that all Small Council positions are volunteer/unpaid, and that members of the Small Council work approximately 150 to 200 hours a year to help the event happen, which will be discussed with anyone who is interested in the position.
6. When we open programming applications, there will be a specific link for POC creators to submit programming ideas and panels, which will be given priority in the panel decision process.
a. This includes panels on diversity and inclusivity in the community.
Please note that this is just the preliminary action plan; we are still brainstorming and also option to suggestions.
Again, we cannot apologize enough for the mistakes that we made, and we hope that our future actions, including the changes we are already working to make, will show how serious we are about the safety and inclusion of BIPOC members of the fandom.
Tara
Organizer, Ice & Fire Con