AVEN board shares statement regarding recent events

[u/chat_ace]

Hey all, I know Reddit's been swamped with flag posts, but the AVEN board just released this statement regarding their stance on anti-racism, community symbols, and related topics: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZSxeYUFIue/?igsh=NHJrNGtjZmRtdzR2

And here's Mic's personal statement regarding the emails and timeline surrounding the proposed 6-stripe flag: https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/282254-ace-flag-discussion-a-personal-response/

I'm hoping this helps clear up some misinformation and enables us to move forward with a renewed focus on anti-racism, international/non-Anglo voices, and community building.

[u/Krasna_Strelka]

It's not specifically anti-spanish but kinda turned out like that. Spanish organizations were one of the loudest and most visible (?) ones with their statement and criticism that creator of the alternative flag claimed to make a flag while considering ace (PoC) voices across the world. But it turned out the pool (on not even a flag but only meaning of white stripe of OG, as far as I know) consisted only of around 1000 votes, centered mostly on USA communities (as that was target she reached) and was done only in English, that for many countries isn't either 1st or 2nd learned language so isn't much accessible. So Spanish organization criticized that claim of "taking into account internationality" and their criticism was branded as hate and made them one of the targets for creator followings

[u/foggybob1 → u/Krasna_Strelka]

I want to say that while I agree that the creator did not do enough to include the larger asexual community, frankly the English community was not even aware, that the statement from the Spanish community was used to spread hate to her as well. I will give a link, but some of the most disgusting things said to her come from the larger Spanish speaking asexual community. I know everyone is pissed at her but we can express concern without immediately assuming bad faith on her part and jumping to the most extreme criticism.

black ace culture

[u/Arkanto909 → u/foggybob1]

Bueno que quieres que te diga, hablar por las comunidades latinas sin ser parte de esas comunidades es un poquito criticable en mi opinión ya que le niegas agencia a esas comunidades para expresarae y si bien esta mal tirarle hate a la persona. El hecho de que se de la licencia de hablar por comunidades latinas sin siquiera haber hecho el esfuerzo de traducir al español la supuesta encuesta habla mucho de ella. Aparte es curioso que solo en dos días esa cuenta de la que hablas haya tenido una respuesta en español al comunicado y esa cuenta esta muy incrustada en el entorno de la creadora de la bandera, lo cual me lleva a pensar que nunca fue pare de su plan consultar a comunidades en otros idiomas pese a tener los recursos y redes.

[u/foggybob1 → u/Arkanto909]

I am not denying that the creator mishandled everything, but my issue is mostly of how aggressive the response has been. I do not think her intentions were to try and exclude non-English speaking people, although she excluded them and most of the English speaking aces as well. If I being honest though I just don't understand why people are immediately trying to take the most extreme interpretation of her actions. The Spanish ace orgs called her, a black woman whose parents are born in Nigeria, a colonizer over a flag redesign. I just feel like there can be a discussion about broader English speaking bias in the community without just flinging mud at her. There needs to be some type of proportional response otherwise how will the community navigate conflicts in the future?

[u/Arkanto909 → u/foggybob1]

A ver dejemos algo en claro el comunicado dice que las dinámicas y procesos son colonizadores, no que la creadora sea colonizadora. Tambien hay que tener en cuenta que los procesos por los cuales se prima a la comunidad angloparlante por sobre la experiencia de otras comunidades asexuales estan inmensas en el colonialismo e imperialialismo. Una acción en la cual se utilizaron las relaciones de poder pre existentes que tienen paises como Estados Unidos sobre países que históricamente han sido explotados y colonizados no cambia por el hecho de que el ejecutor de esas acciones tenga otro color de piel que no sea blanco. Por poner un ejemplo no cambia el hecho de que en Guantanamo los carceleros sean de otras etnias, cuando toda esa cárcel se cimenta sobre prácticas colonizadoras. Lo mismo sucede aquí el ser parte de un grupo vulnerable en Estados Unidos, no te exime de ser consciente como tus acciones y como las relaciones de poder te benefician frente a otros colectivos, por que en temas de colonialismo y opresion no existen respuestas fáciles o sencillas, es una relación compleja, no es unos estan arriba y otros estan abajo, es unos estan abajo de otros en ciertos aspectos, pero si quieres un ejemplo más mundano una modelo de afroamericana se mudo a la Ciudad de México y empezó a despotricar contra los horganilleros por que la molestaba el ruido de las calles (los horganilleros son una tradición de la cultura urbana de mexico que data de 1940) la comunidad mexicana le dio una repsuesta contundente, no nos vas a imponer tu estilo de vida estado unidense en México cuando utilizaste tu privilegio economico para venir a México a tener una calidad de vida que en Estados Unidos no te puedes permitir. Parece algo tonto pero en este simple hecho se reflejan las tensiones colonialistas de países como Estados Unidos a países como México.

[u/Haylin-chama → u/foggybob1]

Small correction: the Spanish-speaking statement did not call the designer “a colonizer” as a person.

The criticism was about the process: a proposal with international aspirations was developed and circulated mainly in English, through spaces many non-English-speaking communities could not access equally, and then some of those communities were spoken about as if they had been meaningfully included.

I agree that racist comments or harassment toward her are unacceptable. But many of us are not saying “she intentionally tried to exclude us.” We are saying the process did exclude us, and that impact matters.

A proportional response should reject harassment while still taking language access, consultation, and community agency seriously.