Welcome to Asian subreddit drama. I have stayed out of all this for so long, refrained from replying to stupid mentions & false stories, made many attempts to resolve issues privately rather than in full view of trolls, and tried for way too long to keep the peace in hopes of maintaining some semblance of AFAM unity around these parts.

Well, I've realized that no one respects that but would much rather prefer to snipe at me, my fellow mods, and this sub's users in private messages or on other subreddits, so I'm finally presenting my side of the story so that readers can decide what they want to believe. In the grand scheme of things, this is only reddit, and I hope readers understand that this drama was the work of a few individuals and will not generalize their actions to any of the demographical groups they belong to. Apologies for the wall of text.

Rough timeline as follows....

Summer 2015: After a series of comments, a lot of Asian guys ended up in my mentions and PMs. One of them, Disciple888 invites me to what was then the /r/AsianMasculinity slack. All I knew was that it was an Asian male chat slack, and I was told that I would be there to provide a female perspective and "help regulate the misogyny." God knows how he imagined I would do that, as I was not given any authority in that slack and was routinely harassed. I had zero intention of any of the above---I felt that this was not my space and that I was there to gain perspective on AM issues, not spout off about mine.

Fall 2015: /u/Arcterex (founder of Kulture, current head mod of /r/AI) invites me to work with Kulture. I was sold on an organization that was dedicated to calling out racism in Western media. I wrote an article critiquing the movie Ex Machina, and a heavily edited version was posted on Kulture's website. Well, regardless of the editing, in hopes of starting a conversation I posted it to /r/asiantwox. Cue this lovely PM from an a2x mod and the beginning of "nala has a dick" rumors. Looking back, she may not have been wrong about the off-site coordination---I have since come to realize how underhanded certain individuals are and how much has been kept secret from me and others, or conducted behind our backs.

Oct 2015: Several AMs, including D888, Dai-lo, RedSunBlue, Arcterex, and neonfuzion aka asianmovement encourage me to start a new subreddit for Asian women. Although someone had mentioned it before the fallout with a2x, I did not take the suggestion seriously till after the incident.

Nov 2015: /r/AsianFeminism opens, thanks to /u/GoatPorker who graciously gave me full permissions to the subreddit name, and the efforts of /u/asianmovement who put together the CSS we enjoy today. Neither person made any demands regarding the content or control of the sub, nor what they expected in return. I will always be grateful for their work no matter what happens/has happened. The fact that /u/GoatPorker first created this subreddit name is public information, and I have told everyone who asked about who put the look and feel of this sub together that it was Neon---he did a great fucking job.

Winter 2015: The great schism of /r/AM occurs. Arcterex and a number of others get booted from their sub, thanks to a wanna-be dictator/all-around sleazeball (hit on any "woke" AFs he could find, then melted down when rejected) named Dai Lo. I get shafted to the reject pile, thanks to my associations with Kulture. The ensuing slack's stated purpose is for all genders to unite in a positive Asian identity. There have never been more than 3 women at one given time in the pre-schism nor the post-schism slack. /r/AznIdentity is born.

After the fallout with a2x, I completely shied away from the idea of writing any reports, and stuck to editing and data entry. Meanwhile, I'm struggling to come to terms with the open misogyny (not to mention homophobia) in Kulture reports and what was considered acceptable and not acceptable for publication, as well as its dogged persistence in taking down other Asian Americans who they didn't agree with, which overshadowed their stated intention to criticize white media especially as Kulture cited twitter troll wars with AA actors as some sort of "victory" or way to build credibility. I provide feedback and concrete suggestions for improvement and a more refined approach at the request of /u/counter aka shadowsweep. I was then told very definitively by arcterex that Kulture's main focus was not on "fringe" demographics (lovingly dubbed "the LGBQtrans-amputee-quadriplegic-vegan-glutenfree-lactoseintolerant Asians" by /u/expensivetoiletpaper, what's good man) but was squarely on Asian men.

I have since forgotten the exact spelling of the username, but arcterex initally had an account that was used (as I understood) by more than one guy to help set up the CSS. That account had config and posts mod permissions, nothing more or less, and we had agreed that it would be temporary until the sub was up and running. Arcterex, however, put increasing pressure on me to grant this account full mod permissions, which I refused. It was about this time that he informed me that he was running reddit ads for /r/AsianFeminism. At least one targeted sub was /r/AskWomen, as I recall. We had a conversation in which I thanked him for his efforts, but told him it was unnecessary and that /r/AskWomen in particular was not a great choice if he was trying to target female subscribers (the majority of users are guys trying to ask women questions, hello). I told him that we could do without the ads, and thought that this was the end of that conversation.

Fast forward a month or two: I find out the ads are still running via the CSS mod account (I use AdBlock, so I never see them, and not being familiar with Reddit ads I did not realize it was directly linked to that account until arcterex told me so). /u/RedSunBlue writes a "tell-all" post over on /r/AsianMasculinity "outing" the CSS mod account as arcterex. But of course, he neglects to specify what permissions that mod account actually has (which is public info). I remove the CSS mod account from the moderation team. Looking back I should have removed it much sooner.

Winter 2015/Early 2016: /u/arcterex asks that I provide a statement from my perspective as an AF as some sort of Kulture staff member to the press. I decline, citing my inability to publicly support an entity that demonstrated highly problematic attitudes towards other Asians. Arcterex melts down, citing "all the help we gave /r/AF." It is unclear whether or not he submitted a statement anyways under a female pen name.

I continued to work behind the scenes with Kulture doing editing work and providing feedback (mainly to /u/counter), hoping to salvage what I still believed was originally a worthy cause.

Spring 2016: AI slack (distinct from the sub) declares a renewed focus on promoting positive AF-AM relations (slight change in leadership). I became an AI slack mod. I didn't last more than 3 months---the entire time members accused me of "abusing mod powers" despite the fact that I never took any mod action nor spoke to anyone as a mod, and to cap it off, a user told me to "suck a white dick" during a heated discussion. I resigned from the moderation position but remained in the slack.

I see the occasional criticism of /r/AF on /r/AI. Arcterex does not respond to my attempts to contact him privately to discuss matters away from trolling eyes. /u/counter does his best but is told by Arcterex and /u/the0clean0slate to remain focused on AM issues and not "cater to AFs." In fact, later on it was stated publicly: "It is just that we have to refocus on Asian man and stop constantly tending to their [AFs'] sensibilities. As the group that is under much heavier oppression in this white male dominated system, we need to wipe our ass first."

I've put Kulture editing work on hold, due to life circumstances. Around April I get news that arcterex is removing me (and supposedly, others as well) from Kulture's team. Arcterex contacts me citing my inactivity as well as "r/AF going different ways" for removal.

Let me just take a moment and say that I am fucking proud of the moderation team here on /r/AF. We have each other's backs, and have never disagreed publicly. We each have our own individual opinions but empower each other to use our best judgment in regards to moderation issues, and then support the decision reached. I realize that this is not true of every moderation team and am very grateful for the other mods here as well as the support of our approved submitters.

Thus, via screenshots and visiting other subreddits, I learned what kind of half-truths Arcterex was spreading about /r/AF. I reached out to him repeatedly in private in hopes of at least having a conversation about what was going on. All attempts are ignored. I go to /u/counter, who is sympathetic and truly tries his best, bless his heart, but is majorly curtailed by the guy who holds the purse strings.

Somewhere around this time, pbw aka /u/the0clean0slate, current mod on /r/AI, confronts me in the Asian Identity slack and demands that I answer his questions about the /r/AsianAmerican moderation team (I had recently become a trial mod), namely "Do the women call all the shots and push the guys around?" (in much less polite language). I made the mistake of engaging him and answered, "No, it's not like that at all," but did not feel obligated to provide any further information. Of course, he didn't like my answer, and threw a huge tantrum in my PMs as well as in the main channel of that slack. His tantrum invoked a group conversation moderated by the-then AI slack mod team (which overlapped with but was not composed of exactly the same individuals as the AI sub mod team) in which he insulted me and asked me to leave the slack chat (without having any authority to do so), then backpedaled, as he stated "we don't want to be the ones to kick out one of the most pro-AM AFs there are." Arcterex joined in on the conversation, lamenting the wasted $$ on reddit ads and how /r/AF was so far from his vision (???).

Summer 2016:

I attempt to defend /r/AI and other AM spaces, urging nuanced criticism, as other AFs increasingly point out its toxic elements, both on r/AF and in private conversations with me. One of the most prominent pro-AM AFs becomes disillusioned and frustrated with the rampant misogyny and white worship in many of the r/AI users and mods, and confides in me how certain AM redditors attempted to manipulate her into making statements against other Asian women because of her pro-Asian/AM-sympathetic stance. As criticism of /r/AF and Asian women mounts at the expense of any actual effort to combat white supremacy, I come to realize that because these subreddits and these redditors do not represent Asian men as a group and never will, criticism of these specific spaces and their toxic attitudes is not an attack on my own brothers but rather an attack on internalized white misogyny and racism.

There has been plenty of criticism of AFs and generalization of elements on /r/AF to all AFs as a group, on /r/AI. The most recent comment chain can be found here or here.

>Trust me, there are stupid posts on there--detailing about how "asian men only criticize AF dating white guys because they are bitter and jealous", or the more common "white guy + Asian girl is EXACTLY the same as Asian guy + white girl! -----Asian men are such hypocrites xD". - /u/adcwata

Lol, why would we trust someone who has neither links nor screenshots to back up the quotes he made up? Hint: there are none.

>"No hate circlejerking against them. Okay? Hate circlejerking against any asian subs will always be frowned upon." - /u/the0clean0slate, about 5 months ago.

Yet here we see /u/arcterex jumping in and fanning the fire with:

>R/AF wasn't always like this. In fact, their mods won't want to admit it to their membership, but r/AI played a role in encouraging the creation of that sub, its setup, and advertising to assist it in gaining membership. What changed between then and now? I don't think we've changed much. We're still the same, with the same message, warts and all. Their perception of us has changed. Given that we haven't changed, they must have changed somehow. Why that is, is a longer story. Suffice to say, with all its problems, /r/AF still is better than what else is out there in the same category. That's how progress goes I suppose.

Later in the same comment chain:

>I wouldn't over-react to a few posts. Just like the author of the post you've got a screen shot of shouldn't over-react. Someone has to de-escalate, it may as well be us.

Someone has to de-escalate? Someone as in certain AI mods who avoid open discussions with /r/AF mods and say all kinds of shit when they think they're at liberty to speak their true feelings without us finding out? lol. Yeah, de-escalate by egging your users on to stir up subreddit drama every week.

>Their perception of us has changed. Given that we haven't changed, they must have changed somehow. Why that is, is a longer story.

I actually have to agree with this statement. And this is the story, in full.

Edit: temp banned for calling out white supremacy. Not surprised.