For full context of the situation as reported here: https://synonymous.dreamwidth.org/8886.html
In Aug 2020, the org added the Tai-gi and Cantonese language tags around the same time without notifying the Chinese vols first. The Chinese volunteers were then pressed (not by Alex specifically) to advertise the addition of the Tai-gi (Taiwanese) language on AO3, at the same time they were also being asked to recruit other vols on Weibo. Geopolitical tensions between China and Taiwan are extremely high, and Weibo is a site owned by mainland China. Internet activity in China is heavily monitored and censored; vols advertising Tai-gi on Weibo not only would risk the removal of those posts and further strain between AO3 and China, but it would also put the volunteers themselves at risk. Volunteers tried to tell them this in English. Then, when their in-English concerns were being ignored, they started expressing their frustration in Chinese. This prompted Alex's comment in German about a lingua franca.
Alex insinuated for them to not appease their government sometime in this conversation, which also implied that Alex did not value their safety as much as, what, sticking their middle finger up to the Chinese government?
This incident is also ironic given that sometime before(? or at least in the same year) Alex expressed hostile reluctance towards a black volunteer because of a simple question asking about the Board diversity...because it would endanger the volunteers' safety: https://synonymous.dreamwidth.org/8886.html#cutid3
(I'm aware that much of this comment has been provided already upthread, but I figured I'd put it all into one comment for ease of clarity! Please feel free to correct me if any of this is incorrect.)
You're largely right, but conflating two incidents. The Tai-gi debacle happened in 2020, and Alex was indeed rancidly racist about it.
The protest in which Chinese volunteers communicated in Chinese as a protest against the Org not listening to them happened this year, only a month or so ago. That protest was about the Org's unilateral decision to close down the Weibo account, claiming that the Weibo mods were overburdened. The Weibo mods were not consulted on this and did NOT want to shut the Weibo account down, and when they expressed that to the Org in English, they were ignored. As a result, they began protesting in Chinese. The use of the language itself was part of the protest, a considered choice on their end. They weren't ignorant of the utility of a lingua franca, and Alex wasn't ignorant of what they were doing and why. Alex was just racist and couldn't resist taking a swipe at them.
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