I have a lot to say about this. It belongs in a blog post and I'll try to get that up this week but I have a *ton* of work so I can't promise. But I'll give you the sketch of things.

I told @WFC2020 in July/August that if they did not get themselves together this would happen https://twitter.com/miyukijane/status/1313182688967184384

Just after @wfc2020 announced that it would be a virtual con, I started tweeting at them: how many Black people and other POC are on your concom? How many are on the programming committee?

Because if travel and other physical con funds weren't a barrier, more inclusion is easier

The Twitter account ignored me for weeks.

Then Nisi Shawl emailed them directly to ask about these issues and said I'd been trying to get their attention.

Chair Ginny emails me all innocent-like: Oh, were you trying to get in contact? What can i help you with?

I pointed Ginny at my tweet. In response, I got a wall of text with explanations as to why the concom for @WFC2020 was all white except for two people, one of whom quit when it became a virtual con.

Ginny gave me a reason for this (which I'll save for the blog post), however...

It boils down to the board of World Fantasy (the national board that oversees the con in general but does not run each specific con) has dictates that Ginny says she cannot get around that made it hard for her to recruit BIPOC to the concom and she was unwilling to challenge them

We had some back and forths. I was.... unimpressed with Ginny's excuses, experience, and backbone. But I told her explicitly that if she wanted her con to be inclusive and welcoming to BIPOC and other marginalized people she *needed* to get marginalized folks on the concom...

...and specifically on the programming team. And said programming team should be a TEAM and not one white person. And that she also needed to recruit people from various backgrounds to vet the panels before they were sent to panelists and made public.

Did she do any of this?

LOOKS LIKE NO.

But I want you to understand something: She was warned. She was counseled on what to do to avoid *exactly what is happening now* and she ignored that counsel and also acted like I was attacking her for being white because I said to her: You are white.

I understand that the core of the problem is not @wfc2020 or Ginny -- though she and the concom *could have done some things better and refused to*, there's also the issue of how the WF board continues to fail over and over again and yet they always blame whoever runs the cons.

THE BOARD has not given con chairs support, guidance, or direction on how to create a diverse, inclusive convention that is welcoming to BIPOC and other marginalized folks.

THE BOARD will not change rules *designed to exclude certain kinds of people from the con*

THE BOARD will not be transparent about how much actual control they have over each con and yet will blame the con when things go wrong that were actually problems the board could have fixed if they'd chosen to.

Bottom Line: @WFC2020 & ALL World Fantasy Conventions are not safe places for BIPOC & other marginalized folks. In some ways, it is an actively harmful, hurtful, & oppressive to these groups. I Do Not suggest you attend. If you're BIPOC I suggest giving back that free membership.