[This was originally in The Big Tl;Dr Post Of Doom but I decided to make it its own separate post for accessibility reasons.]
In 2022, Spiced began collaborating with AnnEllspethRaven, the world record holder for longest fanfic, and AER gave an interview in Slate and name-dropped Spiced as an "inspiration", so in addition to everything else, I felt it necessary to add this last bit for context:
Evidence of problematic racist behavior from Spiced.
Evidence of problematic racist behavior from AER.
[^Those two entries are by my friend mx_rumpleteazer, who gave me permission to link to them here. They are a non-binary Muslim of Pakistani heritage who left DW due to doxxing concerns with Spiced's clique but still keep in touch with me privately.]
"But but but they've said Chinese people are beautiful!" See this post.
Here's the thing.
Spiced and AER are both Gen X; I am a Xennial. The liberals of our generation used to/sometimes still say things like "I don't see race" and "I see everyone equally" and think if you say "I'm not racist" in public enough times, it makes it so.
It's not enough to say you're not racist. You have to not do racist shit. If you fuck up, apologize, learn and do better. Don't double down and say I'm "spreading lies about you being racist" and keep asserting you're Not Racist and "how dare you".