San Japan a large anime convention due to be held on the Labor Day Weekend at the San Antonia Grand Hyatt is pushing on despite the pandemic and the resignation of their Chairman.
Dave Henkin used his personal Twitter account to comment on why San Japan does not book People of Colour (POC) guests. It’s because they don’t make enough money.
In fact, Henkin used even more divisive language and said;
We got tagged asking why we don’t bring out POC industry.
I’ll tell you why. We get tagged and constantly requested to book sexual predators and popular asshole divas. That’s what people want to throw their money. Show up by the hundreds with cash to see PC then I’ll book them.
The whole tweet is hurtful. It attacks anime fans as idiots who want to meet predators and asshole divas, it attacks guests of the convention for being predators and assholes and reduces POC to a footnote in the fandom.
Henkin has since gone on to try and explain himself. He says he was speaking from a position of privilege and trying to express frustration at the difficulty of marketing POC guests.
San Japan announced, in exchange, that Henkin will step down.
In the future, guests will be selected by a combination of fan submissions, staff recommendations and formal recommendations from an equity committee.
Hat tip to Nerd & Tie.
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