I never had any issue with Baba Studio (BabaBarock) prior to learning of their anti-Chinese sentiments, and none of this is personal. In fact, I waited for three strikes, three separate incidences of public anti-Chinese statements before finally saying enough is enough, I need to speak up.

By way of some background, Baba Studio (aka BabaBarock World) is a tarot deck creator and publisher specializing in digital collage decks mashed from public domain images.

See also: 7/07/2020 Edits below

TL;DR Lessons Learned

Deck piracy is a serious problem that creators face and as a collective have had to fight against. When you engage in that battle, however, don’t lose your humanity or compromise your principles against prejudice.

Call out specific bad actors by name and don’t make blanket statements such as “all Chinese…” If you are going to call out a specific culture, reread your statement carefully. Is it a micro-aggression? Be self-aware. Could the phrasing of your statement be revealing of subconscious antagonism toward a specific culture? Be thoughtful about how you can fight the good fight without resorting to xenophobia.

“My legal counsel advised me to never do business with Chinese companies, because all of them will rip off your intellectual property.”

Paraphrased, but an accurate representation of what was said by a very prominent deck creator in our community. She’ll tell you my paraphrase isn’t accurate and that I’ve misrepresented her. She takes issue with me saying she used the word “all.”

I can’t recall if that precise word “all” was ever used, so let’s believe her and say I’m mistaken. She never said “all.” It was me who read into what was absolutely, unequivocally implied in the subtext.

Oh, wait. The below was sent to me, after I started feeling pretty terrible about maybe misconstruing what she had said. I was beginning to second-guess myself, thinking, man, I now feel like crap for thinking she said “all” when she didn’t. Many of her friends were messaging me, privately and publicly, telling me I got her all wrong, I am remembering her words wrong, and she never, ever said “all.”

Some deck creators saw that same post I saw and immediately thought it was problematic and insensitive.

Other deck creators believe she means well, but perhaps she worded her sentiments wrong– let’s chalk this one up to poor word choice. Maybe. But what I’ve seen from her, she is one fine writer.

And still others think I am the one who is way out of line, being overly sensitive, probably because I’m Asian, and poor, poor Karen for getting misunderstood.

I’ll concede that the truth is probably somewhere in that middle “no man’s land” intersecting point of the Venn diagram. I’m not 100% right, but then neither is she.

Here’s the thing. That was not her first offense. From what I have personally witnessed, it was her third. If we consider what the entire community has witnessed, who knows how many times she has repeated this rhetoric.

Continue reading “Anti-Chinese Sentiments and Baba Studio (BabaBarock)” →