https://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-Regardi...ng-Forward

The allegedly "discriminatory" comments highlighted "by a member of the community" were posted publicly in the WBO Discord server and allowed to remain up. Of the many comments highlighted, which specifically were found to be discriminatory?

I concede that some of Marutti's messages strayed too close to politics, so warnings for those offenses would be understandable. However, to instead publicly convict a well-known member of the Beyblade community for disciminatory behavior in the News forum of "the largest online community for bladers and Beyblade fans" when no "racism or discriminatory behavior of any kind" ever took place is libelous and irresponsible.

Can we also expect the same "member of the community," who violated numerous of the community guidelines repeatedly and made verifiably untrue claims against Marutti, to receive even a minimum level of warning for their infractions against the Community Guidelines?

Exaggerated claims like the ones made by the "member of the community" only weaken the case for real instances of discrimination. As another member of the AAPI community, I would appreciate some insight from staff regarding this serious matter and the process by which this decision was reached.


EDIT: For reference, this is a link to a Google Drive folder containing screenshots of the allegations that were made, the screenshots that were provided as evidence for the claims made against Marutti, as well as screenshots of the conversations in which the images of the messages used for evidence against Marutti were taken from without their full context:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1...dkEVQFaQJi

Please reserve your judgment before reviewing all the evidence. If you have not yet reviewed all the material contained within these folders, I respectfully ask that you refrain from participating in this discussion.

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Spoiler (Click to View)

This is what we all want, Brad.

https://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-Regardi...ng-Forward

The allegedly "discriminatory" comments highlighted "by a member of the community" were posted publicly in the WBO Discord server and allowed to remain up. Of the many comments highlighted, which specifically were found to be discriminatory?

I concede that some of Marutti's messages strayed too close to politics, so warnings for those offenses would be understandable. However, to instead publicly convict a well-known member of the Beyblade community for disciminatory behavior in the News forum of "the largest online community for bladers and Beyblade fans" when no "racism or discriminatory behavior of any kind" ever took place is libelous and irresponsible.

Can we also expect the same "member of the community," who violated numerous of the community guidelines repeatedly and made verifiably untrue claims against Marutti, to receive even a minimum level of warning for their infractions against the Community Guidelines?

Exaggerated claims like the ones made by the "member of the community" only weaken the case for real instances of discrimination. As another member of the AAPI community, I would appreciate some insight from staff regarding this serious matter and the process by which this decision was reached.

!st the staff handled this this did not need a thread

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But then again he was harassing members

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   "From this moment on... You shall be know as Darth Vader" - Palpatine probably

!st the staff handled this this did not need a thread

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But then again he was harassing members

he wasn't harassing members necessarily, you need to know the full story/context to understand. And this thread technically was needed.

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzL8dVb...subscriber

!st the staff handled this this did not need a thread

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But then again he was harassing members

he wasn't harassing members necessarily, you need to know the full story/context to understand. And this thread technically was needed.

Hmm okay but we don't know what goes on in his\her life

Spoiler (Click to View)

Everyone is innocent til proven guilty

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   "From this moment on... You shall be know as Darth Vader" - Palpatine probably

!st the staff handled this this did not need a thread

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But then again he was harassing members

The news post explicitly states:

"If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the Community Rules or how they are enforced in general, please feel free to post in the Discuss worldbeyblade.org forum."

Please don't be so quick to disregard my concerns.

Also, if you are going to make new allegations against marutti that were not previously included in the announcment posted to the News forum, please provide evidence to support your claim.

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Spoiler (Click to View)

This is what we all want, Brad.

!st the staff handled this this did not need a thread

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But then again he was harassing members

The news post explicitly states:

"If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the Community Rules or how they are enforced in general, please feel free to post in the Discuss worldbeyblade.org forum."

Please don't be so quick to disregard my concerns.

Also, if you are going to make new allegations against marutti that were not previously included in the announcment posted to the News forum, please provide evidence to support your claim.

I'm not against you I just wanna get inside the story 👀

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   "From this moment on... You shall be know as Darth Vader" - Palpatine probably

Well Angry Face if you do read all the "incriminatory messages" on the discord. It does have some statements which are highly political in nature and plain rude. It required some sort of action from the Staff; while there can be debate on what was called discriminatory, it is evident that these sort of comments are not needed on a Beyblade server.
We may disagree with the quantum of punishment( I do), but in essence some of the comments were rude towards a certain section of the community due to the geopolitical reasons.

Well Angry Face if you do read all the "incriminatory messages" on the discord. It does have some statements which are highly political in nature and plain rude. It required some sort of action from the Staff; while there can be debate on what was called discriminatory, it is evident that these sort of comments are not needed on a Beyblade server.
We may disagree with the quantum of punishment( I do), but in essence some of the comments were rude towards a certain section of the community due to the geopolitical reasons.

I read all the messages. In fact, I took the liberty of compiling screenshots of them in their full context. I'll have the Google Drive folder with all of the screenshots uploaded soon, and I'll take some more time to organize the screenshots further into folders for each separate conversation.

As I acknowledged in the OP, marutti strayed into political topics when he should not have. However, it is wholly inappropriate to publicly convict him of "racism or discriminatory behavior" when it is provably false.

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Spoiler (Click to View)

This is what we all want, Brad.

If where getting technical Kei said that he was "targeting" those in Korea but why? And also it's just temporarily.

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does he have something against Korea? That's the real question.

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   "From this moment on... You shall be know as Darth Vader" - Palpatine probably

If where getting technical Kei said that he was "targeting" those in Korea but why? And also it's just temporarily.

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does he have something against Korea? That's the real question.

I'm gonna have to ask/suggest you to stop, Shindog asked me and some others to ask you to do so.

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzL8dVb...subscriber

If where getting technical Kei said that he was "targeting" those in Korea but why? And also it's just temporarily.

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does he have something against Korea? That's the real question.

I think it would be best to give Angry Face some times to provide the docs.  You can then decide for yourself.

Well Angry Face if you do read all the "incriminatory messages" on the discord. It does have some statements which are highly political in nature and plain rude.  It required some sort of action from the Staff;  while there can be debate on what was called discriminatory, it is evident that these sort of comments are not needed on a Beyblade server.
We may disagree with the quantum of punishment( I do), but in essence some of the comments were rude towards a certain section of the community due to the geopolitical reasons.

Getting political in a beyblade forum is indeed a mistake on Marutti's part. However, did he or did he not "repeatedly post derogatory messages towards Koreans" as accused in the announcement? I want to see what messages he actually wrote, so I'll wait for Angryface's compiled evidence.

It depends what you call racial and discriminatory. Targeting a country and calling their people names is not right in any context. Its like India and Pakistan issue where we call each other names; however that is not correct by any standard. The comments were hurtful to members of the Korean community especially when he made various references to them.
It was a failure of the staff and us to nip it in the bud and maybe there has been a knee jerk reaction. But that doesnt excuse certain statements or behaviour irrespective of country of origin.

Will wait for his google document although i saw the messages in discord

I actively avoid stuff like this, but for once I'll bite since it is something I asked about and nobody wanted to specify what was said, or what was being passed as discriminatory or hateful.

I went ahead and looked myself at what was posted. Marutti was banned for targeting Koreans, or those of Korean descent (latter is ... unsubstantiated).  Oddly enough, not a single one of his messages had the word "I" or "me" in them. In fact, what it seemed like, was Marutti was providing his take on Japanese views on Korean (and also Chinese) products. He was providing insight on the Japanese views on products not made in Japan. You can imagine how that is.  They mistrust Koreans and Chinese. That isn't really a statement about his personal opinion, but an assessment about how Japanese people on the whole feel about doing business with certain other Asian countries. From a Western perspective, the comments aren't nice. Not the worst I've seen by any stretch of the imagination, but still not nice.
I did try to look a bit further, and found he said he personally doesn't like BTS, and I think he said an atomic bomb should be dropped on them, but I can't be sure. They are a Korean group, sure, but to be fair, I'm sure a lot of people think all sorts of boy bands should just disappear. Check any YouTube comment section.

It isn't a secret Asian countries are often at odds with each other, and for a long time many of them have vied for cultural, economic, and military superiority over the rest. Go back just 80 years, roughly two generations ago, and they were in all-out war. I understand why Marutti speaks the way he does.  Does that type of conversation belong here, though? Should he be saying stuff like: Korean's don't recognize our culture, Korean's are brainwashed, We view Korean and Chinese beys as fake? No.. this is a Beyblade community. It is fairly irrelevant, whether we find his statements to be OK or inflammatory.

He did not, from what I saw, say he hates other Asian groups or Korean's in particular as was asserted. He gave his very nationalistic Japanese view on a few topics. This is something we should be considerate about, you know, for a couple of messages, before asking him to knock it off. What constitutes a ban is continually harping on the subject. I understand nationalism and passion. But he is an adult and is well aware that when you're on the WBO, or the WBO Discord server, you're there to talk about Beyblades. If you are told to stop, you should stop. No matter how passionate you may be about the topic. It is inappropriate. I am happy this ban is temporary.  He may be able to realize we are serious about that type of discussion not belonging here, finally. When he comes back, I hope he sees that it is out of line and it bothered people.

Edit: I didn't properly address OP, my bad.

I concede that some of Marutti's messages strayed too close to politics, so warnings for those offenses would be understandable. However, to instead publicly convict a well-known member of the Beyblade community for disciminatory behavior in the News forum of "the largest online community for bladers and Beyblade fans" when no "racism or discriminatory behavior of any kind" ever took place is libelous and irresponsible.

Can we also expect the same "member of the community," who violated numerous of the community guidelines repeatedly and made verifiably untrue claims against Marutti, to receive even a minimum level of warning for their infractions against the Community Guidelines?

Exaggerated claims like the ones made by the "member of the community" only weaken the case for real instances of discrimination. As another member of the AAPI community, I would appreciate some insight from staff regarding this serious matter and the process by which this decision was reached.

The reason it was posted as an announcement is because Marutti is well-known, people weren't sure why it happened, and the WBO should make it very clear what it does and does not stand for. I think it is a bit cruel maybe, from Marutti's perspective, but the WBO is put in a tough situation, where it must address the issue openly so that it doesn't happen again. Was it discriminatory on an inter-personal level, no, but it was out of line behaviour that could be seen as highly offensive to some, intentions aside. Going forward he, and anyone else who reads that announcement, should know their political and social commentary can stay at the door. It is necessary, and it isn't as if the announcement lambasted Marutti. It just mentioned he did something that we don't agree with, and was temporarily banned for it.

As for the part about the person who pointed this out, you also need to take into consideration their perspective like you have taken Marutti's. They are someone of Korean descent who saw another user, in their eyes, speak poorly about their people. It bothered that person, and you could tell they were highly emotional when talking about it, resulting in messages that were very rude. It made them look bad, yes. Should they be warned, yes, just as Marutti was previously warned about continuing his little sermons about Korea. I think people also told them to knock off the rudeness as well. If that person continues to act rudely, then they too should be temporarily blocked from interacting here. 
It seems weird to you, but expressing one country's negative sentiment about another country can be viewed as discriminatory because it is highlighting (and tacitly approving) that type of thinking. I'm positive Marutti thinks it is fine, as would many of his Japanese peers. He needs to keep that to himself, off of the WBO, because that is the polite and proper thing to do. Also, the person who pointed it out also has to realize that being rude because everyone isn't falling over themselves to conform to their way of thinking without any time to review the facts isn't the right way to act here either.

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shout out 2 kai-v 2.

The Complete Competitive HMS Resource

Link to Google Drive folder added to OP.

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Spoiler (Click to View)

This is what we all want, Brad.

To give my two cents on the topic:

Regarding "Brought to our attention": I can agree that it seems a bit extreme to call it "racism" right off the bat, although I do understand where they're coming from.
Regarding "Conversation 1": To me this just looks like Marutti explaining some of the history between Japan and Korea, although I'll admit that some of his comments could've been put a bit more... eloquently. However, it's entirely possible that this isn't due to malice, but rather the fact that Marutti is not a native english speaker. I imagine their culture is also different, where these sorts of topics may be discussed much more openly and freely than they are in the US.
Regarding "Conversation 2": Again, it looks like he is referring to the political history between Japan and Korea. The discussion about Mall of Toys does pique my interest as I have a similar story, however this isn't the place to discuss that. I'm also not sure what the discussion of BTS is about, either. However, I will admit that towards the end Marutti did start to come off as being toxic.
Regarding "Conversation 3": I really don't see anything here that's worth discussing?
Regarding "False Allegations": While I did not see any hard evidence to support these claims, I can understand that the topics Marutti discussed, as well as the way he discussed them, may have come off as harsh or insensitive. However, I do think that Marutti should have stopped when the other users asked him to, and with the evidence presented to me by Angry Face, I personally have to agree that the punishment does not fit the crime, nor do the allegations. While I am not a staff member, I would happily take a look at any new evidence that comes to light.
Regarding "Screenshots Provided by j Ash": Again, he comes off as insensitive at time, but I personally don't see any blatant racism. However, I'm also not Korean, so there may be references, words, or other undertones that could be perceived as racist that I'm not picking up on. Regardless, my opinion is neither fact nor the only opinion. Personally, I would recommend that the evidence be looked over again.

After reading the posts in question:

I agree that Marutti deserves to be put on timeout / temporary ban.
However, the actual announcement post made it seem like it was way worse than what actually happened.
I am with Angryface, since I also see this being exaggerated and somewhat libelious.

If I were to make an example, its like punishing a thief and then making an announcement saying "the accused is actually a serial killer that eats kittens alive".

I've noticed that the person who accused Marutti of being racist continues on about it, this is a from them a few days ago: "Marutti's like a melody in my head"

It is almost like he did this just to screw over Marutti when he made the situation more serious than it should've been.

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzL8dVb...subscriber

Let me be a bit mature with my answer now;


When I first saw the complaint messages my first impression was that it was a highly emotional outburst which was substantiated with lots of frivolous things too and I laughed it off as i was used to these comments since im an Indian( we have a long history with Pakistan- No offence intended to any Pakistani {we all are same after all}) and thought the issue was overblown and not serious.

However; Marruti did make certain comments that can be taken in a negative way( which i think is obvious).
 Coming from India i can relate with both of them the most ( apart from japanese and korean members.) This is purely political opinion and labelling it Racial and Discriminatory does sound a bit too harsh in my honest opinion. Since our childhood most of us are told that the other country is wrong and that is the worst country( not my parents but i know some people whos parents are like that). I personally dont think anyone can understand until they truly experience what i am saying. 

In all its an in built bias in most of us to not like the other country, and make fun at the expense of other. For example; there are a lot of nasty words exchanged between the Indians and Pakistanis because of this very reason( other political factors notwithstanding). Im not saying that it is right or wrong; but taking these factors into consideration is also important and labelling it discriminatory/racial may be incorrect. 

I see this incident as a failure of the members on discord (myself included) as well as that of the staff in letting this issue get out of hand. 

Do I think maruuti should be banned? No idea; its up to the Staff to decide the quantum of the punishment not us. 
Do I think this issue has gotten out of hand? Yes it has and we must be sure as to not let it happen again. 

In the end; i come to the WBO to talk about Beyblades and not be mature and take a break from my physics degree not to discuss politics of any kind. Hope you guys have a nice day

A little rude but far from racist. He was just giving his thoughts on politics. Better talked about somewhere else though. People were overwhelming the staff as if he said slurs. They also show bias against him. Temporary ban is fine as politics don’t have a place here, but it’s clear the situation was twisted.

The second convo isn’t even racist. He’s just saying the majority of Japanese people don’t trust Koreans. Also y’all should reconsider Mall Of Toys cause apparently they’re pretty bad. All he did explain reasons why he doesn’t go with Korean things. I personally completely understand bring against nukes and missiles, that stuff is terrifying. The third pic was not racist in the slightest, he just brought a reason why they would change Imperial and it was 1 post. He was literally in the process of helping someone. Also the false allegations show bias of course.

The final stuff is things we’ve seen J Ash is clearly saying stuff that didn’t happen. He himself was not being racist. Every time he just talked about why Japanese people have distrust for Koreans. Just give him a few day ban and a warning to talk about politics elsewhere.

Not going to comment on whether he deserves the ban or not since that's up to others to decide, but some of his comments are really stupid and straight up untrue. Sonokong beys considered fake and unusable in tournaments..? How would you even regulate that? There's zero difference between them and the TT ones.

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Not going to comment on whether he deserves the ban or not since that's up to others to decide, but some of his comments are really stupid and straight up untrue. Sonokong beys considered fake and unusable in tournaments..? How would you even regulate that? There's zero difference between them and the TT ones.

For Burst-GT they have a different way of registering beys onto the app than in Japanese, I believe it's a lack of NFC Chips. I'm not sure about Sparking-DB, but they should also be able to be differentiated. Plus is doesn't even make much such why someone would have Korean Burst in Japan, where Japanese ones are widely available, that's why they doesn't accept Korean beys.

Not going to comment on whether he deserves the ban or not since that's up to others to decide, but some of his comments are really stupid and straight up untrue. Sonokong beys considered fake and unusable in tournaments..? How would you even regulate that? There's zero difference between them and the TT ones.

For Burst-GT they have a different way of registering beys onto the app than in Japanese, I believe it's a lack of NFC Chips. I'm not sure about Sparking-DB, but they should also be able to be differentiated. Plus is doesn't even make much such why someone would have Korean Burst in Japan, where Japanese ones are widely available, that's why they doesn't accept Korean beys.

They don't scan NFC chips at tournaments though. I mean do they even make them with NFC anymore? I thought they stopped around God.

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For Burst-GT they have a different way of registering beys onto the app than in Japanese, I believe it's a lack of NFC Chips. I'm not sure about Sparking-DB, but they should also be able to be differentiated. Plus is doesn't even make much such why someone would have Korean Burst in Japan, where Japanese ones are widely available, that's why they doesn't accept Korean beys.

They don't scan NFC chips at tournaments though. I mean do they even make them with NFC anymore? I thought they stopped around God.

Sonokong is illegal for tourney use in japan after they violated the contract by making a spin off series of beyblade after MFB. He is correct in saying what he said.

I noticed these remarks awhile back and did raise my eyebrow at some of them. Though, I was pretty busy then and only skimmed through them, and thus right now Im taking the time to look at the evidence again. As another member of the AAPI community — although Im Viet and not Korean, so I apologize if I also didnt pick crucial information up — I also would like to speak about how I felt. Personally, I do not find these remarks racist. I do feel, however, that Marutti is still in the wrong for being political and thus the ban reason should have been that, not about discrimination. Nevertheless, I do find it hard to understand him — I completely understand that, as trying to speak in a non-native language can be hard and sometimes you cant emphasize your emotions/tone clearly. I think that, from this, some people saw Marutti as more vile and colder than he actually is. Its indeed hard to tell intentions online

One thing that stuck with me from my skimming awhile ago is the user named j Ash?!, who reacted rather inappropriately to the situation. Having been on the internet for many years and handled racist people — sometimes remarks made about me, which hurts (Sands, that is super obvious /s) — I know that its best to react calmly, even if youre the target and if youre getting unwarranted treatment. The way this user reacted was highly inappropriate, and their discussion with Mana on the server shows that. They were evidently not reacting well, in which they tried to bypass the swear filter and sounded as if they were yelling. Not a good way to react — in fact, it blows things out of proportion

Overall: I think Marutti’s ban reason could have been a little more accurate/fitting. The WBO also addressed how to properly report and react to rule breakings, so that is good on their part. Kudos for that — we dont want to react like j Ash?! did

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Call me either Sands/Suns! That one female Beyblade fan

Pfp: Cedric from Arcaea by Nataslyn on Discord

[Status: Lurking]