The community on SmashBoards that named themselves after the KKK and an ex-member of Era that turned out to be a nazi?
I can't speak to any K. Rool fans moonlighting as Nazis, other than that that worldview obviously is abhorrent, but as BKupa666, I want to set the record straight on the KKK allegations, not to persuade the people perpetuating the idea that the Smashboards thread is some racist enclave in bad faith but to shed light for those who don't know how it came to be a thing.
The Smashboards thread has been called "K. Rool's Kremling Kutthroats" since mid-2012, as a fun nod to the "
Kremling Kuthroat" enemy class of DKC2 fame. To my knowledge this never was a source of discomfort or concern for anyone until earlier this year, when a site user - a person who set up the social group that for years had housed that thread, and never took issue with it, mind you - posted and said now would be the time to "change the name from KKK" if we wanted to do so.
I was disinclined to do so, on account of not seeing any racist activity going on within the fanbase, not to mention the real acronym being KRKK. But before I could even begin a discussion as to whether thread followers wanted a change, I was made aware that the same user had made a far more profane tweet, this time accusing K. Rool fans on Smashboards of "calling themselves the KKK." Which absolutely never has happened, nor would I allow it to in my own thread. Some people casually call the group "the Kutthroats," and that's it.
I am not going to change the name to satisfy one or two users who only started paying attention to our title when they realized they could get Twitter pats on the back for dunking on a misinterpretation. If white nationalists hijacked the thread, or if K. Rool and the name started showing up on signs at unsavory rallies, or even if I got a private PM where someone told me they felt uncomfortable, that would change in a heartbeat.
Also, given my history years ago on NeoGAF, I figure now is a good time to walk back the comment that got my old account banned, where I used the word "transvestite" in a shitty snarky response to someone. I had far, far less awareness of transgender issues in 2014 than I do now, part of which is realizing the offensiveness of that term. I apologize to anyone I hurt or made feel uncomfortable or unwelcome as a result.
I'll close by saying, being lucky enough to start a Smashboards thread for a character doesn't mean I can police every fan of that character under the sun. Inevitably some asshole will post something bad down the road, like more beat-up Ashley crap, and I'll try to stamp it out where I can. But as far as the angry comments some fans, including myself, made where Sakurai is concerned, I see the thank-you partly as a form of atonement. We said some not-so-good things after the ballot, so now it's time to veer as far in the opposite direction as we can.
