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Max Pearl

That said, I have found, and relish, safer spaces. And I have tried to work toward fostering those spaces. I was on #mastodon in 2018, but spent little time here, primarily because few of my peeps were here. But I did enjoy browsing, and I also did notice how white it was.

I wish that we had not spent so much investment in corporate social media so that these conversations could have happened earlier. They might have been able to have been addressed more fully with some spaciousness. 2/

14 comments
Max Pearl

But here we are, Muskyman has created a situation of urgency, and this has to be dealt with. So...

1) If you are white, please shut up when #BIPOC folks talk about their experiences. Just fucking listen. Don't explain, or minimize, or ask for proof or examples. We are the ones who are targeted.

2) There definitely isn't a #BIPOC consensus about the use of CWs for #racism. If you are white, and don't want to see racism, do some self-examination. You are not the target.

3/

Max Pearl

3) Some of the solutions to this issue will be technical, and some won't be. Don't jump to the conclusion that this is solved already by the systems currently in place. They are amazing, and I know they were designed by marginalized folks, but those folks were largely white, so there are blind spots.

4) Remember to breathe.

KBLeecaster ✅

@pearlbear

Thanx for posting. Listening is the most important skill to master towards a more tolerant society of mixed cultures which imo is the best society to hope for.

I wonder how the segregation possible from the interaction between instances could affect achieving a multicultural online society?

On a somewhat related note, I saw your post because of his boost and I don't know if @jjhysell knows this and his posts seem to perhaps be blocked by my instance too.

aus.social/@futzle/10932764942

@pearlbear

Thanx for posting. Listening is the most important skill to master towards a more tolerant society of mixed cultures which imo is the best society to hope for.

I wonder how the segregation possible from the interaction between instances could affect achieving a multicultural online society?

Bigbreakfast

@pearlbear Great toot - clear and your feelings are evident. These conversations are important

As an Irish economic immigrant in the late 80s I was given a tiny sliver of racism to taste. For Irish travellers and more recent arrivals from Albania etc it seems its still open season. Similarly trans folk are experiencing a resurgence of hate.

We shouldn't have to be reminded to look out for each other - but sometimes we do.
More Blacks - More Dogs - More Irish 😎

@pearlbear Great toot - clear and your feelings are evident. These conversations are important

As an Irish economic immigrant in the late 80s I was given a tiny sliver of racism to taste. For Irish travellers and more recent arrivals from Albania etc it seems its still open season. Similarly trans folk are experiencing a resurgence of hate.

Niall O’Sullivan

@pearlbear thanks so much for this. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people think that the fragmentary nature of the fediverse's servers absolves the superstructure of responsibility. People resort to responding to posts about racism with "just block the server" and "that's the great thing about mastodon, you can choose where to go" which is a bit like telling someone to get their coffee at a less racist cafe. I think people not doing that would make for a promising start.

Weird

@rustyniall @pearlbear One problem i noted, is that many (specially smaller) servers aren't really able (even if they are willing) to moderate their instances properly, aside from just blocking instances. My own fear is, that some people will game this system by poisoning servers with bad faith actors, so that we block each other into isolation.

I'm curious if we're able to to set and keep up a healthy discussion and moderation culture between all instances, while also trying out best to keep using CWs for its original purpuse, instead of using them to hide the important questions we have to ask ourselves from time to time.

@rustyniall @pearlbear One problem i noted, is that many (specially smaller) servers aren't really able (even if they are willing) to moderate their instances properly, aside from just blocking instances. My own fear is, that some people will game this system by poisoning servers with bad faith actors, so that we block each other into isolation.

daskeit

@rustyniall @pearlbear racism shouldn’t exist, but the wording here seems to call for some sort of central mechanism to allow the “superstructure” to purge itself of racism

Mastodon draws on a legacy of conflict between open communities and corporate control, and thinking about decentralised infrastructure.

It’s not clear there’s a better way to purge racists in a decentralised way than what Mastodon implements, but I’d be interested if there was.

Niall O’Sullivan

@daskeit @pearlbear I wasn't calling for a central mechanism, I was calling for people, especially white people, to be more thoughtful in how they respond to POC when they speak about racism here.

daskeit

@pearlbear @rustyniall that’s fair, my bad! There’s a lot going on with the Twitter exodus so I’m a bit primed to see different cultural norms clashing

🍵 holly 🌿

@pearlbear I’ve been thinking about this because I’m used to queer folk here cw-ing transphobic content (reports of transphobia, that is) so that we can engage with it on our own terms and not be beat over the head with it when we need a break. But maybe it’s different because such a large percentage of the population here is queer so there’s more of a sense that everyone agrees so we don’t feel we’re being silenced, just protecting each other from over exposure.

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