@rapscalorie It's not my place to wade directly into the middle of this discourse, but I suspect that the feeling of being alone on here that I have seen expressed by many POC accounts I follow comes from a situation where they're not literally alone, but they are the only POC in many of their affinity groups. The one Black Blind guy expected to be the avatar of Blackness to the Blind community on here, where back on Twitter there might have been an entire Blind POC sub-group. Ditto hardware modder, ant enthusiast, Python language dev, etc. Expecting people to make friends (which is what makes you feel "not alone") with each other just because they're Black (or worse, non-white) is messed up, and reduces their potentially vastly different experiences of racial marginalization into a single flat feature that somehow also becomes their only defining quality to the white people in the room. They might occasionally commiserate with each other about shared experiences of racism, but that doesn't make a solid foundation for a friendship.

It is true that some of the #FediSoWhite discourse can feel like it's erasing the POC who are here (FWIW I mainly see posts veering into this territory from white "allies" vs. actual POC, some anger-fuelled accusations being the exception). But the sentiment of loneliness, which I think comes in part from feeling constantly on the spotlight as the only POC member of one's hobby group/profession/etc.) is definitely reflective of a real experience, which is definitely caused by systemic racism, from active and passive racism within the fediverse to active and passive racism outside it.

Re: discourse about #FediSoWhite

I'm a white man. Was on Twitter throughout #BLM and gained an awful lot of free education from Black folks on there. That was the start of me consciously following diverse folks which is a strategy that's improved my life immensely.

Back on Twitter before the Muskening, there was a lot of diversity. Black Twitter was a thing, and not just first-world (anyone else remember "O jewa ke eng?"). When I went looking for people to follow to diversify my feed, I found them in abundance.

That's why it's so clearly false to me when people claim that the fediverse is secretly diverse, and why anyone making that claim sounds suspect to me. Sure there are a ton of great Black and other POC folks you can find on here, if you look hard. But it's nowhere near the levels of diversity and community that were on Twitter. Which you would know had you been following those people before, so now I have to assume you weren't, and wonder why you feel qualified to make statements about diversity even though you haven't made an effort to engage with diverse voices before?

Also, if you were actually following some of the excellent POC voices on here, you'd know that across different servers and interest groups, almost every group has had a discussion of #FediSoWhite at some point. If all the Black people you follow are independently talking about the lack of community and diversity here, you've either got to believe them or start putting on your clown makeup, and the later is absolutely a choice.

As someone from the combination liberation project / land grab / cult of private property called the USA,

I can't help but think about the tension between the human right to migration, how borders are/n't real, how the border crossed so many of my friends & their ancestors, how many have needed Green Books to travel safely, etc

When people talk about the #GreatMigration of social media, are we thinking deeply about the conditions under which migration happens?

#mastoSoWhite #fediSoWhite ♻️🆗