I fell in love with Mastodon in this time. There wasn't a lot going on, so I could go days without checking in. It really helped me deal with compulsive cycles of social media usage.

But more than that, there was a culture around mental health here. People were intentional about not turning their feeds into a torrent of neurological activation. CWs offered a respite and became the norm because so many people here are disabled, queer, have mental illness, etc.

2/x

But, I also noticed despite all the intersections of identity that could function here in a way that could not on corporately controlled platforms, the Fediverse in general, and Mastodon in particular, were incredibly white.

That is always an alarm bell for me as someone who has committed their life to the work of antiracism.

3/x

The strange thing about Mastodon being so white the that the origins of the Fediverse, both in code and in culture, come from black, queer, and trans people.

So, being an autistic nerd, I started researching and studying. I took enormous effort to identity BIPOC across the fediverse and follow them, so I could learn about their unique experiences here.

I learned many things, but only one of the is directly salient to this thread.

4/x

CWs (Content Warnings) are the mechanism that allow me to function here with my mental health challenges. AND they are something that have been used to justify tone policing, censoring, and even blocking/defederating BIPOC members of the fediverse.

Which means when we talk about CWs, we have to talk about nuance. Intersectionality is complicated. Inclusion is messy.

When I ask people to make CWs on posts, I am asking people *with margin* to make space.

5/x

I am NOT asking marginalized people to self-censor. Those are very different things.

If you are speaking about your own lived experiences of marginalization, and a CW feels limiting, by all means post what you want to. I won't correct you. I won't mute you, or block you.

And that is easier for me to do with people with margin offer CWs on their activating content.

This is such an important distinction that generally does not show up in these discussions.

6/x

We can't talk about CWs as a way of making space for people without also acknowledging the ways they have been used to silence people.

And we can't ask for them to be used in our feeds unless we also do so with context and nuance that allows people to speak the truth about their own lives, especially across spectrums of race, ethnicity, ability, sexuality, gender, age. body shape, etc.

7/x

tl;dr - Be kind and believe people when they tell you about their own life experiences. I believe that posture leads to actions that help, without having to obsess over what the *specific* details of what posts need to be behind a CW.

8/8

@mike My general rule is it is never my place to police a group that I do not belong to. If people in that group want CW on racism, or ableism, or transphobia -- the only people who have a right to ask for that is people who share that identity. NO ONE who doesn't share that identity should be butting in to say anything, imo.

I am also used to sharing stories about ableism openly in disability communities so I just... do that. It's a community norm.