This piece on Wired about Black Twitter is worth your time. It's something I've been thinking about a lot, about how uneven a migration to a new space ends up being.
It also is one thing I'm eyeing about Mastodon. There's a danger that servers become silos if we aren't intentional. If you listen to some of the Black scholars in my field, they are saying as much. Twitter makes their work visible across groups.
So how do we federate for inclusion? It will be a challenge.
@JeremyLittau yep, it's a huge problem. Mastodon has a long history of racial issues.
https://indieweb.social/@jdp23/109369109991327009
And the way so many high-profile white tweeters are showing up here -- and so many people are using valuable tools like fedifinder.glitch.me and bulk-importing their twitter contacts, which magnifies the inequities. Plus if you look at the "recommended follows' on most instances ... well let's just say there aren't a lot of Black people there.
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] it was and is situational. PoC have always been here and played important roles -- that shouldn't be erased. But here's early 2017 incidents involving racialized weaponization of CW's (very similar to what's happening right now) drove a lot of PoC away. https://www.u2764.com/NFIC/2018-09-09/fringe-beginnings/ @[email protected] getting dogpiled (also in 2017) also drove a lot of people away. https://twitter.com/creatrixtiara/status/1030380785226801152 And there was another big blowup in 2021 https://weirder.earth/@WeirderAdmin/105640550505630184
Jeremy J. Littau
Jon (now at neuromatch.social)
Rowdy|Failing Like Falling