Just briefly logged into mastodon and my mentions are mostly people debating my experiences here and whether I was entitled to tweet about them, and I just want to say, I was called slurs for days by people on *other instances* and received a death threat saying that they would do to me what was done to Emmett Till.
Anyone discussing any of this like *I* did something wrong, including by talking about it, is a fucking dipshit.
Have a fabulous fucking day.
I’m disgusted that protecting the reputation of the platform is more important to some people — including some Black people, what the actual fuck — than making sure people are safe, physically and emotionally.
That’s some nasty shit.
And to the “it’s just growing pains/join the right instance” crowd: Black people shouldn’t need a fucking Green Book to navigate the physical or virtual world.
@economics @chanda You said it better than I could.
Dr. Prescod-Weinstein, you're probably not going to have the experiences you're looking for here, because people on the general Internet are awful and the real world is a white supremacist world. Also, you're a famous public figure, compared to the average person, with a large following, and in multiple groups that the far-right hates. This place isn't going to provide the experience you're seeking, because it can't. It may never be able to.
With that said, there are those of us who wish to hear you. I cannot give advice because there is no lesson to be learned from cruelty or evil other than that sociopaths exist and some parents did a bad job raising their children. That isn't useful. Some of us gladly welcome you here and wish you the best. Until there are real-world consequences for bad conduct online, it will continue. Hate is profitable. Whatever decisions you make regarding it, we support you.
@wilbr @jedmund @jhamby @economics I strongly agree with this take. I'm doing what I can building the type of community that puts Black American users first. See the link below and give me a follow to support my efforts.
There are roughly 14M Black Twitter users who may come here. The larger servers aren't great for us. I alone can't run a server big enough either but I'm doing what I can.
If I'm not completely out of place here asking, by "The platform" are you referring to the users/community or the technology?
Unveiling real identities would have to be a last step. As of today, the *only* time where the public accepts law enforcement tracking down people to their ISP and their doorstep to arrest them for content is people spreading CSAM. There are protocols for Big Tech to deal with this. How in the hell are Mastodon admins supposed to deal with the really vile stuff, much less at scale?
@jedmund @chanda @jhamby @economics We allies will step up. Stand with you, amplify your voices, listen to your wisdom. Protect you when we see it.
Thank you for speaking up.
@jedmund @chanda @jhamby @economics @BlackAzizAnansi
When I first got here I asked about moderation and the Nazis over at poa.st bombarded me with some pretty heinous shit. WILD stuff I thought was relegated to the dark web. After talking with some other people I realized 2 things: 1) use Fediblock and 2) I needed to migrate away from a server that didn’t feel they needed to block instances like poa.st.
@jedmund @chanda @jhamby @economics @BlackAzizAnansi My point is that “it’s the instance” is just true, it’s not dismissal or rationalization. While that DOES NOT take away the inherent anti-Blackness of white spaces, it is a very true technical aspect of this platform.
I only say this because whether it’s Twitter, Hive, Tumbler or whatever, ALL these spaces are going to be inherently antagonistic to marginalized people. But none give you as much power to curate that space like Mastodon does.
@jedmund @chanda @jhamby @economics @BlackAzizAnansi it could be blacktwitter.io or democracy.social a combined effort of moderators who don’t play around, admins who use Fediblock, and our individual ability to block *entire instances* - BIPOC and other marginalized people have the power to shape their own world here.
I wish nothing but wellness for everyone struggling.
@jedmund @chanda @jhamby @economics I'm curious in what way we're shrugging our shoulders?
We can't help everyone, we can do what we can. What more do you want from random people?
Maybe don't be a bystander when you see people you know doing bigoted shit.
@zzz @denebeim I don't reply when I see bigoted ish. I investigate the source host. If it's obviously bad, I report it. If it's not, I report the user. 100% kill rate so far (probably helped because SDF showed up with a deep bench of volunteers).
I keep seeing Black people talking about catching hate from instances which should have been defederated *immediately* upon launch. You really don't need to wait to see what their users will do.
If you think the only people that can be bigoted on this network are people from instances with names like kill.all.ethnic.slur you aren't paying attention to what's going on.
The most insidious threats come from white self-identifying progressive people that just think they are giving "helpful advice". These people can harass marginalised groups for years and suffer no consequences since they don't pattern match as bigots to other white people.
@zzz @denebeim That's a valuable reminder. Is that "microaggessions"? I understand there was a dog pile about CW which falls in that category (I missed it).
Most of the Black folks I followed from Twitter have spoken about the kind of instance-based harrassment I was referring to.
I want Black folks to feel safe and belonging. That's why it's upsetting to keep hearing that they're not even getting the default protection. That's not okay.
I think there is an air of victim-blaming in the sentiment that it's on the harassed person to magically know which instances are actually antiracist. Wouldn't it be better to have a set of norms where most instances can be assumed to be antiracist and racist attacks are rare enough to be chalked up to bad luck?
For now we have a network that is systematically racist and it's the victims of that racism that are expected to do the hard work. That needs to change.
@zzz @opendna that's in the protocol and there's no reason not to do that if you want.
Personally I prefer blacklists. I prefer to think most people are good and blocking bad actors is sufficient. Whitelists are for people who believe people are basically bad. I don't think I want to live in that world.
If you can't express support, don't expect support.
Yours isn't a lazy take, it's a violent and complicit one.
@ricardoharvin what I mostly get called on to do is to be white at racists to give the PoC room to talk. I mean, even this conversation feels uncomfortable to me.
Remember, I'm marginalized as well, to a much lesser extent. But, I don't have the impact that say a cis white guy would.
@denebeim You can post, you can support. Maybe it's just boosting someone's else's post, perhaps with a statement of "I agree", or similar.
No one's asking you to "fight" for us, but to state that there's *nothing* you can do because you're just one person is, well, I have no nice or kind way to express my sentiment about that.
"Silence" puts one on the side of the oppressor, always.
@ricardoharvin I think you're reading more into what I was saying than I said. My bad.
I'm always available to hold open space for PoC and I'd step to the best of my abilities in when people are being harassed.
@denebeim My point is that we can all help everyone, in this context, in some way, if we're able to use tools like this.
Your response was not good, and bringing your marginalized status into this even less so.
How should Black trans people feel about being able to rely on your support, for instance?
It does come off as the shoulder shrugging you claim it's not. At least from my Black, cishet male perspective.
@mizrobin @chanda @jhamby @economics @jedmund that's again not what I meant to imply. Any time I'm in a position to help, I do what I can. I'm referring to, for instance, the homeless situation here. I don't have the resources to house everyone.
What I can do is not sell my home to a flipper who would blow the price up even more than it already is. When I see cops harassing someone I'll stop to watch what they're doing.
@denebeim @mizrobin @chanda @jhamby @economics @jedmund
Joy, someone told you that they got death threats. Then they told you that the Mastodon community instead of responding to those death threats in any reasonable manner, asked her not to talk about those death threats, in order to maintain the Stepford Wives civility Mastodon prides itself on.
And you asked "What more do you want from us?"
@denebeim @mizrobin @chanda @jhamby @economics @jedmund
No one is even asking you to help, because honestly, I don't think you're far along enough in this space to be helpful.
But, please don't make things worse.
Asking people not to talk about things makes it worse. Pretending that we are already doing everything that we possibly could be doing, makes it worse.
@mekkaokereke @mizrobin @chanda @jhamby @economics @jedmund
You're absolutely correct. I mean you don't know me. And yes, I meant how can I help make things better?
What I said sounded callous, and I apologize.
I can tell you what my normal baseline is for what can I do to help. Shut up and let the PoC talk. Be there when crap stars to happen.
And as far as far enough along, well, I've been at this for... well a long while. Learning all the time. or trying to
@mekkaokereke @mizrobin @chanda @jhamby @economics @jedmund
Oh and FWIW as a node admin I try to proactively block toxic sites. If I have users I'd keep them under control. Although TBH I can't imagine having people I'm not familiar with on here, and nobody who's a *oginist would be around me for very long.
I lost no one in my circles when I transitioned. So I'm pretty sure there aren't any.
@jhamby @jedmund @[email protected] @chanda @economics
Do better.
I am a random person, and my answer: I will do better.
Work. Don’t be fragile. For the people who are not exhausted, not subjected to constant aggression: pick up the phone, call a similarly not exhausted friend, invite them to be anti-racist. Invite them here. Recruit. Educate. Work at it.
1/5
I hope I didn't sound like I was "shrugging my shoulders" by saying I don't think there's a solution to the problem of experiencing racism and microaggressions from strangers the way things are set up now. I was trying to be the opposite of the white person saying "no, things are great and going to get better, you'll see!"
I'm afraid things will get worse as far as unwanted interactions before they get better. The really awful trolls haven't gotten here yet.
BTW, I'm blocked on Twitter by the OP, but from what I've seen of her recent social media posts, she's extremely sensitive to white people denying or minimizing racism, like some comments here. That's why I said I can't *imagine* she'd have a fun time on Mastodon at the moment with lots of white folks not understanding the specific dangers and triggers they deal with.
We don't have good enough filters to give her the same opportunities to banter as Twitter, yet.
Please note also that I very carefully said "user experience" rather than trying to prescribe how anyone should think about this or what anyone should do. There are only three strategies that any of us can take with any social media: 1) engage and deal with the downsides, 2) choose not to engage, 3) pay someone to moderate your engagement.
Ad-supported social media like Twitter relies on (or at least did rely on) the sweated labor of moderators in the Global South.
@jhamby @economics @chanda I strongly disagree with this "it is what it is" take. The real world is us. It's what we make of it.
Do we want to be white supremacists in charge of who is and who isn't safe, what voices are heard and who has to shut up?
I certainly do not, and certainly don't see this is the natural order of things that nothing can be done about.
@Deglassco @economics I agree with everything you said. I think it is more of a sociological problem too. We could look back to Xbox Live and see how many moderators they've had to hire to deal with racist chat by teens and adults. White supremacy and misogyny in gamer chats is one of my biggest concerns.
I'm trying to discourage large accounts from coming here before the mods can handle non-famous people without 100k followings. I have no idea how this will scale, or if it indeed can.
@Deglassco @economics There's one suboptimal option for people who get a lot of harassment and don't like to deal with random comments, whether racist, "whitesplainers", or whatever, which is to pay a human assistant to monitor your account and prefilter what you don't want to see. We don't have AI that's good enough to catch hate speech while also knowing about jokes, quoting to debunk, reclaiming slurs, etc..
Bill Gates doesn't read his own email from the public. He has an assistant read it.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
The Other Economist
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Joy Denebeim
Hal
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Dr. D. Elisabeth Glassco
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