Just because queer people and other folks built the fediverse or its protocol to avoid some kinds of harassment and violence doesn’t mean that the fediverse cannot be home to other kinds of violence or marginalization.
Put simply, a queer history does not preclude a present that enables structures of oppression. I want to be specific about this because much of the violence I’ve experienced in queer spaces is at the hands of white queers.
Now, this isn’t generally the case on mastodon/the fediverse, but the queer history of the fediverse hasn’t stopped racists or norms of whiteness from taking up shop and organizing the space. A queer history didn’t keep racist slurs out of my mentions.
To be clear, I’m not denying the queer history of the fediverse: I’m rejecting its use as a counter-argument against structures of oppression on the fediverse. I’m also rejecting the immediate assumption that queerness = anti-racist.
This latter is important because we have to understand that a queer history or queerness itself does not ensure freedom from all other forms of oppression.
Let me put it another way: queer people might’ve built the fediverse, but they threw open the doors to everyone. And, insofar as online spaces are continuous with offline spaces, assholes found their way in.
But this isn’t the fault of the queer devs who built this place, and I’m not ascribing blame. What I’m saying is that a queer history is no defense against an oppressive present especially given the nature of the fediverse and its instances.
Now, if we wanted that history to matter for the present, we’d need to make it matter in concrete’s ways. We’d need to do more than say “queer people built this place,” and leave it at that.
I'm just shocked at the idea that you had to argue against here—that queer people can't be racist. Like...what?
All you have to do is look at practically any of the major trans femme accounts on Twitter to see how easily racism seeps into white people's discourse, and how quickly white people are to ignore it (or worse, draw focus away from it) to avoid having to ever confront their own worst qualities.
If queer people can be QUEERPHOBIC (and we can), 100% we can be racist.
Once, I saw a Latina trans ally trying to defend a major trans femme account's racism. A Black trans woman was justifiably angry about that. Someone then had the gall to say that the Latina was a POC and therefore could not be racist.
As a Latina trans woman myself, I fucking LAUGHED. White-identifying Latin Americans are so fucking racist sometimes that I can't even, and the idea that being POC makes us magically immune to racism was...WOW.
Just...wow.
Gods, right? My mother is the most racist person I know, and I always have to be like, "You know they don't like you, right? White racists aren't letting you sit at their table. If you're lucky, you're cleaning the floor where they spit."
She gets mad about that, but I don't care. I was done with her bullshit when I dated one of the best people I've known, and she dared to ask me why "I would pollute my own bloodline" because my partner was Haitian.
💢 ☠️
I didn't wait. I cut my mom off YEARS ago. No one deserves her toxicity. Least of all someone I've chosen to love. 💙
Thank you! Gratefully, I am now. 😸
Dr. Johnathan Flowers
Joan of Cat (she/her) 😼
Flori
HDHarris