Kevin Larsen 📚#success #twittermigration #twitterexodus #Mastodon #inspiration
"Imagine if we measured success by the amount of safety that people felt in our presence."
Christie Dudley@kevlarsen I find this meme quite disturbing for two reasons.
First, I frequently call people to question their values and what they thought they trusted. I make people feel less safe by calling what they felt was safe into question.
Second, racists make other racists feel safe by keeping those "colored folks" in their place.
Neither of these is what we're after.
MagnaCorpus@longobord @kevlarsen
I'm curious about two things:
1. How are you defining 'success' because the meme obviously doesn't define it and depending on the definition 'success' could be a good thing or a bad thing
2. When you say you call people to question their values, do you mean you're challenging their assumptions/world view and pushing them out of their comfort zone?
I think there's a key difference between feeling safe and feeling comfortable. If you're safe you can still be uncomfortable.
@longobord @kevlarsen I'd encourage everyone (White people especially) to be uncomfortable but to try and provide safety to those who are marginalized or those who have never known safety.
Safety allows for growth and development. Discomfort requires education and adjustment and hopefully leads to enlightenment.
@BrionS @longobord I won't speak for the original author, but my opinion on the art of the tweet is that it's social commentary that the world would be a vastly different and better place if people had high status for people feeling safe around them rather than how much money they had. for question 2, yes is the answer. As for safe and comfortable being different things, people still conflate the two, and use the excuse they're not in a "safe space" to never confront their prejudices
@kevlarsen @longobord
I'm not a psychologist, but I consider 'being safe' as relating to psychological and emotional safety, while 'being comfortable' has more to do with being in a context that supports you.
Safe spaces can and should be both a place where one feels psychologically safe and contextually accepted.
On the other hand a Skinhead could be in a safe space with like-minded individuals and be comfortable that what spews from their mouth will be met with acceptance.
@kevlarsen @longobord
Nearly everyone has a safe space by themselves or with others where they feel accepted and comfortable.
In conversations about race White people invariably steer the conversation into a context in which they feel comfortable. It's not exclusive to White people, but it's the predominant problem in conversations about race.
Just the notion, the words, 'White Fragility' puts folks on the defensive saying anything to bring the context back to a place they feel comfortable.
@BrionS (ok this time I put the content warning on because the author of White Fragility is unapologetic using the term white people and I heard people get banned for that here) White Fragility is a great book! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Fragility It is about how white people are uncomfortable talking about race or even acknowledging it exists, that, they as white people even have privilege. Anyway, the author and I would say people hide behind needing safe spaces to not talk about race.
@kevlarsen That's certainly an interesting take on it. I'm sure the author might agree to a point, but many public spaces are inherently safe for some people and not others. Making it more safe for others at the cost of comfort for the first is neither a zero-sum game, nor intrinsically a bad thing. Safe spaces are a refuge from hostile spaces. There is no need to present the status quo by making predominantly White spaces safe for White people.
@BrionS (if you read the article, you'll understand the content warning) I get tired of repeating myself, but as I already said in order to get the maximum amount of safety for the maximum amount of people, people have to be made uncomfortable and feeling unsafe in the short term for more safety in the long term. This is the best article I can find to explain it. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a25747603/silencing-black-voices/
@kevlarsen
Good article but didn't explain how hiding conversation about race behind a trigger warning is anything more than protecting White feelings.
In fact it seems to be the very silencing the article talks about and so I find it ironic.
@BrionS Not ironic, descriptive. It explains why a content warning would have to be used at all.
@kevlarsen I'm saying the author is not arguing to keep White people comfortable. She's exclaiming how every time marginalized people - specifically Black people in her case - speak truth to power they are silenced.
Do you not see the problem of hiding discussions of race and racism behind a content warning? Who is it protecting? Black people want, indeed NEED White people to talk about race.
What if I am Black? Does the content warning not silence me?
(Spoiler Alert: I'm not, but it would.)
@BrionS It's protecting me from getting reported by people that don't recognize their own racism. And yes it is a zero-sum game, Black people have been told to "get their own instance" if they don't like Mastodon. I can say that without fear of being reprisal because that's demonstrably true.
@kevlarsen Oh good. We're on the same page then. The trigger warning is for White people, not marginalized people.
I have seen the 'go find your own instance' remarks and it's demeaning and degrading.
What it's really saying is, 'You're not welcome here. Go away!'
While it's possible for such instances to exist (and perhaps they do), it's nothing short of blatant racism and division. Twitter-that-was had its problems but it gave a voice to marginalized people. Mastodon is failing to do that.