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.
Mastodon: a partial history (DRAFT)
https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-a-partial-history/
As @shengokai says ⬆️, if we want Mastodon's history to matter for the present, we need to look in detail about how and why it was built. Here's my (draft) attempt to do that -- highlighting the amazing contributions of the early community (much of which has never been properly credited) without whitewashing the past.
Feedback and discussion welcome!
@[email protected] @jdp23 Thanks very much for the feedback. I'll think about how to word it ... "community-led development" is a thing, and the community at the time was queer, but I can see how my phrasing could creates the problems you describe.
Agreed on the intersectional differences, I quote Flowers as saying "whiteness is a large problem within the LGBTQ community"
Dr. Johnathan Flowers
Jon
Gtmlosangeles