I really don't care if QTs happen on this site, or don't happen. What's much more informative and important to me, is how this conversation is unfolding, and what is prioritized. I've heard everything from "The Black perspective isn't real" to "You Twitter refugees!" from folks with account create dates in November, talking to Black folk here since 2017🤷🏿‍♂️

People are talking about QTs the same way they talk about 4chan and Kiwi farms. I don't know how to explain to people how ridiculous that is.

There are valid reasons to have QTs and to not have them. Safety is a valid concern. But this prioritization of fake civility, is not good at all. This ignoring the Black perspective, is also no good.

There are folks more upset at @QasimRashid for sharing how migrants were harmed and put in real danger on Christmas Eve, than they are upset at Abbott for doing the harming. In some folks' eyes, the bigger misstep is Qasim harshing the Christmas vibes. I don't know how to explain that this is bad.

I've told folks for years, that I'm not that concerned about the Nazis, because they're not the problem. Don't focus on the Nazis. Focus on the white folk that you have around you when the Nazis show up.

So consider this permission to unfollow. It's cool! Honestly. I don't judge anyone for wanting to ignore all the pain in the world, and not wanting to do anything about it. I post about racism, transphobia, and sexism, and more specifically, actions we can take to reduce them.

There are literally hundreds of millions of white folk that do want to hear about ways we can reduce all of those bad things. I work with them. We don't need everyone on every issue. It's cool.

But don't ask me "What do you mean Mastodon is not welcoming to Black folk?" And then in the very next breath, say, "Yeah, yeah, I'm sure Black folk are mistreated, but I don't want to hear about it! CW that garbage! It's making me sad!" Just be real, and only say the second part.

@mekkaokereke not necessarily on you to explain this, but I'd be super interested in a black perspective (not that there is only one...) on when CWs ARE useful.

I figure that they should not be used to hide politics, as that lets privileged people ignore real issues (and they can use filtering/blocking for that anyway..).

But it does seem useful for e.g. cases of sexual abuse that might trigger PTSD. I'm not sure were the line is though. Non-systemic stuff? Discussion of individual events?

@naught101 My guiding principles on this are "Who is protected, and who is harmed by this CW?" And "Is this just a misnamed feature?"

So on racism, I CW to protect the impacted folk from trauma.

I fully support people taking breaks from seeing injustice. I do it all the time. The human brain isn't wired to see suffering all the time. So if I think of CWs as "content filter" then I see it as letting the user choose when they want to learn, and when they don't. I'm big on informed consent.👍🏿