I'm just ignoring most of the replies to this; it's a very low signal-to-noise ratio. But one legitimate question: what about targets groups choosing to create their own instances?

To be clear, that's fine by me. I applaud groups making the spaces they need. My objection is to people in dominant groups treating that as a good solution to the problem caused by other people in dominant groups. It may be valuable harm reduction, but it is not stopping the harm at the source.

When, e.g., whites *suggest* that Black people leave common spaces because of abusive whites, that is a) avoiding dealing with the real problem (white supremacy) and b) at best indicative of ignorance and fragility, which themselves are parts of how supremacy dynamics maintain and reproduce themselves across the years.

@williampietri
I'm not sure if I can facepalm hard enough with causing damage to myself. (see artists rendition.)

"d0 tHe rEVeRsE rAciSt ThInG tO maKE iT BetTeR."

ffs. Take care of racism on-site.

@williampietri one of the best things those of us who are white can do is set days for all our spaces where *we* don't participate.

Our *presence and existence* can itself be harmful for people who have historically been grievously harmed by our ancestors, for people from whom we currently sit on stolen labor and space.

Give that space back for at least one day per instance

@williampietri said: “How about white people take on the responsibility of limiting the ability of other white people to cause racist harm?”

Would it help for white users to affirm support for a diverse fediverse via a community, gup.pe group, hashtag, or something? I am but one user, low in tech skills, who desires to hear more voices of Black Americans here. It’s essential that the fediverse welcome as many communities as possible. Can I help it do so?

I am open to criticism.

@williampietri

The default Mastodon response is

"Do your own server"

No thanks! Ghettos don't work for me and neither does painting a big target on my back for Nazis!

Gathering all the minorities into one place, e.g. trans people seems like a great way to make targeting them easier!

This is very obvious, so I have no patience with the Mastodon HOA or Mastobros proposing that when they're telling me things like plaintext search that isn't opt-in is good!

@williampietri I'm a white dude, and that was my first thought too...and it didn't even occur to me to think of that as segregation. So yeah...apparently a well meaning person can suggest that without realizing the pretty bad implications. Thank you for making *me* realize the implications. Well shit. Some more and clearer thinking on my part is clearly required.

("Well meaning" is not a excuse, just a context)

@williampietri Black-run instances = POC define the rules according to which the game is played. This does not mean that they should be black-only instances. On the contrary - at least from my point of view.

That would allow lead-by-example. Shows us how this should ideally work.

@williampietri *nodds in agreement*

I'm just shocked and ashamed of other white folks like the two unnamed specimens.

I think their actions and words are inexcuseable...

@williampietri Hugs and thougths with all those this covers.

I think I see less racism in my mastodon feeds than I did on twitter. I think this place has potential to be better.

BUT I know also that different peoples experiences here will be very different. We should be better.

@williampietri It really is telling that "Oh, you need to make your own thing" is the supposed "solution" to this problem.

As always, those with privilege revert to the idea that BIPOC should do the labor instead of yanno... being accountable for racism, stereotyping, cultural appropriation (and erasure), and othering

@williampietri

Maybe because White people are too busy attempting to lecture Black folk on how to run their spaces?

No, it is not "ghettoization" for Black Masto users to want spaces of their own for their own safety and comfort. And, yes, they have every right to insist that White admins and mods do a far better job than they are doing right now to combat racist harassment and abuse on this app.

white guy convincing himself that #bipoc shouldn’t own servers, despite self-determination being a key selling point of the #fediverse

2023, colorized

@williampietri So clear that people can be incredibly dense about things that they don’t see affecting them personally.

As the replies show lot of probably-Not-Black people giving advice off the top of their heads, as though no one has ever considered the actions and implications. We white people need to listen, not tell.

Also this thread got some racists to show their asses. I’ve reported the worst and sent the sfba mod a note requesting they go through and block appropriate accounts and servers.

But the ones who claim literal color blindness are clearly culpable too.

@williampietri
> to have more Black-run instances.... is segregation

Are you arguing that black people *shouldn't* run more own instances? There's a name for that and it's a lot worse than segregation.

Also, it's not segregation, because the fediverse is all one space. The people running instances determine which slice of that space its members see, so why shouldn't more of those people be black? Or indigenous? Or from the Global South?