The Nexus of PrivacyAug 13, 2024

5 things white people can do to start making the fediverse less toxic for Black people

https://privacy.thenexus.today/start-making-the-fediverse-less-toxic/

  • Listen more to more Black people – and amplify their voices
  • Think before you post
  • Call in, call out, and/or report anti-Blackness when you see it
  • Support Black people and Black-led instances and projects
  • Approach it intersectionally

    • The article also has links to anti-racism resources and appendices with a list of common mistkes to avoid and blocklist resources for moderators.

    Thanks to everybody who gave feedback on earlier drafts!

    EDIT, 8/19: I updated #2 (which previously started with "Post Less"), and also made some other changes in the underlying article - including a bit more discussion about how anti-Blackness isn't just a US problem.

    Read on for some excerpts (1/N)

    #fediverse #mastodon #antiracism

    5 things white people can do to start making the fediverse less toxic for Black people

    Anti-Blackness is a long-term problem in the fediverse. Now's a good time to start changing that.

    The Nexus Of Privacy
    Show threadThe Nexus of PrivacyAug 13, 2024

    Anti-Blackness – beliefs, attitudes, actions, practices, and behaviors of individuals, institutions, software, and systems that devalue, minimize, and marginalize the full participation of Black people across the world – is a long-term problem in the fediverse. Dr. Johanthan Flowers The Whiteness of Mastodon and Twitter vs. Mastodon podcast, Ra’il I'Nasah Kiam and Marcia X's Blackness in the Fediverse, the links in Dogpiling, weaponized content warning discourse, and a fig leaf for mundane white supremacy, and the draft of the draft of Ah, Lemmy: Racism and Denial in the Threadiverse have some of the history].

    Every time things flare up, along with the harassment and denial and victim blaming and hate, there's also lot of hand-wringing about how we should be better than this. And then things go back to how they always are. White people in the fediverse collectively should indeed be better than this ... but in practice, we are not.

    Now's a good time to start changing that and start making the fediverse less toxic to Black people. (2/N)

    The Whiteness of Mastodon

    A conversation with Dr. Johnathan Flowers about Elon Musk's changes at Twitter and the dynamics on Mastodon, the decentralized alternative.

    Tech Policy Press
    Show threadPhracker
    @thenexusofprivacy
    Seriously? Of all the platforms you could attack for anti-blackness you choose the Fediverse? You sound like that lady who accused Star Wars of being anti-black because Darth Vader supposedly became white at the end of RotJ when he took the mask off. Literal "Water is racist." type energy. All you're doing is embodying right-wing stereotypes about oversensitive leftists.
    Mar 23 at 5:36amWeb