Dr. D. Elisabeth GlasscoBlack folks hear this all the time in the physical & virtual world. “Maybe, you’re not the right fit.” Decentralization isn’t the panacea for our social media woes if places like #Mastodon can’t incorporate #diversity & #inclusion. It’ll be just another white~dominated space where the far right, white supremos, & other agents of intolerance rule the roost while the good white folks put their heads in the sand and pretend like they’re not the problem.. #BlackTwitter #Inequality #BlackMastodon
Christoph Mergerson
@mergerson
- 54 Followers
- 108 Following
- 73 Posts
Assistant professor, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland; appreciator of autumn; former stops: Brookings Institution, National Weather Service
@kaydubatl True. But sometimes you don’t want to have to leave. I grew up in the South and we know all about the exigencies of good folks who think the problem would be solved if you people just stay with your kind and don’t talk about race so much.
Thomas ReedIf you’re new to Mastodon, you may at some point find that you’re being pressured to put your posts behind a content warning (CW). Although CWs make sense for things like images of violence or nudity, some people are bullying others to put CWs on discussions of politics, racism, etc.
Please know that you should not feel pressured to obey these individuals. They do not speak for all. If someone does not want to be exposed to these topics, Mastodon gives them all the tools they need to avoid them, such as keyword filters and the ability to block or mute people who are posting things they don’t like.
Please know that you should not feel pressured to obey these individuals. They do not speak for all. If someone does not want to be exposed to these topics, Mastodon gives them all the tools they need to avoid them, such as keyword filters and the ability to block or mute people who are posting things they don’t like.
Jon (now at neuromatch.social)@matunos @nafnlaus @stanstallman @mergerson @Empiricism More importantly though ...
A moderation pattern of making mistakes that impact women of color is *not* *ok*. Neither is the attitude that it's something people should just expect and put up with, or that the burden should be on the people who are affected by it. And since the person who has controlled moderation on that site for the last six years also controls the code base ...
Good perspectives here from 2019
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/mastodon-fediverse-eugen-rochko/
that ordinal person@mergerson Yeah, the more people are told "this is how the fediverse works" the more they will reasonably think "well I don't want to be here then" (and also "what a bunch of patronising crap").
Janet Vertesi@mergerson I’ve done a bunch of work and thinking about anti-racist systems and one thing that frustrates me is this system where the person who is harassed is required to do the reporting. I saw a lot of, “hey human who has been harassed, that’s bad, you should report it to the server moderator!” We need mechanisms for protection and community policing that don’t require victims to carry more burdens. What inspiration can we take from bystander intervention, or other forms of allyship?
I'm obviously here on Mastodon because I'm open to trying new things, but it feels like the time (walking down memory lane) where I convinced myself life would be better if I taught myself Linux, only to shortly thereafter to buy a MacBook and continue on with my life. The edit function is nice, though.
Follow Me, And Die! 🎲@mergerson I saw a thread on Twitter calling Mastodon a refuge for white people.
It must be experiences like this that are leading to that assessment.
As an "old" white guy who's trying to be better than the era he grew up in, it's time for a change.
Racism exists and of course it's uncomfortable to discuss.
I can drive a nice car or walk down the street and the police say hello, or nod, and just keep going.
Just because "I've never seen it." doesn't mean it's never happened.
Please do better.
It must be experiences like this that are leading to that assessment.
As an "old" white guy who's trying to be better than the era he grew up in, it's time for a change.
Racism exists and of course it's uncomfortable to discuss.
I can drive a nice car or walk down the street and the police say hello, or nod, and just keep going.
Just because "I've never seen it." doesn't mean it's never happened.
Please do better.
I’m not even following the World Cup that closely right now, but I’ve never felt the urge to describe my ignorance of anything, much less sports, as anything but lamentable—certainly not some mark of cool sophistication!
Factory of sadness: People who joke about how they know nothing about “sportsball,” like that’s endearing, being the same people who judge others for lacking other aspects of cultural knowledge that are dreadfully obscure to the average person. Low energy, sad, out of touch, keep it moving, talk with your therapist, see if once-a-day medication is right for you.