That is, the advice on using CWs seem to orient users in line with the preservation of white comfort around race and racism. Which is to say that the norms around CWs force racialized persons to leave their experiences at the door. When we refuse to do so, well... we're not "acting right."

Indeed, what I'm seeing on Mastodon and in the complaints about Mastodon's culture from folks of color, from disabled folks, is literally what Sara Ahmed outlines in "On Being Included."

Thus, the centrality of whitness will be ENABLED by the features of the platform.

How the culture of mastodon demands the use of CWs as orienting devices, as ways to force people in line with the social order of Masdoton, which is clearly being defended as a moral order, will preserve whiteness. And we can already see this happening in the discourse over conversations about race and racism.

By "inherit," I'm relying on Sara Ahmed's work wherein she argues that the shape of any instititution (and mastodon is an institution) will emerge through the kinds of persons that participate in it.

The persons that participate in mastodon, prior to the "great migration" are predominantly white and carry with them the inheritance of whiteness. And we can see this in their attitude towards race, racism, and the ways they address "norm violations."

That said, there are people who argue that Mastodon's culture will change with an influx of marginalized folks. As if the "gift" of our presence will transform a hostile culture.

These people underestimate the institutional inertia of something like mastodon, they underestimate the ways in which whiteness will hold itself central within the digital space as it does in physical space. And part of this is how the platform inherits whiteness.

But the nature of the fediverse, the different rules of different instances, and the instanced structure itself is inimical to this, as is the general "culture" around how we "should" be using the platform.

To be clear, these are problems at the intersection of the platform and identity, and cannot be solved technologically. You could add a quote tweet feature, for example, but without addressing the ways that the culture of mastodon seeks to preserve white comfort, we'd still have problems.