Discussion
One of my better habits I've kept from my Twitter days is making it a point of following people from marginalized groups. This way, I probably have fewer delusions about this than most cishet white guys.
I am still sticking around here because I think the Fediverse is still the best chance we have of building better social media. But we do have our work cut out for us, and not pretending that the Fediverse is great for marginalized groups is the first step.
@juergen_hubert @dumpsterqueer
It’s hilarious. The online world is largely a mirror of the offline world, except that people have the safety of distance, so they are more open.
While racism is a real issue, blaming the Fediverse is futile.
Twitter/X and Facebook are just as likely to have pockets of racism. According to a new report, Zuckerberg paid shills to engage in hate speech.
What we see on the Fediverse is just a manifestation, a symptom of the problem. The root cause lies elsewhere.
At least people can talk things over here.
Personally, I rather enjoy interacting with minds online, without knowing their race, sex, etc. One gets to know the contents of people’s characters, and choose friends accordingly.
@juergen_hubert @dumpsterqueer
Sorry to say, your post makes me feel like you might be a corporate shill for closed platforms and proprietary software, sowing FUD by maligning FOSS, and the Fediverse.
Saying that the #Fediverse has lots of room for improvement doesn't make me a "corporate shill".
All of us have a responsibility to build better communities, wherever we are. And we cannot avoid that responsibility by pointing the fingers elsewhere and washing our hands in innocence.
@juergen_hubert @dumpsterqueer
Nobody’s claiming innocence. Merely saying that it is futile to complain about FOSS and the Fediverse.
Proprietary software companies are their walled garden platforms are just as bad.
If you want to solve the problem, go to the source.
I cannot destroy X at all, no matter how much I want to.
However, I _can_ do my part to help ensure that the #Fediverse is more welcoming to marginalized groups who currently do not feel welcome here.
@ashwin @juergen_hubert @dumpsterqueer
Come ON. It’s ridiculous to claim color/gender blindness is a virtue and worse to evade responsibility by saying the problem lives elsewhere so no sense worrying about it here.
Racism is a major problem here, it is pervasive, disgusting, and impoverishes us all. And we should all be putting our shoulder to the wheel to stamp it out always and everywhere. No excuses, no evasions.
Yeah, "I don't see color!" and its variants are... not really helpful when it comes to fighting #racism .
Because what this approach does is to stick with one's own subconscious biases, and reinforce the status quo. If you cannot make the effort to understand where marginalized people are coming from, then how can you work to make things better?
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