Feedback welcome! Here’s the TL;DR list
- Listen more to more Black people
- Post less – and 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
Other suggestions?
- Ad. 1. I don’t care what’s your skin color as it doesn’t matter when we discuss things.
- Ad. 2. Literally makes zero sense. If something is post-worthy, why would anyone not post it just because of being white?
- Ad. 3. I do report racism no matter who’s the victim.
- Ad. 4. I don’t care who’s behind project if it’s good and worth supporting.
Other suggestion: Stop trying to force others to comply with your “solutions” to problems that only exist inside your mind and what’s important don’t even apply to media that doesn’t let you see or know the other person. I know nothing about 99,9% of people on Lemmy hence let me judge them and their projects by what they write and not by who they are “in real life”. It’s almost like you are trying to make people ashamed for that they were born white.
I just want to say that @TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org did a great job explaining some of the issues with your reply, but there’s a few things that I want to focus on in your reply.
- It’s easy to make the claim that you don’t care about skin color, but it simply doesn’t pan out. Here’s a fairly long but comprehensive review on implicit bias training, which talks a bit about the prevalence and need for the training in the first place. In short, the literature proves that everyone has implicit biases - it’s simply how our brains work. While some issues suffer from stronger biases than others, and the bias varies from person to person, it’s always there.
- The idea of “not seeing” race may be an appealing one to state, but it’s an over-correction. Try telling someone in a wheelchair that you “don’t see disability” and see how they react. They’re not going to be happy. You absolutely see their identity. What you mean to say is that their identity doesn’t factor into your decision, which as I just stated in the last point is objectively incorrect. At best we can work to minimize how one’s identity shapes our decisions.
- Racism can only have certain victims. Racism is the interaction between prejudice and power. The reason it’s defined like this is the same reason we talk about the paradox of tolerance. Punching a Nazi is technically violence, but there’s a difference between hateful violence and defensive violence. While you can classify people being prejudiced against white folks as racism, there’s a similar distinction between prejudice and racism that applies here. To be clear, I do want you to be reporting any kind of prejudice that occurs on Beehaw, but we need to define and describe the differences because the inclusion of power and minority status are important here.
- Just because you don’t think something is a problem doesn’t mean it’s not a problem. Someone who has a different identity than you, or who spends time in spaces you don’t is sharing something. Telling them they are wrong or that they are imagining things is not a nice thing to do - if you don’t think it’s an issue, then don’t reply. If you do think it’s an issue, frame it differently - rather than accusing them of trying to shame white people, how about simply framing things through your own eyes. Don’t say that they are trying to shame people, instead say this is making you feel ashamed or angry.
Thanks much for the detailed response! And thanks @TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org for the detailed response as well.
Hi Tomato - a lot of what you’re saying here has already been addressed elsewhere in the thread. The OP isn’t just addressing Lemmy, but other Fediverse services like Mastodon as well. He also notes in the article several people who been addressing ways in which Fediverse culture has been toxic to black users. These aren’t imagined problems, they exist in a lot of places off of and on Lemmy, and providing suggestions to make these sites better for black users is a good thing, not something to get defensive about. This post isn’t accusing you personally of anything, but if you feel challenged by it then it might be a good opportunity for you to interrogate those feelings.
Also, others have addressed your comments about not seeing other’s race online, etc, but I think it’s worth taking a step back and pausing. If people of color say they experience racism online, even though you don’t notice what race other people are, do you think it’s possible that there may be systemic problems or unconscious biases that might cause those folks to experience racism even when it is unintended? Those are the kinds of problems that aren’t solved by saying “I don’t say racist things to people and I don’t see color”. They’re problems that are built into our society just by the fact that we were all born and raised in an imperfect culture.
Nobody is accusing anyone of anything here, and nobody is trying to make anyone feel ashamed of who they are. But we can all benefit from stopping, thinking about the ways that we interact with others, and taking the time to try and be sure that we aren’t acting in ways that harm others even if that isn’t our intent or we weren’t aware of the harm in the first place.
The linked article focuses on Mastodon. I’d be interested to hear more about how this relates to Lemmy in your experience.
Readers, beware
I don’t see myself as part of a racially marginalised group, and I’m no expert on racial issues. (I’m just a translator with some bg on Linguistics).
I’m also from LatAm. I expect most readers here to be from CA/USA; be aware that racial marginalisation works through different ways in both sides.
Because of both please take what I say with a grain of salt. I hope that I’m contributing.
I like where this text is going. As such, my criticism here is mostly on better ways to convey some points, plus additional info.
Title + Intro
Subbing “start making” for “make” highlights better that every little change matters, and is easier to read.
In this context “more welcoming” says the same as “less toxic”, but the former should be better to “sell” to the readers the idea that they can and should contribute. (Plus the word “toxic” is bound to make some people roll eyes and ignore the message.)
- Listen more to more Black people
It would be great if your text addressed people who shut up marginalised groups while claiming to speak in their names; it sounds a lot like “I’m an ally so chrust me, you don’t need to listen to [group], lissen to ME! ME! ME! instead.” I’ve seen this too often in social media, including here. Black people probably have a lot more to talk about this than I do.
- Post less – and think before you post
Simply saying “post less” is bound to rub off people the wrong way, specially when removed from context (plenty people won’t read the section past that), as plenty people are aware that the Fediverse needs more content.
Sadly I’m not certain on a good way to rephrase this without erasing the message. (Perhaps merge it with #1? Just an idea.)
Stop asking Black people for evidence [… whole paragraph]
I believe that the conclusion within this bullet point is accurate and moral, but the whole package needs some serious rewording.
IMO a better approach here is to highlight that all those “excuuuuse me, where are the proofs that you’re subjected to racism in the Fediverse?” are a form of sealioning, regardless of the intention of the people asking it. Black person be asked once, they provide the bloody proof; be asked twice, they roll their eyes but still do it; be asked for the 1000th time, they get pissed and leave.
I’m saying this because, the way that this point is currently worded, it sounds fallacious (inversion of the burden of the proof). And even if most people can’t quite identify fallacies, it still ticks a lot of them off, they know that “something” is wrong.
Stop telling Black people that they’ll experience less racism if they change instances […]
It’s actually worse: it’s a form of racial segregation. It’s like telling them “you won’t experience racism if you sit in the back of the bus”.
Black people should feel comfortable to use the same spaces as everyone else.
Stop saying the fediverse […]
I think that this bullet point is perfect as it is. Just commenting on the underlying issue:
A lot of people here confuse personal experiences with general statements. Even if the Fediverse, in general, was friendlier or nicer towards marginalised groups, it doesn’t really matter when someone is pissed and trying to vent their bad experience, you know?
Also ablism
Just highlighting a typo. No issue with the message.
Thanks very much for the feedback, I really appreciate the time you put into it and. you bring up a lot of very good points. For “start making” vs “making” and “less toxic” vs “more welcoming”, I’m intentionally choosing the weaker forms to emphasize that these are only the very first steps. I know it’s a harder sell this way but it’s important to set expectations. It’s a good point about how some allies saying :“listen to me!” take space from marginalized groups, I kind of feel like I’ve got that covered by betweent the combination of #1 and #2 but maybe it’s worth making more explicit.
Agreed that the discussion of repeated questions could be more explicit. (It’s not necessarily sealioning, although sometimes it is; often it’s the same one or two reasonable questions from a huge number of people.). But that’s not actually the key point I’m trying to make. Instead, to relates to this:
the way that this point is currently worded, it sounds fallacious (inversion of the burden of the proof)
Many people react that way but think about it a little more. It’s a fact. Mutliuple Black people have proven it repeatedly. There is no further burden of proof, it’s only whiteness’ denial that makes it seem like an open question and entitlement that makes it seem like Black people should produce more evidence. The annoyance factor is a big deal too, but it’s secondary.
And, good catch on the typo, thanks!
Choosing weaker forms sounds sensible - my criticism is which ones.
Many people react that way but think about it a little more. It’s a fact. Mutliuple Black people have proven it repeatedly.
Yup, I know that it’s a fact. You aren’t being fallacious, but the way that you phrased it sounds like that fallacy, so it’s a matter of clarity.
It’s the same deal as the “post less”, you know? People are misunderstanding you.
[from the other comment] That’s a great point, can I quote you on having seen it on Lemmy quite a few times?
Feel free to do so! However keep in mind that I didn’t really keep track of them, so if someone says “do you have proofs?” I have no way to back it up.
[Replying to myself to avoid editing the above]
Another point that I’d like to highlight is that a lot of the racism in English is proxied through linguistic prejudice, due to the existence of racial varieties like the African-American Vernacular English ones. For example, picking on people who use habitual-be, or specific words/expressions common among AAVE speakers. It is racist and I’ve seen it here [in Lemmy] quite a few times.
