4 things white people can do to start making the fediverse less toxic for Black people (DRAFT!) - eviltoast

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/15011909

Feedback welcome! Here’s the TL;DR list

  1. Listen more to more Black people
  2. Post less – and think before you post
  3. Call in, call out, and/or report anti-Blackness when you see it
  4. Support Black people and Black-led instances and projects

Other suggestions?

  • symthetics@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I don’t really understand why this is getting so massively downvoted.

    Seems perfectly reasonable to me as a white person. Yes, point two could be more nuanced, but otherwise aren’t all these downvotes kind of illustrating the point the OP is making here?

    • DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      Point 2 is exactly why it is being down-voted. A post about how the Fediverse is toxic to one race/skin colour shouldn’t be telling people of a different race/skin colour to “post less”.

      Discrimination based on race isn’t welcome, no matter who it’s against.

      • symthetics@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Point 2 is better explained in the article. I don’t take this as discrimination, more that while I will always aim to empathise and understand as much as I can about the black experience and be an ally, it’s something I will never have direct experience of, so maybe there are some conversations that I don’t need to muscle in on.

    • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Probably the appeal to white guilt and call to action to specifically white people when the vast majority of people on the fediverse are not racist or “anti-black”

      • symthetics@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Maybe not the majority, but clearly it’s common enough to warrant mentioning for the people affected by it.

        • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          I think examples might serve people better in this regard. It can be hard to accept things as real that you’ve never experienced, and don’t fit with your lifetime of experiences, purely on faith alone.

          Edit: I realize this is the exact opposite of “just accept other people have different experiences”, but it’s hard to deny that this is something a lot of people have trouble with in a lot of aspects of life. Expecting people to just override the natural state of viewing the world through their own personal lens is always going to be a hard ask.

          People asking for examples are not always trying to find ways to tear other experiences apart. Sometimes they might need examples to help them understand better.

      • symthetics@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Yeah haha, I think point 2 is well explained in the article, maybe it’s too generalised here.

        Still good general advice for posting in my opinion, better to think in general.

      • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I actually thought point two was the best point. Listening to the concerns is probably the best thing you could do, if you don’t think they apply to you, moving on about your day is the next best thing. Asking for proof of “anti blackness” is problem the worst thing to do.

        • The Nexus of Privacy@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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          5 months ago

          Thanks! It’s an important point but I’m not surprised it’s meeting with such pushback here. And, to be fair, as somebody pointed out in another thread, the current title of the section doesn’t match the current text, which focuses more narrowly on posting less specifically about anti-Blackness … so there’s room for improvement. But, my guess is that’s not why most people are downvoting it 🤣