can I say that it's *really distressing* to hear POC say that they might as well leave mastodon.
Not distressing as in "I'm made anxious by hearing their complaint", (though it does make me anxious), "and wish I didn't have to hear their complaints"
It's distressing that we haven't made a space that listens to their voices and that things are bad enough that "I might as well go back to TWITTER" makes sense, like twitter is a more welcoming place for them.
THAT'S A PROBLEM
@tcql honestly?
I'm not entirely sure why the idea that Twitter could be a more welcoming space for _anybody_ has to be this extremely shocking idea.
Like sure it's terrible for some people, but great for others! Just like any social media network! Hell I've had much better experiences on REDDIT than Mastodon. yknow.
The whole "we're better than Y site" mentality drives me nuts coz it often comes from sites where I've faced a fair bit of trouble.
@creatrixtiara @tcql It's shocking because being safer is one of the core goals of the project. And also because we confuse software, and who is currently using the software. For example, Mastodon would allow a group of activists to create an instance dedicated to the BLM movement, and you wouldn't depend on some white CEO's approval and tolerance, it'd be entirely within your hands and control. Given this potential I do consider it shocking that folks would want to go back to Twitter... but!
@Gargron @creatrixtiara I feel like the gamut of things a platform allows is different from what it -supports-. We know PoC, particularly black people, are likely to be under-represented, under-resourced, less trusted & worse treated (including by people who wholeheartedly want to be allies) in software & social media arenas.
A BLM instance CAN exist, so that it DOESN'T maybe indicates failures of the mastodon community to go beyond a negative peace+put $£€+time where we say our principles are.
@creatrixtiara @Gargron imagining, arbitrarily, a BLM instance as the goal we want to achieve, allowing someone to set one up is different from saying, e.g 'we volunteer admin support for such an instance' , 'our next patreon pledge goal is gathering funds for the creation of such an instance', or whatever...
There are greater institutional & other practical obstacles for black members of the mastodon community, so it seems reasonable that we look for ways to give those members better support?
