@blackmastodon I've got into plenty of discussions about race on the Fediverse or where race has been a major factor, even subconsciously. Take last night for example, I got into a discussion where it was just white people saying white people shit from a white person's perspective. Most of the time I'll end up flabbergasted, disappointed and frustrated.
People being ignorant isn't exclusive to the Fediverse. Expecting to find an open utopia within the Fediverse where everyone agrees with you is both unrealistic and unhealthy. I understand that people are searching for a sense of community. Communities are amazing after all, but there was very much a reason that the BPT Country Club was created over on Reddit when there was already the Black People Twitter subreddit.
If your calling is to engage in intelligent discourse on the Internet, that's already exhausting with people not reading more than a headline, nitpicking minute details or simply feeling so entitled they respond without actually knowing anything. And especially if your brand/calling is to engage in race based discourse, then you're going to be even more exhausted because it's exhausting AF teaching people and that goes doubly where racial politics are involved. Pay rises for all teachers BTW.
I think people should stop saying Fediverse and meaning Mastodon. There's tools to recreate walled spaces for hive minds within the Fediverse like the BPT Country Club for example there's Lemmy, Kbin, Mbin, PieFed, SubLinks and soon PixelFed Groups.
There's a reason the meme exists where you'll say something akin to vegetarian pizza is your favourite and you'll get someone in your comments saying that pepperoni pizza is cultural and you should stop trying to destroy traditions.
I'm not saying that there aren't racists on the Fediverse, there's plenty. I'm not saying that people aren't experiencing unprovoked racism. So please don't confuse this with that. Racism is never okay, overtly nor covertly. But I'm simply referring to a type of discourse that is engaged in and the expectations around it.
I guess what I'm saying is don't build a raft and expect to cross the ocean without getting your feet wet. Especially when there's boats and even planes available. #BlackMastodon
