Technology

I just want to say that @[email protected] 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.

Also, tomato, "people are trying to make you ashamed of being white" is a pretty common white supremacist dogwhistle. I'm sure that's not how you intended it, but I think you'd be better served avoiding it in the future.

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.

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!

[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.

Good feedback, thanks much. I did check with Black people about directing folks to #BlackMastodon and the @ blackfedi group -- but I should probably be more explicit about not posting their, and your general point about not barging into spaces where you're not invited is importat and something I should highlight. I'll add something to the "and tht's not all" section about working on your biases and behaviors more generally. And also good point about stressing the intersectional aspects more. Greatly appreciated!

I read that point as posting less when it comes to issues of race and racism specifically, but it's possible I'm reading that into it. If so, it could be a little clearer.