Mastodon-the-technology is not geared towards creating a space that is a priori safe. And Mastodon-the-community is largely so privileged that they stay mostly insulated from the effects of that.
It means that marginalised people are still marginalised on Mastodon, and that they are put in the firing line of moderation.
Mastodon-the-community will not be welcoming for marginalised people (BIMPOC and others) until moderators start prioritising their safety over the comfort of privileged people.
Having to play "instance roulette" in hopes of finding a welcoming server is not a viable strategy. Starting your own instance requires non-trivial resources -- which is also why most admins/mods on Mastodon-the-network are privileged, white people.
People who respond to complaints about racism in Mastodon-the-community with these talking points are not helpful at best, and maliciously deflective at worst.
I think that Mastodon has a better potential for marginalised people to create communities, better than Twitter. But until these issues are addressed across Mastodon-the-community, we won't have a viable #blackmastodon .
@heinragas What can be done?
@meccalopolis Admins with large, open instances need to scale up their moderation, with diverse teams who can bring the right kinds of experience, expertise and empathy to the issue.
Admins are to keep each other accountable for their moderation practices, and defederate from those instances that are not responsive.
In general, everyone must prioritise the safety of marginalised people over the comfort of privileged people.
(I have that as one of my server rules.)
@heinragas Right on! I'll mention it to our server mods.
