https://tau-ceti.space/@imdat/111053965257388110

(archive, https://ghostarchive.org/archive/PmhUV?wr=true )

Admin of tau-ceti.space, anarres.family and foodhub-muenchen.social

Either they're slurs, or no consideration was given that they sure LOOK like slurs go there, and fuck all of that with a big hearty YIKES

@welshpixie I'm confused. What is or looks like slurs?

@miriamrobern In the original post, 'I don't care why that ******* did' and 'Fuck that *******!'. Could have made it clear they weren't slurs, but chose not to.

Lemme unpack this a little bit.

Ro, a Black guy, has been getting racist abuse since he joined Fedi. Over the past few days, it has picked up, and he has been getting racist abuse in his mentions and DMs, as well as racist abuse happening around him and about him. This is a pattern. Other PoC on fedi are seeing this happening and, obviously, it's a traumatic thing to watch, especially as most if not all of them have had this directed at them at some point since being on fedi. /

Today, a bunch of them logged on and saw this post, which has plenty of uncensored examples of the word 'fuck' in it, and then 'that *******' and 'Fuck that *******!', talking about a Black guy.

Just set aside your own feelings and knee-jerk reactions for a sec and remember that you're sharing a space with BIPoC who are constantly getting racist harassment, and how they might feel on seeing that.

(And just to clarify, this whole thread comes from directly seeing PoC reacting to it. I'm not, like, presuming to talk on behalf of BIPoC here without first-hand seeing what those reactions were. I'm talking for them because they're tired of this shit and logging off fedi because seeing stuff like this is exhausting and triggering.)

Holy shit the racism accusations are getting out of control here.

Now @imdat is being accused of being racist because… They censored curse words?

I 400% doubt any of them are actually racist slurs because…

Well…

The edit history says that Celly wrote the word “asshole”.

I will not stand for any slander against my friends, especially not a soft soul like Celly who is quite literally an anti-racist activist IRL.

This is a personal attack on Celly without any evidence, when the actual post history shows the truth.

This is some pure “go outside and touch grass” level bullshit right now being dispelled by the Bad Space folks.

How can ANYONE trust these people’s “due diligence” when they don’t do any due diligence on people they criticise?

Edit: here is a capture of the post I am quoting, in case it is not visible. https://web.archive.org/web/20230913160357/https://mastodon.art/@welshpixie/111058017706752778

RE: https://mastodon.art/users/welshpixie/statuses/111058017706752778

@yassie_j @imdat do you have links/screenshots of getting accused for racism for curse words???
i mean, i got accused of racism because i called a shit project shit, but damn what the fuck

@blobcat @imdat do you not see the post I quoted here? I’ll give you the link.

https://mastodon.art/@welshpixie/111058017706752778

@yassie_j It is WelshPixie at their best: accusing of people of something without even checking for a single moment…

@welshpixie but you can see the uncensored words in the edit history?

@imdat I saw this post and I knew I had to set the record straight. I know FOR A FACT that you would not say anything racist at all. They have read intent into your words that were never there. Your criticism is of sound standing.

I will NOT stand for the slander against a friend of mine like this.

@yassie_j @imdat oh yeah, didn’t see it because masto.art blocks outerheaven
my bad

@welshpixie Before making this accusation did you happen to look at the edit history of the post? I'm just curious.

@welshpixie pixie do you know what edit history is and how to check that? This seems like basic due diligence for this sort of a declaration.

@andyy see https://mastodon.art/@welshpixie/111058713143513533

@yassie_j It really bothers me when people will say that something "looks racist" and immediately responds by raising red flags.

Yes, I understand why someone might be concerned that the censored term is actually a slur, but wouldn't it be a good idea to check first?

@yassie_j I am not saying that we should "innocent until proven guilty" all instances, that just gets in the way of effective moderation. But can't we have temporary statuses for these things? Like "this server has been flagged for racism and a review is underway"?

Again, I agree with the existence of blocklists, racism on Fedi is real, and we need to be taking action against it. But this is just... not it.

@terminallytrisk I 100% agree with your take.

@welshpixie I can't see that because it's literally not there.

@yassie_j @imdat how do they even get racism and poc hate from people getting rightfully mad for a badly maintained and transmysoginistic blocklist??

@andyy Oops, sorry, didn't realise the person I was replying to had it at followers only;

"I did see the edit. Why bother censoring 'asshole' but not 'fuck', creating a scenario where, in the midst of a gross racist harassment campaign against a Black guy that you're also yelling at, any BIPoC looking would see you yelling at a Black guy with 'fucking ******'? Like, do you see how that reads now?"

@lucretia Sorry, didn't realise the post I linked had switched to followers only.

"I did see the edit. Why bother censoring 'asshole' but not 'fuck', creating a scenario where, in the midst of a gross racist harassment campaign against a Black guy that you're also yelling at, any BIPoC looking would see you yelling at a Black guy with 'fucking ******'? Like, do you see how that reads now?"

@welshpixie I see that there were assumptions made, yes. I don't see that you clarified or deescalated anything, though. For example, "Though the poster did say 'asshole' and not the n word" or anything like that.

If you saw the edit history but made the accusation anyway, you made things worse. If you didn't see the edit history but made the accusation you missed something pretty big and threw out some serious accusations anyway.

I do see how it reads but you have a big soapbox and a chance to clarify things. Your original accusation stands but this is the first post I see where you say that Imdat said asshole instead of the word you originally accused them of saying.

Imdat said asshole and edited the post to censor it. They should have used seven instead of six asterisks maybe but that's really the big error in their judgement that deserved a big hearty YIKES from you.

@welshpixie I'm not saying it *looks* good I'm saying that your original post mischaracterizes the user's post in question, and this weakens your case for recommending everyone block this server.

@andyy @welshpixie The point they’re making is that it looks like slurs, therefor it’s block worthy. Similarly, if I see someone censor “fricking”, they should be fediblocked for being a pro oil industry instance because it kind of looks like “fracking”.

@alcapurrias Exactly. Could have made it very clear it wasn't a slur, chose not to. Actually more than this, initially wasn't a slur, CHOSE to make it ambiguous. Like wtf?

@TheGibson @perigee @james Our Discord chat room admin space, hehe, bunch of fedi admins = fedimins ^.^

@welshpixie the edit history shows that it previously said "asshole". @miriamrobern

@welshpixie very strange decision to see 7 asterisks and immediately think of racial slurs. also edit history proves you're just lying lmfao

@macja @welshpixie ActivityPub knows all

@imdat @yassie_j I had an interaction with her a while back where she mistook a joke about The Predator (from the movie) as something calling lgbt people predators. the person who wrote it also spoke english as a second language and probably wouldn't have even thought it could be read that way. she never thought to look at their profile and see that they were a german speaker, or the fact that they posted pro-lgbt things fairly recently at the time. her reaction to people pointing out was mostly indignant and she never even removed the post, she just took the fediblock tag out of it as if it was like "Just in CASE I'm wrong" even though it was pretty clear she was wrong. she just jumps on whatever her first assumption is and never considers any alternative, and is unwilling to accept she maybe was wrong.

@yassie_j @terminallytrisk Do you know why they chose to censor the word 'asshole' but not 'fuck' or 'shit'?

@GoodNewsGreyShoes @terminallytrisk I have no idea. Probably heat of the moment type things.

@yassie_j @welshpixie the activitypub panopticon sees all...

@GoodNewsGreyShoes @yassie_j @terminallytrisk This is totally just spitballing, but "asshole" is directed at a person. "fuck" and "shit" aren't so much, maybe? ​

@yassie_j @imdat if i see a single person try to defend this blocklist, i'm just gonna show 'em this post.

absolutely fucking despicable behavior, and goes to show how much of a complete and utter clownshow this is.

let's listen to the cis white woman who moved to south africa, about how someone censoring "asshole" means they're a racist, because ????????

@yassie_j @imdat the "these people are insanely racist! block them!" crowd when they see 7 asterisks and immediately think of racial slurs

@yassie_j @imdat yeah, I saw that and was completely speechless

i'm absolutely livid at this, people who cannot maintain a head leveled enough to run a lemonade stand should not be online space admins

so sorry Imdat, sending all my hugs your way ​

@welshpixie If you're taking racism from stars, I'm not sure I can understand that in good conscience. Quite a leap.

@trisweb Read my follow up posts beneath for the full context and for how PoC have been responding to seeing that post, and if you still feel it's quite a leap, maybe reconsider that BLM bit in your bio

@welshpixie I understand why you and others think that, and no I will not reconsider it thank you very much.

Humans are complicated and always learning. Be kind.

@trisweb Ok, so - I'm the white person talking about this, but I'm doing it because the PoC have left the room because they're tired of this shit. There are a couple of them in the replies to this thread, like https://rage.love/@perigee/111058767047969935, though. I'm doing it because I saw them see that post and go 'yeah ok I'm logging off'. If you can't see that a post ranting about a Black guy having 'Fucking ******!' in it might be really hard to look at as a PoC, then 🤷‍♀️ I don't know.

@keith 1) I have autism. Calling out racism and racist dogwhistles does not make it impossible for people with communication disorders to speak.
2) my post was made after seeing how PoC were responding to seeing the post. It's a post where someone is yelling abuse about a Black guy and says 'fucking ******!'. Can you see how that might be (and was, actually) really difficult for PoC to look at?

@yassie_j @imdat@tau-ceti.space eeyup I called this last night when I privately rambled - this is rapidly approaching "terminally online" levels of discourse where decisions are being made on "vibes" and not like. actual harm being done. (because of course it is)

it's one thing to block because people are actually being bigots. it's another thing to ASSUME someone is a bigot because *checks notes* for some reason, one specifically chose to censor a word that, if edit history is checked, was never anything beyond being angry.

smh. it's very clear the sources cannot be 100%. trusted if this is how admins respond.

@yassie_j @imdat@tau-ceti.space (fwiw i get the suspicion of it being Bad, but to not check edit history and not talk to the person who said that before suggesting a block or ill intent?)

I'd call them out on their questionable trustworthiness, but I'm not about to draw their ire and get two instances on the List. though it would immediately show that it can't be trusted.

@yassie_j my goodness, imdat is one of the kindest most considerate people I've encountered on fedi. This is a *very* bad faith interpretation (is it because they criticized thebadplace?). People who run Blocklist shouldn't have such thin skin.

@imdat@tau-ceti.space

@zoey @yassie_j @imdat@tau-ceti.space But, but, the *******s looked so suspicious! They definitely couldn't tell that they *weren't* slurs, right? So blocking and shouting out the thread to their multi-thousand person follower base is the most logical first step to take! They heard from their close BIPOC associates that they felt weird about the *s, too! /sssssssss (and even more sarcasm)[also some more for good measure]