Texas-based writer and hol.ogra.ph co-admin

Feel free to follow me at @gil@hol.ogra.ph

(he/they)

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 1st, 2023

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  • Just a side note - I would caution about directing non-Black folks to spaces like # BlackMastodon and @ blackfedi, just because those spaces might not be intentioned for non-Black people to look at, directing us there might be encouraging our participation in spaces where it’s not necessarily invited or wanted, etc. Great spaces to direct Black folks to if they’re looking to build a community for themselves on fedi, but I would just say it’s best for non-Black people to not look/participate unless the space is specifically inviting that.

    The other thing about the “just listen more to more Black people” discourse is that while it may fix representational issues of whom you’re choosing to listen to, it won’t help if there’s no intention to work on racial biases or challenge one’s own racist behaviors - so I would even implore that type of introspective work. Connected to that would be, even if a white person starts doing these things and working on this practice, that work of interrogating your own biases/behaviors never stops. I feel that white people (especially on fedi) often need reminding that just because you’re doing X, Y, Z, etc. doesn’t mean that you’re done working on your own racism or that your reasons for doing X, Y, Z, etc. are all genuine.

    You might also want to mention how having some marginalized identity even as a white person doesn’t excuse you from doing this work - there’s a lot of harm done on fedi by people who use their own oppressed identities as a way to avert accountability for being racist. In your piece, you already mentioned that supporting Black people and fighting anti-Blackness means supporting all Black people - you could make that understanding of how anti-Blackness is interconnected/intertwined with other oppressions more apparent by appealing to white people who might consider themselves staunch advocates for other communities but refuse to confront racism.

    This is kind of a mess of different comments but those are just my raw thoughts after reading what you wrote.


  • A country born by old white men which will die by old white men. Begins with a revolution to sever ties with a monarchy, ends with a coup to bring it back. We are truly coming full circle. 🤡

    Asked if anything could convince him that he was on track to lose to Trump and should step down, Biden responded with a smile: “It depends on if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that.”

    Sir, the Lord Almighty better come down and take you back with him. Take Trump too, while he’s at it.

    After that debate and all the things he’s said since, Biden’s image is at an all-time low. As ableist and ageist as it is, people think he’s a senile old man in the late stages of cognitive decline, with no business running a government. I doubt he or his campaign are going to do what they need to do to overcome that perception, and I doubt the Democratic Party will make the right calls either. “Decades of civil service” and “somewhat better than Trump” etc. are not going to be enough.