In 4 things white people can do to start making the fediverse less toxic for Black people (DRAFT!) and its cross-posts, quite a few people said things like “maybe racism is a problem on Mastodon, but I don’t see it on Lemmy.” Of course, plenty of comments in the various threads were in fact examples of racism on Lemmy, so one takeaway is that at lot of people don’t see racism even when they’re looking at it. And helpful commenters pointed out some of the other patterns of racism on Lemmy. … but that wasn’t really the thrust of that discussion.
So I wanted to ask more generally, what are some of the examples you’ve seen of racism on Lemmy? Quotes and links are great, but also feel free just to describe examples or call out more general patterns!
- bionicjoey ( @bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ) 18•1 month ago
The whole point of the fediverse is that it’s distributed. There’s gonna be bigots. But they can be blocked, their instances can ban them, and then they can make their own instances which other instances can then defederate. That’s working as designed. In a perfect world, the bigoted instances will be a disconnected graph from the network of other instances.
- MerchantsOfMisery ( @MerchantsOfMisery@lemmy.ml ) 15•1 month ago
As a POC I’d say Lemmy is way better than most similar sites but there’s still the prevalent sexism that always seems like the "acceptable casual bigotry" and I’m not a fan of that. The kind of "jokes" that guys mostly laugh at while women mostly roll their eyes at because the punchline is usually heavily reliant on sexism.
- sub_ubi ( @sub_ubi@lemmy.ml ) 15•1 month ago
There’s a collection here,
- Wugmeister ( @ThisIsAManWhoKnowsHowToGling@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English19•1 month ago
Most people cannot see lemmygrad
- krolden ( @krolden@lemmy.ml ) 5•1 month ago
Thats on them
Thanks for the pointer.
- hungryphrog ( @hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 13•1 month ago
Try checking out the comment section on pretty much any post mentoning Islam.
- Jon ( @jdp23@lemmy.ml ) English1•1 month ago
Thanks, a good suggestion!
- OsrsNeedsF2P ( @OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml ) 13•1 month ago
There used to be Wolfballs, a right-wing Lemmy instance. I didn’t browse much but there was definitely ample racism there.
- comfy ( @comfy@lemmy.ml ) 3•1 month ago
If I remember correctly, the admin (a US Lolbertarian) finally closed it down, among other reasons, when they realized the resident nazis there were not just joking to troll da libs and actually believed the things they were saying about ‘jewish shapeshifters’. They wanted a free speech haven, and so they got the people we collectively told to shut up.
Good point, thanks. I seem to recall another one as well – although both were widely defederated so I suspect most people on those instances didn’t wind up seeing them.
- hanabatake ( @hanabatake@lemmy.ml ) 12•1 month ago
I did not see any racist comments for quite some time. But xenophobic comments were common on threads about Ukraine’s invasion.
The anti-French sentiment is also present here like in the whole English speaking web.
The French aren’t known for their hygiene so I am not surprised their river is filthy
From a post about an olympic triathlete who got sick: https://lemmy.ml/post/18887659
In Belgium: Tartare or Mayo. Andalouse for the gal, thanks In the UK: Salt and Vinegar In both cases: I will have to change seat if you plop yourself in front of me with your poor fries inundated by ketchup. Only the French do that, and it is a Casus Belli in my book.
From a post about dipping fries: https://lemmy.ml/post/18963222
- tacticalsugar ( @tacticalsugar@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 9•1 month ago
I don’t have links because they get banned pretty quickly, but over the last week I’ve seen maybe 4 or 5 examples of lemmy users referencing “the race card” (derogatory) in response to others talking about systemic racist violence.
Thanks, it’s a great example, and good to hear they got banned quickly! It’s a great point that when moderators are proactive most people don’t see the posts so think there’s less racism than there actually is.
- 10_0 ( @10_0@lemmy.ml ) 8•1 month ago
Never seen racism on Lemmy tbh most ppl are normal here. Its almost as if its against .ml tos… And they would defed from instances that don’t have the same mindset.
- Kaity ( @Kyatto@leminal.space ) English8•1 month ago
I am sure there are instances I have forgotten, there is definitely a certain amount of bigotry, it’s not hard to find classism, sexism, and ableism as usual for the internet and I am sure I have come across racism too but I don’t remember any specifics.
Thanks!
- terminhell ( @terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 6•1 month ago
Maybe it’s just the handful of instances I follow, but I can’t recall anything. But I’ve become quite callused and thick skinned having Benn on the Internet sense the early 90’s and the wastelands of forums/chat rooms lol. Send help.
- Elise ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 6•1 month ago
I’m not black so I am sure I am not sensitive enough to it, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen any racism on here. On a slightly related note have experienced transphobia only two or three times in over a year, and they were quickly banned. I imagine it works the same way.
- elfpie ( @elfpie@lemmy.eco.br ) 4•1 month ago
I have an account in beehaw too, and it’s usually the one that interacts with the world. It’s considerably different from a different instance.
- wuphysics87 ( @wuphysics87@lemmy.ml ) 3•1 month ago
“I’m not black but”. More than black folks experience racism, but at least it wasn’t “As a color blind white man”
- Elise ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 3•1 month ago
It would be more helpful if you gave an example of the proper way of addressing the issue.
Thanks for the adrenaline spike.
- wuphysics87 ( @wuphysics87@lemmy.ml ) 2•1 month ago
I am priveleged not to experience racism as others do. As a consequence/therefore/ etc.
- Elise ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 3•1 month ago
Yeah it sucks big time. I dated a foreign student once and people would shout crap out of their car and drive off. And when we ate at a restaurant I could have sworn that they made their food too salty to eat on purpose.
Personally I have sort of experienced a weaker version of it first hand when visiting Poland each time. People wouldn’t serve me at all, or charge ridiculous prices.
- Jojo, Lady of the West ( @Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 2•1 month ago
“person of color” or POC is the broad category of people who aren’t white.
- Elise ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 2•1 month ago
🤔 Sounds wrong to me
- Jojo, Lady of the West ( @Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 2•1 month ago
Possibly because “colored” is and has been used as a slur? That was the connection my brain made when I first heard it and put me off, but many POCs use the term POC comfortably, so…?
- Elise ( @xilliah@beehaw.org ) 2•1 month ago
Well, I am not from the US so I don’t have that connotation. It’s more that it puts it relative to white people. And white people also get discriminated, so it isn’t an inclusive term.
- Jojo, Lady of the West ( @Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 2•1 month ago
They do for sure. I didn’t say POC is shorthand for “people who are discriminated against”, just “people who aren’t white”.
- finley ( @finley@lemm.ee ) English2•1 month ago
Lol