Welcome to !poc!
About this subhive
Like the sidebar says, this is a “dedicated community for minority groups and people of color, their interests, and their issues.” I suggested this community to Beehaw to provide a casual space for POC in the Fediverse to connect, network, chat, share ideas, etc. The main reason I felt a community like this was necessary is because federated social media have a reputation for being predominantly white, and this can be discouraging for others who may be unsure whether federated communities like ours are safe to join and participate in. Accordingly, I hope !poc will provide a nice, cozy community for you all, one which is rooted in solidarity, support, affirmation, and inclusion.
Our neighboring subhives
If you are here, feel free to check out our neighbors on Beehaw:
- !feminism - Feminism
- !disability - Disability and Accessibility
- !lgbtq_plus - LGBTQ+
- !neurodivergence - Neurodivergence
Some other groups that you might find of interest, here on Beehaw or other instances, are:
- !betterment@beehaw.org - Betterment and Praxis
- !socialism@beehaw.org - Socialism
- !environment@beehaw.org - Environment
- !lgbt@lemmy.ml - LGBT
- !feminism@lemmy.ml - Feminism
Introducing myself
My username is kalanggam, but you can call me kal, kala, or Gil (my actual name). I’m a queer 20-something based in Texas, and I use he/they pronouns. Some of my interests are programming, game development, writing, cooking, worldbuilding, and leadership theory. I write fiction (mostly short stories, but I’m planning a longer novel), essays (especially cultural critique and technology), and poetry. I also have a Mastodon account on tech.lgbt if you want to be mutuals there. ☺️
I’m also one of the moderators of !poc. I’m mainly here to help facilitate discussion and work together with y’all to cultivate a cozy community, so please feel welcome to direct any of your questions or concerns my way.
Now, introduce yourself!
Introduce yourselves here, and feel free to plug your handles elsewhere in the Fediverse if you’re comfortable. I’d also love to hear your ideas for this community and what you’d expect from moderation. I’m looking forward to meeting you all!
- alyaza [they/she] ( @alyaza@beehaw.org ) English22•1 year ago
oh hey, it’s me, An Admin. if you’ve checked my profile before you’ve probably seen the pan-African flag i use for my banner, which is because i am Black. accordingly the Admin team on site is at least 25% minority; hopefully that inspires confidence in the site from any of our lurking minority posters.
also for what it’s worth, apathy and disinterest in websites accommodating the discomfort of minority groups was an appreciable factor in making the website. many of the original core users on here previously used Tildes, where we found that to be a problem. as i put it about two years ago:
-
Even when they do contribute, minority groups often find their viewpoints, opinions, and suggestions crowded out in threads by the majority groups on Tildes. Proposals such as better outreach to minority groups or minority dedicated topics and sections are often criticized as unnecessary, pandering, or ignored by this majority.
-
Topics on minority issues on Tildes are, simply put, often empty or bad discussions. This is in part because of the lack of diversity on Tildes, and in part because the few minority groups that do have communities on Tildes mostly aren’t given space to discuss these issues without infringement by majority groups. Indeed, beyond LGBTQ+ topics–which have their own section–minority group issues have struggled to be discussed on Tildes in-depth, despite being good fits for the website and its overall mission. Threads on women’s issues often go silent or are dominated by men, socioeconomic issues are downplayed by the better-off, and minority issues are often not posted at all or are stifled by xenophobia or members of majority groups not engaging with minority positions. This can only serve to further alienate members of these minority groups.
these are issues that eventually led to a lot of the cool minority voices in the community dropping off, and killed a lot of discussions from the jump (for example: reparations, affirmative action, and sometimes even basic socioeconomic inequality). we’re really hoping to avoid here in general, but especially so in this section—and i hope it shines through that we’ve thought about this stuff a lot and do actually care about it.
- GuyDudeman ( @GuyDudeman@beehaw.org ) English8•1 year ago
Hey there! I’m white, but you have my full support. My family owned plantations (and, more importantly, people) beginning way back in the 1600’s on up to when they fought for the south during the civil war. The racism and the un-earned benefits and privileges were passed down through the generations until it got to me, and I am making my best effort at ending the cycle. I have asked not to be put on my parents’ wills, and I want nothing to do with their bigotry.
I will subscribe to this community, so that I can continue to listen to PoC and hear your viewpoints and continue to educate myself. I probably will not be chiming in, just reading and listening. But I just wanted you to know that myself and probably lots of others like me are out here and want to do whatever we can to make life better for everyone.
-
- yaspora ( @yaspora@baraza.africa ) 20•1 year ago
I’m not a Beehaw user but I just wanted to let Africans (including the diaspora) know that baraza.africa is an option.
- mifuyne ( @mifuyne@beehaw.org ) 11•1 year ago
Hello, I’m Mifuyne, Mif for short. I was born in Hong Kong, live in Ontario, Canada now. I use she/her pronouns, but I’m fine with being referred to as they, too. You can also find me on @mifuyne@easymode.im, but that account is more focused on my future gamedev journey 😁 I also have a couple of writefreely accounts, which won’t show up on sites like Lemmy or kbin.
Other than programming and gamedev, I also have an interest in tabletop RPGs. I’m mostly focused on solo-gaming at the moment, but I’m still toying with the idea of opening a freeform RP/play-by-post lemmy (or another federated forum) instance.
I look forward to see the kind of discourse that goes on in here 😊
- Seedling (she/they) ( @seedling@beehaw.org ) 7•1 year ago
oh I hadn’t thought of doing that, but that’s a great idea!
- mifuyne ( @mifuyne@beehaw.org ) 7•1 year ago
Thanks 😄
There’s a few bits I have to figure out, like a dice roller and how to get the comments in the post to display linearly, old to new (Lemmy’s Chat sort is close but it forces it in to new). And more importantly, which software will I use? I’m leaning towards Lemmy since it’ll get my butt moving on learning Rust.
- mifuyne ( @mifuyne@beehaw.org ) 4•1 year ago
That’s not adequate for the purposes I have in mind. But thanks for the suggestion 🙂
- GuyDudeman ( @GuyDudeman@beehaw.org ) 4•1 year ago
No problem! :) Just trying to help.
- mifuyne ( @mifuyne@beehaw.org ) 4•1 year ago
I appreciate it! ♥
Welcome to Beehaw, Mifuyne! ☺️
If you do decide to open a PbP instance, I’d love to join - I’ve been trying to get back into roleplaying but the site I used to frequent is so dead, sadly.
- mifuyne ( @mifuyne@beehaw.org ) 4•1 year ago
Thanks!
It could be a long time before it’s a thing. I have a bad habit of taking on too many projects all at once sometimes. This might be one of those times 😵 but I’ll let you know if/when the instance is up!
- silver ( @silver@beehaw.org ) 4•1 year ago
I would love to join as well! Please keep us posted!
- Seedling (she/they) ( @seedling@beehaw.org ) 11•1 year ago
Hi everyone! I was born in Canada, live in the US, and Asian and mixed race. I’m generally a little vague about my real world identity online though beyond that. You can find me here on Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@seedling although it’s basically all my TTRPG stuff.
Welcome Seedling, good to have you! 🐝🤠
- escaped_panda ( @escaped_panda@beehaw.org ) 9•1 year ago
Hi everyone, feel free to call me by my username or EP (my actual initials). I’m a disabled queer Black 30-something from the eastern united states. I’m interested in plants, anti-colonial histories and futures, international and cross-diasporic solidarity, science, food, and trauma healing. I’m very happy to meet y’all
Welcome EP ❤️ I hope you enjoy this space, we’re happy to have you!
- silver ( @silver@beehaw.org ) 8•1 year ago
Hi Everyone, I’m Asian Canadian and use he/him pronouns. I’m happy to find this community; it seems like a cool place so far. I’m interested in comics, science, astronomy, art, photoshop, and table top games. Looking forward to connecting with everyone and seeing what topics come up!
Welcome silver! Glad you’ve found us and looking forward to reading you and everyone’s posts here 💕
- Canadian_Bakin ( @Canadian_Bakin@beehaw.org ) 5•1 year ago
Hey !poc Hive. I’m Canadian of Indo-Caribbean descent and now living in the US. I enjoy baking (obvi) and the science behind it, video games, a wide variety of music & movies, comic books, finding sneaky ways to talk about socialism, helping people try to understand why having empathy is a good thing, and a great many other things. I’m currently trying to teach myself Python programming and get into D&D (one of those things is harder than the other lol). 🍁
- thelionsredmane ( @thelionsredmane@beehaw.org ) 4•1 year ago
Hey everyone, nice to meet y’all. I’m a Black software developer in their mid-20’s from Bronx, NY. Way back when I was in college, I used to do slam poetry and I’ve worked as a writing consultant. Also used to work on educational games - briefly worked at Sesame Workshop (the non-profit behind Sesame Street).
I finally pulled the plug on my accounts on that bird app and Reddit, so very new to the fediverse. Came across this server and found that I’m really jiving with the sense of community. I don’t really have many people IRL who’re down to talk about anti-colonialism and activism; turns out it’s really hard to cultivate and maintain those kind of conversations after graduating. Looking forward to contributing and engaging more often to help grow this community. You’ll also find me at @thelionsredmane@c.im and @thelionsredmane@calckey.social.