Ra’il: I know this is a big question with a lot of moving parts, but talk to me about the whiteness of the fediverse as you’ve had to experience and navigate it, as both a user and moderator. More specifically, how do whiteness and its related projects of antiblackness, colorism, and mestizaje show up in the fediverse? 

Marcia: In terms of online spaces/social media, I wouldn’t say it’s anything different to what many of us women of color experienced on Tumblr in the early 2010s and that specific pocket of the blogosphere. That is to say, a constant confrontation of white feminism and women of color not only addressing that and fighting against it, but also connecting with one another and growing our feminist politic together. There’s always going to be conflict, and the fediverse was not that different.

What took me aback regarding the fediverse is that my networks were mostly “leftists” and self-proclaimed radical thinkers regarding race, ableism, gender, patriarchy, sexuality, et cetera, and yet what I was being exposed to was a lot of naiveté or hostility for questioning whiteness as a basis for many people’s takes or approaches to these subject matters. And if I were to question or push back on their whiteness, I was often accused of being biased myself.