mekka okereke :verified:
mekka okereke :verified:Hey. While I'm giving y'all the whole "Black people experience this every day, it's not new for us," let me give you one more important Black nugget of info:
"You don't have to watch the video."
Seriously. You don't.
Your life won't be improved by seeing it. Especially if you already oppose ICE.
mekka okereke :verified:Periodic reminder: I've already said many times that I think Fediverse (or at least a future flavor of it) wins in the end. It's too asymmetrically powerful in its ability to resist centralized pressure from very rich fashy tech bros. The inter-instance infighting and Fediverse drama of the month that we lament, is actually its strength.
This has very little to do with technical decentralization. It is about social decentralization. Mastodon mega instances are not socially decentralized. But the human building blocks for evolving to many smaller instances, are there.
And every time another social media platform messes up, there is a net flow of users towards alternatives, usually Fediverse, but often other platforms too. So if BlueSky does one day flip and turn just like Twitter, there will be a flow from there to here too.
So yay, Fediverse wins in the end. But we're not at the end. We're not even in the middle. Fediverse is still not ready to be the place.
There are things to learn from BlueSky. I'm not interested in having a debate on this with anyone. If you don't think that there is anything to learn, then fine. I respect your opinion. But please keep that opinion out of my mentions.
If you're selfish enough to think "Fediverse works for me, and don't really care if millions of Black people aren't welcome here, and therefore have to use other platforms that also mistreat them," also fine. But again, please keep that opinion out of my mentions. I'm not Charlie Kirk and I'm not Steven Crowder. I don't want to debate you. I don't want to try to change your mind. And you won't change mine.
Because nothing you say will get me to stop supporting Fediverse and ATProto safety projects.
I'm stubborn like that.
mekka okereke :verified:😬
Every campaign move Cuomo tries, ends up boosting Mamdani.
He really just reminded every Black voter in NYC of the political similarities between Mamdani and Muhammad Ali? And the similar unfair character attacks faced by both? Really?!
Mamdani is even phonetically similar to Muhammad Ali.
mekka okereke :verified:Imagine signing up for a job as a FEMA administrator. You get to help people during the worst time of their life. You're good at your job. You work hard.♥
️
Then the new administration prevents you from helping people after a hurricane.
Then the new admin tells you that you work for ICE now.
mekka okereke :verified:This is an important video to watch because these people are labeled "far-right" but their policy positions are shared by the majority of GOP voters🤷🏿♂️
Also important to see the disconnect between the brown dudes deluding themselves with "Immigrate the right way!" and white dudes saying "No go back!"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2S-WJN3L5eo
mekka okereke :verified:The losers that think being trans means being white and trans, hopped over from Mastodon to BlueSky, and put me on their "transmisogyny list."🤷🏿♂️
But Black trans people, and white trans people that aren't racist and can see Black people, put me in their starter packs.♥️
I don't want to be in community with the fashy white trans people that don't like Black trans people. I prefer the white trans people that like the Black and brown trans people.
I don't like everybody. It's OK if they block me.
mekka okereke :verified:Something else interesting:
ClearSky, the tool for inspecting blocks, list membership, etc, is built by a Black developer. 👍🏿
BlackSky, the tool and moderation community for Black ATProto users and apps, is built by a Black developer. 👍🏿
Black developers are building on Blue Sky.
Shout out to everyone who will read this, and instead of saying "How do we get them to build for Mastodon/Activity Pub?" Will froth at the mouth about fake federation and the inevitable corpo takeover.🤡
mekka okereke :verified:Something about starter packs that I think gets lost when they're discussed on Mastodon:
The power of starter packs is not in some centralised mega list of say "Black people in tech," curated by some central authority. The power is in a million tiny "Black techies I follow" lists curated by everyday users.
Check it out. I'm on some lists.
https://clearsky.app/mekka.mekka-tech.com/lists
And yes, I'm on some lists I don't want to be on, that people use to block. And I mostly don't care. 🤷🏿♂️
1/N
mekka okereke :verified:The losers that think being trans means being white and trans, hopped over from Mastodon to BlueSky, and put me on their "transmisogyny list."🤷🏿♂️
But Black trans people, and white trans people that aren't racist and can see Black people, put me in their starter packs.♥️
I don't want to be in community with the fashy white trans people that don't like Black trans people. I prefer the white trans people that like the Black and brown trans people.
I don't like everybody. It's OK if they block me.
mekka okereke :verified:Something about starter packs that I think gets lost when they're discussed on Mastodon:
The power of starter packs is not in some centralised mega list of say "Black people in tech," curated by some central authority. The power is in a million tiny "Black techies I follow" lists curated by everyday users.
Check it out. I'm on some lists.
https://clearsky.app/mekka.mekka-tech.com/lists
And yes, I'm on some lists I don't want to be on, that people use to block. And I mostly don't care. 🤷🏿♂️
1/N
mekka okereke :verified:Black History Month megathread!
Feb 1: The Statue of Liberty
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109789295728917242
Feb 2: Generational Wealth
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109795292010229762
Feb 3: Seeing Racism Everywhere
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109801619225078087
Feb 4: Swimming
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109807073812925673
Continued...
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/111877545844953639
mekka okereke :verified:It really is the social media equivalent of white folks telling Black folks that Boston is less racist than the South, and completely ignoring any Black folk that live in Boston or anywhere else in the US trying to talk about what their real, lived, experiences have been.
Many Mastodon users are just completely convinced of the superiority of their moderation philosophy, and they are as happy to ignore the few Black Fedi users in 2023 as they were in 2017.
mekka okereke :verified:I'm not interested in having Fedi 'splained to me. I'm just saying why more Black folk are on BlueSky:
1. It should be almost impossible for a new, non-technical user to onboard onto the Fediverse and accidentally join a server where they will receive racist death threats.
2. It should not be possible for racists to reply to a Black user's post with hateful gore images, without other users on the server knowing it.
3. It should be easy for a new admin to default into a safe, general denylist.