@VaylLarkinPoet

The biggest problem is simply because there aren't enough Black people here. A related problem is that there is a kind of elitism that makes this unlikely to change. eg. "it's a good thing only nerds know how to use this place, wouldn't it be awful if the rabble showed up" type sentiments.

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@VaylLarkinPoet

The lack of a critical mass on Black people on the fediverse is related to other problems: there aren't a lot of people who work in trades, people who are poor, people who aren't university educated etc. What we have is a college town. And like many college towns it very tolerant and nice ... but there are also huge blind spots, and gaps.

And this isn't something that can be fixed by being "nice" or "mindful" or whatever. 2/

@VaylLarkinPoet

If we want open social media to be a meeting place for people of all class backgrounds, races, religions, and from all over the world that means it'd need to be "popular" ... it'd need to be something that could work for people without a desktop computer who mostly use the internet on their phone.

It'd need to be free for most users and easy to get started. Consider how threads and blueSky have outpaced the fedi mostly due to their focus on these use cases. 3/

@VaylLarkinPoet

Of course those corporate walled gardens also have help that we simply can't afford. They have the backing of media. Media has a lot of power in moving people to platforms.

The closest thing the fedi has to a corporate promotional face is "Mastodon" the app, and software development group. I don't feel that this group really cares about serving "the rabble" the vision of a 20-something posting about nail art from her home in the Bronx isn't part of their vision.

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