Content warning: One of the answers to the question, "Why are there so few Black people on the fediverse?" And no, it's not just that there are racist users.
Every once in awhile, I see a white person ask the question of why there aren't more Black folks on the fediverse. I don't see this that often, as I go out of my way to follow white folks who are a little more clued in, but occasionally it comes up.
There are a lot of reasons, which any Black person who has been here for more than 5 minutes could easily explain to you, but for the moment let me take you on a short journey to examine one of the primary reasons.
Imagine, if you will, that I am a random Black person interested in joining the fediverse. Now assuming I don't just go straight for mastodon.social (different scenario, but similar outcome for the most part) I'm curious to see what server I should join.
If I'm coming from any other major social network I've probably heard something, accurate or not, about the fediverse and choosing a server. Maybe that idea has turned me off before, but the Muskrat or Zuck or whoever has just done another egregious thing and I'm getting fed up with their shit. I'm stubborn, too, so I look into an option that's going to take some work.
So I do some poking around Mastodon since that's the service I've heard about. joinmastodon.org has an easy to peruse list of hundreds of servers (419 last I checked). This seems overwhelming, but they are sorted by language and region and topic, which helps.
Now keep in mind, I'm coming from another social network, so very likely I've heard how white the fediverse is. So, I start browsing through the servers on joinmastodon.org to find other Black folks because if I'm gonna try this new thing, I'm not looking to deal with users who may just be hostile by default for no good reason.
If I am especially thorough, I will find two servers for South Africans, a server for folks from Madagascar, and/or a server for Nigerians. If I am not from one of those three countries, guess what happens? I don't find anyone like me. I leave and I don't come back again.
Okay, story over. And here comes the moral of the tale: It's not that non-regional Black-centered servers don't exist. They're simply not included in the directory. And for the record, it's not as if none of us have asked.
Therefore, the next time you see someone asking the question of why there aren't more Black folks on the fedi, you can now feel free to tell them: we aren't wanted here.
Go look for yourself if you don't believe me.
