https://mastodon.social/@ErickaSimone/113883945144966522
I think it's very very important for us to be clear that racism is not and never has been a matter of mental illness, disability, or intelligence. In our commendable haste to condemn the fascists and Nazis, it is absolutely crucial to not do their work for them by echoing their own rallying cries.
A few days ago, this user (formerly my mutual) made a fediblock post about racism calling for getting "the mentally disabled and/or bots" off this platform. I reached out over DMs to try and explain why this was harmful and a rallying cry for Nazis and eugenics supporters, and was not successful in convincing her. She made similar justifications that you can see in this post, accusing me of deliberately assuming ill-will on her part, trying to force respectability politics on her, and participating in misogynoir.
It's true that racism and misogynoir are rampant on this platform, and she has had a slew of those experiences. There's no denying it. But in this instance she is perpetuating serious ableism and refuses to admit it or apologize for it. Not okay.
I don't believe in rendering people disposable just because we disagree, but due to the harmful nature of her posts and arguments, I feel like a FediBlock is unfortunately needed.
Edit: here she is back in November having the same argument. Same ableism, same excuses, no accountability: https://mastodon.social/@ErickaSimone/113527681698818580
[#]FediBlock
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@tillshadeisgone that last convo in the replies between her and the person telling her that they're black and disabled and that her words are indeed hurtful/disrespectful, only for her to cuss them out...uh-uh, fuck that! that got me heated. :blob_glare: she needs to step away from her computer for a while and take a breather or something cuz this is completely outta pocket.
ain't gonna sit there and tell me which slur's worse. i've been called both and they're both horrid, it ain't a fucking contest!
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@deliberately_me yep if the rest of that thread wasn't already a smorgasbord of ableism that would have been enough BY ITSELF
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@tillshadeisgone like i've seen her go on about the level of racism aimed at her On Here™ and i agree, she shouldn't have to go thru all that. none of us should. what we NOT gonna do is push others down who have it just as worse, then try to justify and double-down on it like she's doing. GTFOOHWTBS, why would anybody think that's okay?!
gotdamn...
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@deliberately_me @tillshadeisgone you know, she hopped in my mentions on some unrelated shit like a month or so ago, being pretty unnecessarily aggressive and not open to my gentle pushback, and it was just a take about a music website. I muted her after that because it was clear that she was on one and wasn't gonna be told, so I'm not surprised to see her so the same in this instance. :/
Thanks for making this post.
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@tillshadeisgone Goddammit. Why did she have to go and do that?
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@Mabande I wish I knewwwww
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@tillshadeisgone fckn eugenicists are everywhere
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@tillshadeisgone@blackqueer.life thank you for this post. It really rubbed me the wrong way. Education has always been a "privilege" and despite Jim Crow laws disappearing there’s still not equal access. I made a post going into detail about some of that.
RE: https://transfem.social/notes/a3g690i123bv00up
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@tillshadeisgone Thanks for posting this. I'm a disabled person & disability rights advocate. It's disturbing when anyone doubles down on using the r* word. It's a dehumanizing word that no disability organization would be OK with. It harms our already marginalized disabled community.
I am not OK with people who support justifications for using that word - especially when multiple people have informed that it's harmful to disabled folks. Harm doesn't need to be intentional to be harmful. That was straight up harmful to disabled folks.
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@PhoenixSerenity
I saw a similar post on cognitive disability without the r word a few days ago, and hoped it was a mistake - then saw the doubling down and justifying use of r-word because it's a medical term?
I feel really sad when people continue to believe that disabled people are disposable, even among leftists and comrades who care about social justice 😞
@tillshadeisgone
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@kavana
Even in medical community (I work in health care), the r* word is not used in the workplaces I'm in. It's seen as an outdated, dehumanizing term because it was weaponized on disabled peoples. You can get in deep shit if you're foolish enough to use the r* word at many workplaces, for good reason. It's abusive to the disabled community as a whole.
When we know better, we should try our best to do/speak better. There are many ways to fight against racism without using a dehumanizing word that has a long documented history of being used to abuse.
It's disappointing when people won't step into humility & not double down on wrongs. I've run into ableism in several leftist circles. It's never fun to find out someone is being ableist, when you've respected their opinions in past. I cut rope when no humility is shown.
@tillshadeisgone
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@PhoenixSerenity
It's good to know that people are moving away from it in health care. I fully agree that it's abusive to disabled people as a whole.
I've been working with leftist organisations I'm in to try and have conversations about ableism, and it feels almost sisyphean - people desperately want to cling on to ableist attitudes for some strange reason 😒
@tillshadeisgone
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@kavana
Ableism is deeply programmed into almost all of us. I'm still having to catch myself & still mess up on ableist language at times - I do my best to do better. I don't mind being corrected if I bungle up.
Being disabled doesn't make me or any other disabled person fool-proof from ableist language errors - we had same shit programming as non-disabled folks. It's hard but necessary work to deprogram our minds to be less ableist.
The important things are awareness combined with changed actions. If we want to be less ableist - we can all do that, with personal effort & the willingness to make changes.
@tillshadeisgone
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@tillshadeisgone I've followed @ErickaSimone for a while (other accounts). I'm not throwing her away over this.
Please consider this hypothesis:
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@tomstearns
Those are all things I'd considered prior to weighing in. There's a lot of people struggling with a lot more shit right now & they aren't choosing to be abusive to others.
There are real life consequences for being abusive & ableist towards disabled community. Whether intentional or not, she chose to double & triple down on ableist language.
You are making justifications for an adult who chose to not step into humility & dug herself deeper instead. It's their life lesson to learn from - not yours. Maybe you are not disabled & don't get how harmful her actions are? If so, please learn why we are not OK with exploiting inhumane words that fascist bigots still wield on disabled folks & also on POC.
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@PhoenixSerenity @tomstearns she also decided to double down on mental illness in general. Whiteness is not caused by disability and mental illness.
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@tomstearns you are free to do as you like WRT Ericka. I just think everyone should be aware of what she has been saying.
As for the rest of your post, I will say two things.
1, your timeline of events is inaccurate. A couple of days ago, after she made the initial Fediblock post, I reached out by DM to politely let her know I thought she was inadvertently doing harm by her post and requested that she alter it. I tried very hard to explain that my issue was with the impact of her words rather than her intent. She made excuses, deflected, accused me of misogynoir, and generally refused to admit that it was even possible that she had made a mistake. I approached her very much in the spirit of "we have the same goals so I think this is worth a conversation bc I know I've fucked up in the past too and have been lucky enough to be called in by disabled comrades so that I could do better". She didn't care and started subtooting me immediately over the course of several days.
2, respectfully, a little discernment is required here because what you're describing and what she is doing are not the same thing. Her level of emotionality in responses I'm sure is being tempered by her emotional state and what she's going through, but the fact is she is regurgitating eugenics talking points and cussing out everyone who is trying to get her to stop, including Black disabled folks who are directly impacted by the ableism she is spewing. She is someone who is holding tight to her ableist beliefs and refuses to admit it or let them go. If you don't mind someone spouting eugenics or if you're so certain you could convince her eventually to reconsider, you are welcome to try. I failed pretty decisively but maybe you'd have more success.
But in the meantime she doesn't get to have access to my users to continue spouting off Nazi ideology in their faces, sorry. That's a hard no for me. I don't care who you are, ableism as flagrant as that is a clear violation of the rules of my server and is not something I am willing to just let slide because someone is upset or even in crisis. Even trauma is no excuse for defending eugenics, full stop. Me and others tried to explain it to her, in private and in public, over and over. She responded by using slurs. Please refer to our mod page's pinned post on our moderating policy if you still don't see why we are doing this.
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@tillshadeisgone @tomstearns And this is not even the first time that she posted some ableist shit. From Nov 2024: https://mastodon.social/@ErickaSimone/113527681698818580
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@tomstearns
Some other things to consider
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@tillshadeisgone I reported her. Let's hope enough people do so she is, at least, restricted behind a warning. I think her slurs are enough for a complete suspension.
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@tillshadeisgone it's a big mindfuck that she's using IQ as a real thing, "mental retardation" as a real psychologic/psychiatric concept and in the same breath accusing people of being white supremacists for calling her out on her ableism and eugenicist discourse.
I am extremelly disappointed.
thanks for letting us know.
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@tillshadeisgone I just want to say thank you for posting this; as a cis white male I've been wrestling with instance-level action for this, and your take is very helpful and appreciated.
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