Ancestors

Written by the people's eva on 2025-01-25 at 23:08

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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Written by Some Guy Extraordinaire on 2025-01-26 at 14:32

@tillshadeisgone I've followed @ErickaSimone for a while (other accounts). I'm not throwing her away over this.

Please consider this hypothesis:

• Simone is not fueled by ableist prejudice

• A lot of awful shit has happened to her recently

• Backing down is not how she has survived so far

• She got criticized and reacted by fighting back, instead of backing down

• Maybe give her a few weeks

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Toot

Written by Ms. Que Banh on 2025-01-26 at 15:02

@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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Descendants

Written by Stéphanie on 2025-01-26 at 17:45

@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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