Dammit. Mastodon made me think something through. I saw a boost of a post specifically instructing white people not to respond to it, or they would be blocked.

Initially, I felt pretty rejected. I mean, who likes to hear “I’m going to say something you might not like, but I’m not going to entertain responses from you”?

And then it hit me: this exact warning was explaining that, there in that place, that person was staking a ground to their opinion and was not open to challenge. They didn’t tag me in that post, and I only saw it because someone I follow boosted it. The post’s creator did not have control over its proliferation beyond the audience they were trying to reach. They could and did set boundaries for comments on their post for anyone outside of the intended audience if they found themselves there.

I still don’t like hearing that any opinion from me is unwelcome. But in this case, I understand it.