Yeah. It's pretty telling that my entire time on Mastodon has been punctuated by black users complaining about how much racism they're exposed to on the network, and everyone else going "I don't see any racism!"
Like, ok, maybe you don't. I don't. I'm as white as snow, and don't post about my experiences as a racialized person (not being one, and all). But it's pretty clear, just from seeing the same exchange over and over again, that racialized people are experiencing something I'm not, and them expressing as much has Defenders of the Faith circling wagons every time it comes up.
Mastodon being a little more complicated than Twitter wouldn't have been a major blocker to communities coming over. "Hey, join this site", rather than "join Mastodon!" is all you need. But no one's going to be telling black folks, or any other community, to come on over if the social atmosphere is at least as toxic as where they're coming from.
Now with another alternative, Mastodon also needs to be better than "not being Twitter". And the people who are there already seem to have zero interest in doing that.
I, uh, said I'm not confused by the cries of racism. I'm confused by the constant claims of "I don't see any, therefore it must not exist".
It's like no one gives a shit, because it doesn't affect them personally. Which, you know, makes everyone the kind of people that those experiencing harassment don't want to be around anyway.