Welcome to !poc!
About this subhive
Like the sidebar says, this is a "dedicated community for minority groups and people of color, their interests, and their issues." I suggested this community to Beehaw to provide a casual space for POC in the Fediverse to connect, network, chat, share ideas, etc. The main reason I felt a community like this was necessary is because federated social media have a reputation for being predominantly white, and this can be discouraging for others who may be unsure whether federated communities like ours are safe to join and participate in. Accordingly, I hope !poc will provide a nice, cozy community for you all, one which is rooted in solidarity, support, affirmation, and inclusion.
Our neighboring subhives
If you are here, feel free to check out our neighbors on Beehaw:
Some other groups that you might find of interest, here on Beehaw or other instances, are:
Introducing myself
My username is kalanggam, but you can call me kal, kala, or Gil (my actual name). I'm a queer 20-something based in Texas, and I use he/they pronouns. Some of my interests are programming, game development, writing, cooking, worldbuilding, and leadership theory. I write fiction (mostly short stories, but I'm planning a longer novel), essays (especially cultural critique and technology), and poetry. I also have a Mastodon account on tech.lgbt if you want to be mutuals there. ☺️
I'm also one of the moderators of !poc. I'm mainly here to help facilitate discussion and work together with y'all to cultivate a cozy community, so please feel welcome to direct any of your questions or concerns my way.
Now, introduce yourself!
Introduce yourselves here, and feel free to plug your handles elsewhere in the Fediverse if you're comfortable. I'd also love to hear your ideas for this community and what you'd expect from moderation. I'm looking forward to meeting you all!
Just a side note - I would caution about directing non-Black folks to spaces like # BlackMastodon and @ blackfedi, just because those spaces might not be intentioned for non-Black people to look at, directing us there might be encouraging our participation in spaces where it's not necessarily invited or wanted, etc. Great spaces to direct Black folks to if they're looking to build a community for themselves on fedi, but I would just say it's best for non-Black people to not look/participate unless the space is specifically inviting that.
The other thing about the "just listen more to more Black people" discourse is that while it may fix representational issues of whom you're choosing to listen to, it won't help if there's no intention to work on racial biases or challenge one's own racist behaviors - so I would even implore that type of introspective work. Connected to that would be, even if a white person starts doing these things and working on this practice, that work of interrogating your own biases/behaviors never stops. I feel that white people (especially on fedi) often need reminding that just because you're doing X, Y, Z, etc. doesn't mean that you're done working on your own racism or that your reasons for doing X, Y, Z, etc. are all genuine.
You might also want to mention how having some marginalized identity even as a white person doesn't excuse you from doing this work - there's a lot of harm done on fedi by people who use their own oppressed identities as a way to avert accountability for being racist. In your piece, you already mentioned that supporting Black people and fighting anti-Blackness means supporting all Black people - you could make that understanding of how anti-Blackness is interconnected/intertwined with other oppressions more apparent by appealing to white people who might consider themselves staunch advocates for other communities but refuse to confront racism.
This is kind of a mess of different comments but those are just my raw thoughts after reading what you wrote.