Thoughts & Concerns; Addressing Interested Parties; BIPOC Safety & the Banterville purpose

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello. I received a concerned email from an anonymous person who was unsure and concerned about the level of safety that black women of color felt in my discord server. 

They based this concern citing the comments in one of ProfessorCal_’s Reddit posts where he was apologizing for events that occurred on his server – events that I am not entirely read in on as I neither belonged to Cal's server nor was I ever a participant in any form in his projects or his endeavors.

This concerned person mentioned a particular moderator for Cal and it seems that the participation of this moderator, who also moderated for me, now puts me in league with persons such as Cal whose transgressions I am not completely 100% read in on, and kente, whose conduct could have been avoided entirely if he had boundaries set from the beginning even remotely approaching my own. The participation of this specific moderator caused implications and dangers for me, my community, and especially the black women of color in my server.

Anybody is free to question my advocacy for diversity and inclusivity, I support Black Lives Matters, I’m outspoken on human rights issues, I talk about LGBTQIA+, I’ve been insane about tweeting about the repercussions on the attack on Congress—which had extreme racist, white supremacist undertones instigated by President Trump. I cannot argue my way into people's hearts. I can only believe what I believe and speak my truth. All I can say is that I had never received any complaints about the mod in question, so I don’t know if the conduct that we are examining here equals the conduct that was questionable or outright offensive in Cal’s server; however I did relieve them of their duties prior to receiving the e-mail, precisely to protect feelings of safety within my server, after receiving knowledge about that particular mod.

I am an artist, I am open and honest about what I believe in the causes I believe in, the people who participate in my server, both BIPOC and not are there because they want to participate in my artistic process and they believe in it (and that’s what the server was built for, for learning about process and to be productive) , I facilitate an open environment that emphasizes safety for everyone involved, and I am actively involved in my server’s day to day activity and with the people in it, I conduct multiple activities with patrons on a weekly basis, I am visible and I am there, so much that I get told to take days off but I don’t. Being a part of my community is just how I operate. I have a limited mod team who can receive concerns about me as intermediaries, and I provided several methods to directly and indirectly contact me.

I care about my patrons, I care about all of my listeners, but Patrons especially--they are free to stay or go as they please, their feelings safety or lack thereof in my server is theirs to decide and my responsibility to govern as they voice their concerns to me. Their freedom to come and go as they need is a key component in their exercise of safety.

And as always, please DM Rose or Markus in Discord if you ever need anything on the server or have a concern about me. I am accountable to you, my Patrons, and their job as mods include sustaining that accountability.

I hope you take all of this with an open mind and heart and reach out if you need anything. Whether Patrons stay for me, or dislike me and just for their friends in the server, or stay for whatever other reason, they’re welcome here as long as they’re not a destructive force--Banterville is a community of mental and emotional support and I am proud of my dedicated family of server participants for piecing together such a vibrant place of belonging and understanding. This community was created by my Patrons and continues to thrive because of them.

I hope this brings matters into focus.

I will leave links to the E-Mail message in question so you can read it and understand best what I am addressing, as well as a link to my anonymous feedback form where you can always send me a message any time without needing to leave a name or contact info.

I hope this message receives you well and thank you very much for listening. 

--

The concerned E-Mail: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14C-UsLu_mFaHF5XB6yDyzIGiFyr_SbJ_/view?usp=sharing

Anonymous Feedback Form: https://www.tombanter.com/feedback