What’s Your Contribution?
Not everyone can go out and protest in the street. Not everyone has means to donate as much money as they wish they could to support causes that are important to their moral values. Not everyone has the spoons to do nearly as much as their mind wishes it could because for some of us standing and walking across the room is exhausting and our down time is filled with recovering more than revolution.
Learning how to live with a life limiting illness and still have some semblance of agency is a constant and ever evolving challenge. I know there are some days, I simply have to shut down in order to practice a minimum level of self care. But as I am able to engage, I follow a few community groups on social media. Some are local, so I can see what city council is up to. Some are national, so I can watch the political smoke and mirrors. There are of course the activist groups which help me understand how best I can be an ally. And then there’s NASCAR. Seems odd to include a historically redneck racing gig to the list of energy expending outsources. But I’ve been a Bubba Wallace fan long before the pandemic. And I think the current NASCAR community is a good microcosm for the nation at large. There’s the fan base who are the epitome of the systemic racism problem that plagues our country and there are the new fans who are coming to check us out because they like what they hear from Bubba Wallace. And of course there’s the majority of fans who stand behind NASCAR’s decision to make the races more welcoming for everyone.
So I spend some time on the NASCAR boards, and look to see who is trolling my favorite driver. I post general recommendations under the OP, to remind people not to engage with trolls (in a reply) because it elevates their “relevance”. Instead call them out if you feel the need right underneath the main post. That protects your post from being deleted by the troll (who can delete their comment, including yours) and it doesn’t give them higher relevance in the FB algorythm. I take advantage of the delete post too, if I get trolls replying to my GO BUBBA! post. I just delete and repost it as many times as necessary.
Other than what seems like trivial exercises in non-etiquette, I also spend some time REPORTING posts for hate speech violations. FB won’t always get it right. But I encourage people to APPEAL if they believe a hate post slipped through the BOT censor. Because human appeals can work.
Again, it may not seem like meaningful social justice contribution, but we each do what we can do on any given day.
Some days, my soul wants to make something geeky. Today as I read post after post on NASCAR on FOX about “fans” who LEFT NASCAR “a long time ago” or they no longer watch NASCAR because of the confederate flag ban. I gave them this little gif. Not that it makes a damn bit of difference to any of the asshats who troll. But I’m sure it made one of the actual fans smile. Even if that fan was only ME 😉
