The November Project Co-Leaders established Community Agreements in 2019 as a code of conduct for our community. Last week, I blocked two accounts for failure to uphold the Community Agreements. The Board of Directors is aware of this action and supports the decision.
I have attempted in the past to Call In the owners of those accounts to engage in thoughtful discussion. Our attempts didn’t yield any results, which led to the blocking of those two accounts to prevent further hurt to the wider November Project community.
Instagram removes likes and comments after blocking an account. I understand that the perception may be that we are silencing people of color around the Lunar New Year. My intention isn’t to silence and I apologize to anyone who felt harmed, dismissed, and marginalized by this action.
If you are interested in engaging in thoughtful discussion about this situation, we welcome you to connect with your local Co-Leaders or contact us here.
The November Project will continue to uphold the Community Agreements and ask anyone that wishes to be a part of it to do the same.
Update: due to the inability to monitor the comments they have been turned off. Please direct your thoughts to contact page.
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Please do explain how these two accounts have caused “hurt to the wider November Project community”. Leaving these two accounts to comment freely was going to impact members who make up the community? Or did you mean the organization’s reputation when you wrote community?
Lest it hasn’t been said enough times in the last few years–in a conversation about impact versus intention, your intention doesn’t matter.
Despite your intention, you did actively choose to silence two former co-leaders of this organization. And in doing so, have likely made others feel less likely to speak up without being silenced.
What did these two people do to warrant being blocked from a non profit organization’s social media account? The screen shots of their comments showed no threat of violence and made no other safety risk evident. In fact, the optics would suggest that these many past conversations resulted in a disagreement between these two people and November Project. Why is the organization so afraid of disagreement? What are you not resolved enough in your actions to address inclusivity concerns to stand next to those disagreements publicly? It reeks of knowing you aren’t doing enough, and I’m willing to guess that also was not your intention. Might be time to think about the holistic impact of your decisions before deciding to silence two AAPI voices.