I wanted the title of this thread to be "Why I Think Being An Active Poster On Mudcat Is Emotionally Difficult for Me And May Also Be Emotionally Difficult For Other Black People And Other People Of Color Who Have Publicly Acknowledged Their Racial And/Or Ethnic Identity At One Time Or More Than One Time While Posting On This Forum". However, that title was waaay too long to fit in the title box.

My purpose for starting this thread is to provide an opportunity for me {and hopefully others} to explore and address this topic.

I know that on other Mudcat threads I have alluded to or actually come right out and stated my belief that it is difficult being the only Black person and one of only a handful of other people of color who post regularly post on Mudcat {see my preferred title of this thread}. But channelling my [astrological rising sign placement and astrological Mars placement] Virgo list making energy, I've decided to take another approach on this thread and provide a list of why I think this is so.

I hope that others-regardless of your race or ethnicity-will post on this thread, providing feedback and other comments. However, if no one else posts to this thread, I believe that using the bandwidth [or whatever it's called when you add to Mudcat's thread archives] will be of value at least to me since it helps me to talk things out and see my thoughts written down. I believe that posting this list and hopefully reading others comments will not only be cathartic, but it will be a learning experience for me and hopefully also for other folks.

On other Mudcat threads I've asked the question "Why aren't there more Black people who publicly acknowledge their Black racial identity posting on Mudcat?". It would take more research than I have the energy for at this time to find and provide hyperlinks to those threads. But if my recollection is correct, the answers that I usually received for that question were "I don't know" and "There are several people of color posting on Mudcat and there may be more, but they choose not to identify themselves by race."

I'm not asking that same question on this thread, though others may ask it and may provide their answers to it on this thread. Instead, I'm stating my opinion that being an active poster on Mudcat is emotionally challenging and emotionally draining for me and may also be emotionally challenging and emotionally draining for other Black people and other people of color who have publicly acknowledged their racial and/or ethnic identity while posting on this forum. It also bares saying that talking about race is probably also emotionally challenging and emotionally draining for White people. Yet, I think that is so in a different way than for people of color. Be that as it may or may not be, the list that I'm going to post addresses this topic from the perspective of a person of color. However, I'd be very interested in seeing such a list or some comments on this subject from the perspective/s of White people.