Abuse of power

After this round of travels, I think I've become better about recognizing when people have demons. People think that they're good because they're welcoming people into their home and treating them a certain kind of way, but they aren't taking into regard the other ways in which they're treating their guests. People can work on others into their home and say the words homophobic and misogynistic things. I wonder how people think that they're good just by welcoming others into their home, but not checking their mindset and morals.

People that enter into the community with intentions to hurt others aren't the people that I'm talking about here. They're very unintentionally about how their thoughts, words, and actions hurt others. But, with the things that go on, they really need more people to check them and hold them accountable so they can see what they are doing to others is wrong.

Racism a-foot? - Couchsurfing members

On this round of travels, I've started considering getting a van more critically. 3 major issues it would solve is "Were can I put my stuff?" "Where am I sleeping?" and "How can I get there?" I would rather ride the bus, but I'm sick of not having a place to stay and no place to put my things so I can really enjoy myself without having carry all my stuff around everywhere with me.

A lot of my couchsurfing requests went ignored by people listed as available. Being rejected has it's own effects, but ignored is obviously different from being rejected. When my requests go ignored I take it personally. Moreso, when it's white men. Most any other group will get back to me, including white women. I have things clearly laid out on my profile, including I'm a black activist and I'm trans and I travel with no money, so I'm not surprised that I would get rejected but being ignored is disrespectful to the time I've taken out to write a costume greeting and request. I've talked to my white counterparts, and they don't have the same issues in difficulty finding a place to stay and being ignored as I do. Not saying all the attention they get is legit or safe. That brings in the issue of misogyny and rape culture to be addressed.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to do SOMETHING different because most of the CS community being fragile, threatened white men is hurting my traveling experiences.