Recently, YouCoalition launched a campaign called The Safer Community Pledge. This topic is of considerable importance to me — I’ve been blogging about rape culture both here and on Snark Squad for a couple years now — and I think this pledge is an valuable contribution to the discourse. I wanted to practice what I preach by taking the pledge.

This video was inspired by some very YouTube specific events. Often, when I know a video is only relevant to my YouTuber friends, I won’t bother with cross-posting. In this case, however, I tried to keep the wording as broad as possible, because this campaign is relevant to everyone, regardless of whether you’re familiar of the specific context from which it was created.

It’s up to all of us to make a commitment to demonstrating the kind of behavior that we will accept, condone, and support in our communities. When we are vocal about that, we disenfranchise those that would seek to harm our communities while empowering all of its members, especially those most vulnerable (and by extension, most in need of our support.)

Important links:

• Safer Communities Pledge
• Short intro to the issues in the YT community
• Master post on the accusations (Warning: this is a pit of sadness — proceed with caution.)
• Excellent playlist of responses (courtesy of Unsubscribe Together)

Title/end music: “Montmartre” — Jahzzar