@bud_t@m.ai6yr.org "When they listen to the repeater, a talkgroup, or an HF QSO and hear people sexualizing women, using homophobic slurs, promoting violence, or discussing deporting immigrants, they turn the radio off." Other than a test on simplex, my very first QSO was on a local repeater. Over the following month or so, I got to know two or three guys and spoke with them fairly regularly. There was a shooting at a gas station in town where an officer was shot. In the days that followed, I heard one of them commenting on the race of the person involved--that went exactly how you think it did. A few days later, they were complaining about the second officer not firing back and how that clearly happened because she was a woman. I'm a straight cis white guy in the middle of the US. In many regards, I won the genetic lottery for our society. Like you, I want to see far less of "me" in my hobbies, my career, my world. Billions of people on this planet and most of them differ from me in many ways, and I want to see them in all of my spaces. We are stronger when we embrace our differences, our unique communities and upbringings, and our varying points of view. I have not listened to that repeater since that second conversation, and to this day I cringe when I hear one of those two talking elsewhere. While still new to the hobby (I got my license in September), I'm far more familiar with it now and much less nervous. I will call someone out on the air if that happens again. I wish I'd felt more comfortable using my privilege back then.