About two weeks ago, racist comments were posted to the Smith Confessional targeting a Black student who helped organize an event hosted by the Smith College Student Event Committee (SEC).
Whether you love the Smith Confessional or just love to hate it, there’s no denying that the website occupies an essential place in the Smith social conversation. Last week I caught up with Shibo Xu, the Refersion co-founder who moonlights as the owner and self-proclaimed “janitor” of the Smith Confessional, to talk about the history of the Confessionals, his approach to moderation, and who he thinks the Confessional is a safe space for.
We’ve all been on it, spent hours scrolling through it, shamelessly brought it up in conversations, and possibly contributed to it ourselves.
