The Truth About Black Twitter
Twitter. It’s the Internet’s America. Land of opportunity for everyone who decides to market themselves as more than an individual with an opinion. I got a job from Twitter just as one example… But this article isn’t about Twitter. It’s about Black Twitter. And Black can easily be interchanged with Real, Entertaining or Funny. This doesn’t make Twitter itself white or any other color or quality. It makes Twitter news, events, and opportunities… Just not funny per se. You see, black people are this country’s culture creators. This has pretty much been a fact since we invented Rock & Roll. If you want to contest this fact you’re probably white. It seems because they write the history books they want to write it the way they see fit with no regard for accuracy (I.E. Exodus). It’s the same reason Jesus is white with rosy cheeks everywhere you see him (not saying he’s black or any other race because I honestly don’t know and don’t care it’s the message that’s important). It’s the same reason Rap, a notoriously black art, is now occupied by the likes of Iggy Azealia and Macklemore the new King and Queen of hip hop (btw, The Grammys will never be the same).
Rap is the new Rock & Roll and the white kids of America need to relate as they might not live the “Lifestyle” as the urbans of America do. I watched the BET awards in awe of all the whiteish/white rappers during the cyphers including Logic, G-Easy and some very forgettable names and faces. Look, I’m not mad at you, it’s just the Art is being trampled over and history is literally being rewritten from a perspective of the “privileged”. This is what I don’t want to happen to Black Twitter. You don’t have to be black to be on black twitter. You just have to have had black experiences as these are the connecting dots between us. You don’t gotta be a nigga to be a nigga. Some of my most niggerish friends are either Caucasian or Mexican. They just do nigga shit. They grew up around niggas. The result? They are culturally black. But when you have studied Black Twitter like white people study Black Twitter all they see are the dances and music and choose to emulate to the best of their abilities (Spoiler: not very well). I almost cried when the Shmoney dance died. And it died when those rythmless golfers decided to say they created it followed by a horrible rendition of the Swagtastic dance Bobby hit with the strength.
Black Twitter and sub divisions Chicago Twitter create all the slang that’s incurred amongst America’s youth. Where did you think thot came from? Turn up? Squad? Fefe? Fu? The list goes on and on and on, but the point is words like “Twerk” make it into the dictionary and being adopted by white girls around the globe and then suddenly they created it.
The thing is we as black people have to gain a stronger foothold in pop culture as we are a primary influence of the latest and greatest trends. The main problem is what I like to call the Zoo Effect. A tiger gets trapped and now lives in the Zoo. He can only be a tiger, he knows not that he is the spectre of someone’s joy. So he doesn’t get any benefits for being what he is. He’s just kept happy with his tiger things like food and trees and is concerned with being a tiger. Sorry for comparing black people to animals in a zoo, but Darren Wilson’s still free so it would seem we still are. But the real truth is we know not our own power. That’s the reason slavery went on for 400 years. The disillusion of being powerless. The take away from this should be for white people to respect culture enough to stay as accurate as possible when partaking and for black people and other minorities to be more aware of the value their entertainment has. Maybe then the bulk of minority success stories won’t be entertainment or sports related, but business and historical as well.