Commentary by Black Kos Editor, Denise Oliver-Velez
By now, even those people who don’t have Twitter accounts have heard that Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, has bought the entire social media platform, which currently has about 396.5 million users. This has of course ignited a firestorm of discussion — a lot of it centered on whether or not the new owner will allow the Orange Racist aka the former President back onto the platform from which he was banned.
As a direct result, conversations have sparked on Black Twitter about whether or not people will be staying or leaving to find new spaces to gather and create communities.
I realize that quite a few readers here at Daily Kos are not on Twitter. Some of you may also not know much about Black Twitter — so I’m posting this program from 2 years ago from the PBS series “Say it Loud: to introduce you.
Just as Black people are not a monolith, that is of course true for the large group of Twitterati who are Black. So different folks have different takes. Blue Check Black columnist for the LA Times weighed in immediately, stating:
Consider this the beginning of the end of #BlackTwitter.
Not of Black people on Twitter but of #BlackTwitter — the community of millions that figured out how to turn a nascent social media platform into an indispensable tool for real-world activism, political power and change.
Some folks are leaving.
Other folks are taking a wait and see attitude:
Here’s a humorous take:
And here are the “and I’m telling you I’m not going” folks, like Propane Jane
This was one of the longer threads —Myron J Clifton discussing staying
(here’s the rest from thread reader)
Elon musk is no different than your bank owner, or grocery stores, or sheriff, police chief, DA, doctor, principle, intake nurse. Where you gonna go to avoid racists in America? What service or system will provide the nirvana? Facebook IG are no different. America allows racists
to thrive and own everything because racism is thee driving engine of American capitalism.
Like, don’t you know that?
Seems like CRT needs to be re-taught to damn grownups. We are surrounded or better, encompassed by racists and racism. We get called the n-word everyday on thisapp. Every day. I’ve been called the n-word more on this app in past year than I have in real life for my entire life. Thanks Jack Dorsey! I guess Elon can add more n-words? Oooh. I’m scared. As I think New Yorkers & Black folk say: gtfohwtbs. Elon is a racist jerk of a douche
and so what?
Ever watch nbc msnbc or fox? Ever read NYTimes wapo Politico or or or? Ever try to publish a book? None of your school teachers or your kids teachers were racist I guess? How’s your Nextdoor comments? I would love to be free. To be free of racists & racism. I’ve Got news for you -that literally is the point of what we’ve been fighting and dying for since we were dropped onto these shores that became cursed w/the stretch of the power of racism. American racism cannot be defeated, just contained for a season.
We breed racist as effectively as we bred Black babies for free labor, sex, trafficking. It is who and what this nation is so it’s surprising so many are ready to flee an app over..a racist owner. Hey, your favorite sports team owner is racist. Your fav athletes, tv & movie stars, and you’re doing fine sweetie
Listen, there’s an upside to Elon buying Twitter. Being majority owner and part of Wall Street again comes with rules & responsibilities. Shareholders, institutional investors, public filings, audits & transparency. These things matter and serve as constraining factors on bad management. Look at that awful car company he runs & the damning lawsuit due to horrific racism at his California plant.
Not Texas or Alabama- the Bay Area where “the good whites” live 🥴. Despicable typical racism. Now the lawsuits are exposing it and in response Elon buys A social platform. Racist hate the light of Justice and accountability and the dummy musk is running right into more in the hopes he can influence the US electorate- ie dumb voters- to elect more corrupt politicians that’ll grant him LESS oversight - less light so that his
Companies can operate with as much racism as he learned in South Africa and perfected in the Mecca for racism, the good old USA and folk want ti make it “easier” on him by fleeing this bird app. “But it’ll get worse” some say. Hey, welcome to worse.. I could say every day I leave
My house or log into any social media service. Welcome to worse could be my daily affirmation. But worse flees when confronted with our better natures, our truths, our persistence, and yes, our resistance. Blue Waves Matter, do they not? Blue waves didn’t give a fuk CBS’s Les
Moonves salivated over making big money off trump, & blue waves knew that only voting matters all rise is noise. Evening intra party fighting- of which I participate- puts a damper on blue wave efficacy. The days & weeks move toward midterms and all the players are making moves.
Elon Musk buying Twitter is ONE move. I won’t let his move discourage or distract me from the priorities our party and administration are working on and I won’t let his move dampen my enthusiasm for improving my neighborhood, distract, city, state or country. He & others can
buy up all the things - his kind always have in America- but they’ll never buy my vote or steal my joy or energy for anything damn thing. End.
Me — I’m staying.
I’ll continue doing the twice weekly Black Kos Twitter Roundup, to give exposure to some of the tweets that highlight Black history, political campaigns and other areas of interest that may not get much attention elsewhere on the site. If you are there — are you staying or going?
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NEWS ROUND UP BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS MANAGING EDITOR
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In a world where Black women are constantly perceived to be resilient and strong, is there space for them to be cared for? To care for themselves? One Elon University student is out to prove that there is, indeed. Self care may continue to be a buzz word both on and offline, but Lumen Scholar, Eukela Little is on a mission to get more Black women to consider selfishness in real life, and in real time. Alongside her mentor Buffie Longmire-Avital, Little is shining a light on how the unrealistic standards of “Black girl magic” and other seemingly positive affirmations, can actually negatively impact the physical and mental health of Black women.
With her research project, “Strong, Black and Selfish: Reframing the Strong Black Woman Persona to include Self-Care through a Mobile Health Intervention,” an eight week activation that encourages Black women to reprioritize themselves. But how did Black women find themselves in this position, and is there hope to be set free from the restraints of “queendom?”
“It starts with an awareness that you were overwhelmed and that you do see yourself as a strong Black woman,” said Buffie Longmire-Avital, associate professor of psychology and Little’s mentor. “But what does that mean and how can you still be a strong Black woman that is selfish, centers self-care and recognizes that you are just human?”
As a part of her research, Little conducted interviews with mental health experts, as well as Black women students, each of which she filmed and attached to a video prompt to be played for her nearly 30 participants. At the beginning of each week, participants are presented with a new concept such as mindful meditation, understanding self care, and others. While Little was sure of the structure she wanted to commit to for her research project, her mentor admittedly needed a minute to catch up.
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Black Americans continue to make up a disproportionate number of the 37 million U.S. adults with kidney disease. Now, a decades-old formula that determines kidney function based on race is the subject of a West Virginia lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington D.C. by Jonte Robinson is demanding that the Federal Bureau of Prisons stop using the formula and adopt a race-blind equation.
Robinson, 40, is incarcerated at a federal prison in Hazelton, West Virginia and has chronic kidney disease. As reported by the New York Times, his attorneys requested that the bureau stop using the race-adjusted “estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)” test in the lawsuit Wednesday.
The eGFR equation approximates a kidney function score based on “age, sex, race and/or body weight” according to the National Kidney Foundation. Many experts and health care institutions have renounced the formula due to the fact that race is a social construct unlike the other biological metrics analyzed in the equation.
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One of the country’s military academies is under fire from conservative former students who are trying to derail a push for diversity from the school’s new leader.
Virginia Military Institute (VMI) announced the appointment of retired Army Maj. Cedric T. Wins on April 25, 2021. Wins named “diversity and inclusion” as one of his five areas of focus for the university.
“VMI must ensure that every cadet, regardless of race, gender, religion, or nationality, feels a part of the VMI legacy,” read a statement, attributed to Wins, published by the university.
Some alumni don’t agree. The Washington Post reported that older, white alumni are upset with Wins, who is Black. VMI, in late February, hired a company to provide diversity, equity, and inclusion training at the university.
But Carmen D. Villani, a white 1976 graduate, started an online petition asking the state’s attorney general to stop the contract pending an investigation by the state, the Post reported. Villani wants the state to determine whether VMI teaches critical race theory or other “divisive concepts,” which are already banned for certain educational institutions in the state, according to the Post.
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Black voters face a catch-22 — a long-running catch-22, sure, but no less of a problem because of that.
The 2022 midterms are approaching and Black voters must choose between the Republican Party, which has actively worked against their interests for decades, and the Democratic Party, which has long struggled to meaningfully address race and racism, as well as issues important to Black voters — such as police reform and federal voting rights legislation.
The sad thing, at least for most Black voters, is it’s an easy choice. In the last 60 years or so, the Democratic Party, despite its many failures, has done far more for Black voters than the GOP. That’s why the vast majority of Black voters cast ballots for Democrats even if they aren’t necessarily liberal themselves. And therein lies the problem: Because Democratic leaders know that most Republican candidates aren’t a truly viable option for Black voters, the Democratic Party doesn’t have much incentive to court members of its most loyal constituency.
As former FiveThirtyEight senior reporter Farai Chideya wrote back in 2016, Black voters are so loyal that they’re considered “captured” — a theory put forth by Paul Frymer, a professor of politics at Princeton University, in a 1999 book titled “Uneasy Alliances: Race and Party Competition in America.” In other words, they’re ignored by one major party and taken for granted by the other.
“In recent elections, there’s normally some sort of conversation around what direction Latino or Asian Americans are going to swing,” said Jennifer Chudy, a professor of political science at Wellesley University. That “reveals the predicament Black voters are in because there’s not even a curiosity surrounding what they’ll do. … And I think they’re unique in that way.”
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The most popular TikTok on the Black Menaces page starts like this: Nate Byrd, a Black student at Brigham Young University, holds a microphone up to the face of one of his fellow students and asks him if he supports gay marriage. Over the course of the 44-second video, Byrd and the rest of the group known as the Black Menaces interrogate white students and faculty about their views on marriage equality. Answers range from a simple “yes,” to an equally simple “no,” to obfuscation worthy of a courtroom.
The video, which has over 18 million views, is one of many man-on-the-street type interviews that the Black Menaces have conducted over the past two months. Thanks to their willingness to confront other young members of the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints about their biases and beliefs, this group of Black BYU students have seen their content launched into the public discourse.
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam, Black Kos Poetry Editor
I’ve written a bit about Nikki Giovanni here, and of all her poems since the late 70's, "Nikki-Rosa" is probably the most anthologized, critiqued, essayed and deconstructed in her oeuvre. Not much more can be written than what has already been written about the poem's intense voice in advocacy of personal and cultural identity, its chronicle of familial connection over the generations, and the poem's embrace of essential, common truths. Better to let Nikki Giovanni tell it. Better to let her tell of those days when she was known as, Nikki-Rosa.
childhood remembrances are always a drag
if you're Black
you always remember things like living in Woodlawn
with no inside toilet
and if you become famous or something
they never talk about how happy you were to have your mother
all to yourself
and how good the water felt when you got your bath from one of those
big tubs that folk in chicago barbecue in
and somehow when you talk about home
it never gets across how much you
understand their feelings
as the whole family attended meetings about Hollydale
and even though you remember
your biographers never understand
your father's pain as he sells his stock
and another dream goes
and though you're poor it isn't poverty that
concerns you
and though they fought a lot
it isn't your father's drinking that makes any difference
but only that everybody is together and you
and your sister have happy birthdays and very good christmasses
and I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me
because they never understand Black love is Black wealth and they'll
probably talk about my hard childhood and never understand that
all the while I was quite happy
- Nikki Giovanni
“Nikki-Rosa”
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