JUST CURIOUS: Is Twitter A Hot Bed Of Racism?
…Or is this just a stupid question?
Let me rewind and provide some context. Yesterday afternoon, I was casually scrolling through Twitter, checking out people’s tweets and what not, and I came across the Twitter trending topics. It’s a wonderful little nugget nestled on the right rail of the site – a place where you can get a quick glance at what the hottest topics in the twitter-verse are.
And you know what the NUMBER ONE trending topic was? Guess.. *cue Jeopardy music*
Give up? It was “things darkies say.” Not a joke. People became so inflamed that by the time I refreshed my page to get all the newest tweets in this thread, the topic had been taken off the list. Power of the internet, people.
The thing that’s interesting about this is the vocabulary. Many of the people responding to this meme (which, by the way, you can still search for on twitter) were of 2 types: they were either outraged & offended by the word “darkie” or you were immune to its otherwise vitriolic implications because in South Africa, apparently, “darkie is the same thing as the n-word.” Faulty logic, I know.
But after seeing how much of a hot topic this became on a site accessible to people from around the world, how swiftly the topic was removed after hearing outraged members, and how the “thingsdarkiessay” meme bore an illegitimate child, “SouthAfricansarePissed,” it begs the question: how important are the words that we use to describe each other & others? Is it ok to re appropriate formerly oppressive language for our own benefit, or is that argument a bit passe?
And, perhaps more interestingly, all communities of color have internal vocabulary, things they only say to each other and never around white people: Should we just learn to keep that shit to ourselves?
Remember this, for example?:
Are you any of you on Twitter? Did you witness the #thingsdarkiessay meme? What are your thoughts?
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Not a surprise…
Not just Twitter, just any unmoderated internet forum where one can be anonymous and post comments. . . .the true colors come out. Ever been to the comments sections on YouTube?
Here’s a CLUE: These people do this stuff online all the time in places where they KNOW that their target audience can see it. They want them to see it, so they will get angry and REACT to it. They like to pick fights about sore subjects ON PURPOSE. They want to argue and fight. They want the negative attention. It’s enjoyable for them. Either learn to IGNORE them or ORGANIZE and report them and get them taken offline, but NEVER argue back and forth with them. You’re just making it worse.
So, they seriously don’t have TROLLS or FLAMERS where you come from, huh?
And in responds to the gentleman cat1daddy2. To say it to your fathers face is a heck of a lot different thing in couching it in a negative abusive context then just typing away in anonymity throwing junk out there. I also was framing the actual words definition and not its contextual use. Anything useful can be twisted and turned to refuse. I am very glad that I am not part of that generation but run in a newer group.
Hi
First there has to be a great distinction between racism, bigotry, stupidity, hate and just plain smack in the face language, political correctness and the utter perversion of the english language as intended instead of all the social and political hang ups to the original intended definitions. But much like a Shakespearean play its “Much to do about nothing” which it seems to be at least to me and may be not to others. I took the term as an exacted description used in Indian personal ads for a Hindi / India seeking a certain preferred skin shade in a partner from light to dark. Like the word darkie also used darky. The descriptive terms used for skin color run the gamut and tend to remind me of cereal or grains descriptions instead of color or flavor such as: very fair,” “fair,” “wheat-ish,” “wheat-ish-medium,” “wheat-ish-dark,” “dark” and “very dark.” Also its actually not that bad since the dictionary states “a person with black or dark skin.”. But it may offend some I have to admit. Anyway my preference of skin would have to be very dark so who cares what anyone else says especially since there isn’t a collective brain working here. And on top of that its Twitter so really who cares about millions of strings of trash talk. Have fun everyone.. Take care..
Thats foul as hell that in 2009 we still have this major bull$&!% taking place! yeah that word is foul. my old man is from mississippi hes 71 yrs old & white men use 2 call him darkie! so im pissed that they would even allow that crap on twitter…..we still allowing old nick 2 control us wake up my black brothers & sisters the time is at hand!
What do you expect in america which is controlled by white southern racist men and women.racist who wish for the good old days when slavery was the law of the land?racist that have changed their name from,kkk,to wingnuts,fix news,tea baggers,mainstream media,sunday talk show host,lonewolves,rightwing etc.now they fill insulted that a n****r is pres.of the U.S..no black is good enough to be in control of what they slaughtered,raped and stole from native americans.
Ok Nazneen, “darkie” is about as racist as “sand n****r”, “dune coon”, “towel head” or any other slur that is a derogatory statement made toward Indians/ Middle Eastern people. Unfortunately these youngsters are to busy with their noses wide open thinking that racism is a thing of the past and trying to chase guap, BAPE, (or whatever retarded term they use for material junk)that they are “sedated” to realize it. I don’t twitter anyway. As a grown arsed man I find it weird that I would “tweet” anyone. Tweet was the name of a one hit wonder and that annoying bird from the Warner Brothers cartoon canon (that a lot of young black girls are infatuated with) as far as I’m concerned. I can’t believe that a person that is affiliated with “Black Planet” would ask such an elementary question. You could have contacted your colleagues for the answer to that one. But if you are that naive toward the subject. Yes, it is quite offensive like another word that black people use too damned much, “n****r”. I don’t want to hear that crap about how the spelling affects the meaning because they all have the same etymology. And that is another example of justifying some more ignorant sh1te that black people tend to engage in at times. Enough said!
wow, is this all the writers can come up with to write about? we are STILL dealing with AIDS/HIV, domestic volence, racial profiling by law enforcement, drug abuse, black on black crime, racism,etc. but this is type of article that is thrown at us?, blackplanet is nothing but an online version of the horrible programming fed to us by B.E.T.. don’t get me wrong, they are many news stories that i would not have known about if i did not see it on black planet but this is one of the very reasons we as a race will never get ahead & why we don’t band together on REAL ISSUES, like the black pre-med student arrested for cutting line at walmart, the police assault in lousiana, etc. THAT IS WHAT OUR FOCUS SHOULD BE ON, NOT THIS CRAP!
Our latino brothers & sisters put us to shame the way they support, band together, & actually help one another, go to la raza and lulac websites. I guarantee you they don’t spend their days reading about what marc anthony & jennifer lopez are doing.
We don’t like to be called “darkies” in the US either…or coons, sambo, we don’t even like to be called Uncle Toms….or any other litany of racial slurs that we can name. Though I personally do not agree with using these terms even if you are black, I am more hurt when other black people say them than I am angry. When someone who is not black says them….I am angry, hurt, and offended.
We need to be more aware of these “codes” or “terms” used in other countries to refer to people believed to be “less than” another group. I’m not just talking about racial slurs in America or South Africa, but across the board. People are dealing with similar issues in Mexico, Brazil, the Caribbean Islands, England, Through out Africa and Australia. Why are people looking at this as something new?
As a child of an African and a Black American I can see the same struggles that result from colonization, the colonial backing of one group over another after independence, slavery and racism throughout the Diaspora. It is something that my own 5 year old daughter deals with every day when she goes to school and is one of 10 black people in the entire school… Words have power. We can use them to build or use them to destroy. We can’t go through life thinking that everything is just “funny” or “not that serious” because we are reverting back to old habits and racial divides even as we appear to move forward.
Fk Twitter its so boringggggggg and fkn ignorant non self loving blacks who dont appreciate their cultures and thinks its the in thing to disrespect each other with prejudice and allow other non blacks to participate.
When some non black beating that azz and callin u out of your race I guess you’ll remember what culture you are than pleaseeeeeeee.
who cares! phuck em! i kan care less. im down 4 my nuggaz
“Churls”……
twitter is just about as big of a hotbed for racist remarks as , wait for it, Black Planet. Thats right, racists exists everywhere from all walks of life and races and genders. Why even act surprised? The best you can hope to do is minimize the amount & types of power these types of people have and are able to wield. Oh well.
I musta missed that one but I always wonder how some things become trending topics because it has to be repeated A LOT to qualify unless there’s some “cheat code” to get it there *shrugs*
WTF? I’m not dark and I’m offended though. Twitter is wack also.
DARKIES ARE DARK SKINNED BLACKS THAT LOOK LIKE ROACHES