A 19-year-old girl has deleted her Twitter after posting a racially offensive photo and caption. She and a friend covered their faces in brown paint in order to ‘officially’ be a part of ‘Black Twitter.’
Sara considers her racist photo to be a joke, but “Black Twitter” certainly is not.
Danielle Young, the Lifestyle Editor for HelloBeautiful.com offers some great insight as to the power of Black Twitter in today’s social media society.
She writes:
Black Twitter is more than a pop culture phenomenon for racist White teenagers in Blackface to parody. Black Twitter is a new age freedom. President Obama‘s healthcare reform, Black Twitter’s on it spreading education and information. Reality TV shows that plan to showcase a Black man and his staggering number of children and baby mommas? Black Twitter attacked and managed to get that show shut down.Or the overzealous neighborhood watchman’s (who I still refuse to name) whack attempt at staying relevant by attempting to organize “celebrity boxing” matches. Black Twitter shut that down too. There is very real activism in Black Twitter. For far too long, Black people have been voiceless. The Internet gives everyone, not just Blacks, a forum to speak our minds and it’s no surprise that something so powerful, like Black Twitter, was birthed from that freedom.
“Black Twitter brings the fullness of black humanity into the social network and that is why it has become so fascinating,” said Kimberly C. Ellis (aka @drgoddess on Twitter) who has a doctorate in American and Africana Studies, and is currently researching for her upcoming book, “The Bombastic Brilliance of Black Twitter.” Ellis makes a great point in displaying the parallel between Black Twitter and other historical Black activist organization, like the NAACP. “Ask the NAACP how long it would have taken had that been one of their initiatives,” Ellis said.
The power that Black Twitter holds is far too strong to be taken down or even effected by ignorant White teens who think Blackface is still funny. But, instead of chastising these girls (because a deleted Twitter account proves they’ve seen their fair share of backlash), I’d rather have these White girls be educated on the power of Black Twitter and why it’s a thing. Who feels me? Let’s chat! @Rhapsodani
We could not have said it better ourselves — which brings us to why fashion spreads like this just aren’t acceptable. They send the wrong message to girls like Sara who think racially offensive actions are okay.
Leave a comment and share your thoughts below!
[via HB]
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