In this episode, we deep dive into how Black Twitter exists on the platform and the unspoken (but somehow still agreed upon) rules of engagement. #SayItLoudPBS
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– [Azie] Thanks to CuriosityStream for supporting
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PBS Digital Studios.
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(sirens wailing)
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– Alright, everybody, we all just heard
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what just happened in the news.
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We have a 60-second window to react
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before another thing happens in the news.
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You, create a hashtag that is scathing,
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culturally relevant, and hilarious all at the same time.
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You, remix the footage so that it becomes a meme
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referenced more than the original source material.
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You, patrol all news outlets
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so that when they speak of this day,
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they call us by name.
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And you,
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(Azie gasps)
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get someone fired!
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– Someone, like, should I get on LinkedIn?
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You know, what, I fire me.
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Look, we’ll give you a quick rundown,
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but we’re not here to convince anyone
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that Black Twitter exists.
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If you know, you know.
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– We want to explore why it exists
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and what happens both online and IRL when
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culture and connectivity collide.
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#StayWoke.
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(energetic music)
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As far as Black Twitter’s origins go,
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here’s what we found.
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In February 2009, about three years
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after the platform’s creation, the term
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first appeared in Google’s search volume index.
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That just means that someone, somewhere
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tried looking it up enough times
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that Google started tracking that particular search.
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– In October 2009, Pew Research Center
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reported that Black Americans used Twitter
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more than the other demographics polled.
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And in November 2009, writer Choire Sicha
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published a short blog post titled
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“What Were Black People Talking About
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” On Twitter Last Night?”
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In it, he revealed his obsession
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with the unique way Black users used hashtags.
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– [Evelyn] The following year, articles from Slate, The Root
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with alternating opinions Gawker, and NPR
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all take notice of this phenomenon.
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– Across the platform, about 500 million tweets
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are fired off per day.
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So how do individual Black people come together
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to form Black Twitter?
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Hashtags!
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– That’s what made Black Twitter
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so innovative and disruptive.
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Its members used hashtags to talk
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about seemingly random, regular, not-time-sensitive stuff
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with such voracity that it would trend.
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Since that original Pew Research Center study
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in 2009, more people have researched
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what makes the internet such an active place
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for Black folks.
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– I often times say that you know,
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in my sort of research and looking at Black Twitter,
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and young peoples use of Twitter,
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that they move from kind of power users to powerful users.
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Power users, rather, are people
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who might use Twitter right, at an exceptional rate
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compared to other populations,
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or segments of the population.
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But powerful is something different right?
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Powerful is sort of using in a way
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to have social impact.
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And so in that sense, I think as people begin
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to understand the potential that social media provides
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in terms of a tool for connecting,
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a tool for building, a tool for communicating,
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a tool for organizing, that their beginning
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to understand like, how to be powerful,
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and not just power in terms
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of how they’re using the technology.
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– Trending topics were usually about current events.
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But #YouKnowYoureBlackIf, #BlackMomsBeLike,
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and the late-night #uainthittinitright
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that Choire referenced in his piece
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were all forms of storytelling, as opposed to updates.
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– We wanted to know exactly how one becomes a member
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of Black Twitter.
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Are there rules, or at least, consistent practices?
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So I reached out to my friend Kiana Tipton for help.
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She has a masters degree in Twitter!
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– Well actually my alma mater didn’t quite offer
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a masters in Black Twitter.
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Although, sometime I tell people (laughs)
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I have a masters in Black Twitter.
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And nobodies checked me on it, so.
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Black Twitter is not an actual space
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and it’s also not a homogeneous group
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where everyone looks the same,
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everyone talks about the same things,
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and everyone cares about the same things.
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I think in order to participate in Black Twitter
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and to be a part of it you have to have
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that cultural competency.
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Essentially it mirrors in real life
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conversations that Black people are having.
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So, some of those things are community,
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call and response, that is really common in Black language.
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And of course, there’s humor.
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And I think both community and call and response
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lend itself to that humorous aspect.
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– It’s not all fun and games on Twitter.
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– Black Twitter consistently uses hashtag campaigns
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to organize around a social or political cause.
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#SayHerName, created in Sandra Bland’s honor,
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highlights the often hidden plight
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of Black women affected by political injustice
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or police brutality.
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Mainstream media’s tendency to publicize
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a victim’s most stereotypical photos
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after an unarmed Black person is killed,
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sparked #IfTheyGunnedMeDown.
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And of course #BlackLivesMatter,
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which is now an international activist organization.
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– #Whatadoctorlookslike empowered Black female doctors
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and med students to take pride in their profession.
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Black Twitter’s hashtag campaigns
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can also be pointed at a specific person.
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#MuteRKelly aims to keep an accused sexual predator
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from working in show business.
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#MeToo aims to highlight the frequency
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of sexual violence and harassment,
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and is an example of a Black activist’s initiative
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becoming widely used throughout the Twitterverse
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and larger culture.
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– Take a look through #BlackBoyJoy,
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and you’ll find men and boys celebrating themselves
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and their right to be viewed as happy
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and carefree in a society that often pegs them as a threat.
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Search #BlackGirlMagic and you’ll see women and girls
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celebrating the things that make them special and beautiful.
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– #GirlsLikeUs and #TransIsBeautiful,
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both started by Black women,
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made space for the diverse experiences
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and expressions of trans people.
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– See, we can be serious.
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– These hashtags can connect us in our loneliest times.
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But academics have described what it is we’re doing
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when we chime in on #BlackMomsBeLike,
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we’re performing our racial or ethnic identities.
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– Our fairy godfather Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
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academically coined the term Signifyin’.
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– It’s an act that usually takes place in person,
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but Dr. Sarah Florini argues that online,
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in the absence of a physical body,
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Black Twitter users perform their racial identity
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by using wordplay or references
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that only those with deep experience-based knowledge
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of Black U.S. culture can recognize.
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– A good example of this is #AskRachel,
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where people posed a series
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of multiple choice questions to stump Rachel Dolezal,
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as if to say “If you were really Black, you’d know this.”
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– Signifyin’ is so second nature
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that it’s hard to fake the funk.
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That’s why we can spot a perpetrator.
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You know those fake accounts.
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You know the ones.
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They got like 5 tweets from ten minutes ago
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and the slang they use is just off.
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Like Kendrick said, “You sound like the feds, homie.”
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– We also participate in Black Twitter
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to create cultural capital.
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There’s a sense of pride and elevated status associated
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with the ability to effectively execute
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a culturally significant piece of content.
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AKA keep the retweets coming!
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– I mean that’s why we get so hype
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to add our two cents on a popular Black Twitter hashtag.
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We want to be part of a larger group, gain acceptance
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and have our experiences affirmed by peers.
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And we do this in layers!
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Adding visuals like gifs, memes,
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video clips to create one big cultural inside joke.
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– Your cultural capital can reach such viral heights
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that it should make some financial capital.
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Like these guys.
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You can giggle at comedian Jaboukie Young-White’s jokes
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on Twitter and on the TV shows
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he now writes for and stars in.
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– Author Luvvie Ajayi’s live tweets during Scandal
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were legendary. – Yes!
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– And the pop culture commentator’s first book
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has been optioned by Shonda Rhimes herself
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for development into a comedy series.
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– Jay Versace brings joy to millions for free
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with his videos and we want his creative genius
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in more commercial work.
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– We fresh outta Sprite!
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– We’ll link to some resources that tackle how
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Black youth culture online is often exploited.
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– I hope to never see a fast food chain tweet
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“on fleek” ever again.
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So, We’ve invited Kiana here to help us
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analyze our tweets, professionally. (laughs)
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– Okay.
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Because we need to know if we Black Twittering correctly?
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And that is your expertise, right?
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– Yes, this is my dream day.
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(all laughing)
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– So let’s start with Azie, when did you get on Twitter?
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– I think I got on Twitter in 2009.
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– Uh-huh?
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– But I just remember that I was just an egg.
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– Oh yeah, you didn’t have a photo! (laughing)
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– Yeah, I didn’t have a photo, I didn’t know,
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and I wrote, “Is this thing on?”
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– I think I started mine in 2007,
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yeah, I didn’t know what I was doing, either.
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– I think you have to have,
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you have to cultivate that community
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and friend group, so it’s kind of like a group chat.
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Because until you have that it’s like,
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I’m talking to myself! – Yeah I didn’t get the point.
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– So I was really mad about this college acceptance scandal.
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So I started talking about how I got into college,
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how it was really hard.
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“Lemme tell you something, almost any person of color
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” who is in college or university beat generational
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” layers of instability and poverty to get there.
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” Even if they were middle class they were,
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” statistically speaking, one mistake away
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” from losing everything.”
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Guys, I was having a moment.
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(all laughing)
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– This is intense.
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– And 50 retweets, that’s popular.
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– How many? – 50.
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– Oh, that’s popular, okay. (all laughing)
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– There’s a call and response element to it.
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So, there’s something going on I the news
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and you are talking about that in a way
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that a lot of other Black people will relate to
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and you can see that through how many retweets you got.
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And also, in this kind of shared experience
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that other Black college students,
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or Black people that have gone to college have experienced.
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Also, the thread element which I find really interesting,
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is something that Twitter added several years
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after creating the platform kind of to
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to be able to facilitate conversations
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in a way that mirrors offline conversation.
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– Okay, let’s see what my most retweeted tweet is.
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(all giggling)
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So, (laughs) it’s actually a retweet.
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So my most retweeted, tweet is me retweeting something.
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– Oh my gosh! – And it’s that Tyra Banks
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like meme, so the persons original tweet was,
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“We want your culture but you evicted.”
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And so I retweeted it and I was like,
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“Wow, a poem by Austin, Texas.”
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and so, people really liked that.
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– So people, and then the first person who wrote back said,
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“And Atlanta, And Brooklyn, and Seattle.”
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– So, this is a quote tweet.
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This is what we in the academic Twitter world
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like to call a quote tweet.
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This is also a newer addition from Twitter
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originally they didn’t allow you to do this.
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You could retweet what someone else said
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or you could add to it,
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but you couldn’t add on, on top of that tweet.
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– Uh-huh. – Oh, right!
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– So, this is something that’s probably within
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the last fix or six years.
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But it’s another way that have changed
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the actual interface and algorithm of the platform
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to facilitate conversations in meaningful ways.
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But what is funny about this and also
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kind of like mimics the way that Black people
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have conversations is that you have this tweet that’s funny
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and then it’s like, you’re kind of adding on to it.
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– Yeah, yeah.
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– Like, let me make this funnier.
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– So, thanks Kiana, for going down memory lane with us,
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and exploring our tweets. – Of course.
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– We will continue to Black Twitter
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to the best of our abilities
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and not get dragged hopefully in the future
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for saying dumb stuff.
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– Who would have known that a social media platform
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that restricted you to 140 characters would become a vibrant
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community for so many people?
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– We could be arguing over sugar grits vs the correct ones,
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or more serious conversations
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around codeswitching and workplace etiquette.
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And when they upgraded to 280 characters?
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More space for more shenanigans
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without having to shorten your, to U R,
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like it’s an AOL chat room.
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– #TBT, y’all.
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Whether it’s used to demand political change,
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help people find community,
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or just make us cackle uncontrollably,
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Black Twitter has value.
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– And of course, we’re scared
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of getting dragged by Black Twitter
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– Ah, did I just delete my tweets from 2010?
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Possibly.
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– In that way, Black Twitter keeps us responsible,
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always thinking about the implications of what we say.
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And if we ever need anything from a laugh
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to a full-on take-down?
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We know who to call.
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(sirens wailing) (Evelyn cackles)
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– Let us know if you’re part of Black Twitter and why.
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Share this video on your twitter and @ us!
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– We’ll see you next time.
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– Bye! – Bye!
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Thank you to CuriosityStream
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for supporting PBS Digital Studios.
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CuriosityStream is a subscription streaming service
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that offers documentaries and non-fiction titles
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from a variety of filmmakers,
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including CuriosityStream originals.
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For example, they have,
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“King: A Filmed Record Montgomery To Memphis.”
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The doc uses archival footage of Martin Luther King Jr.,
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but what if we also had his tweets?
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You can learn more at curiositystream.com/sayitloud.
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Click here to watch previous episodes of “Say It Loud.”
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Click here to watch
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“Roy Wood Jr. deep dive into Black Twitter”
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for the “Daily Show”
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and click here to watch Blavity’s hilarious sketch
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“If Black Twitter Went On A Date With You”.
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(bright tinkling chimes)
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(electronic music)
—
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