LA Times Black Twitter Columnist's First Article Was A Fail

[orangeblossom]

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Oops, this is not the best way to start his new column.

www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2015/07/l_a_times_columnist_dexter_thomas_argues_that_black_twitter_is_not_as_progressive.html (I don't know how to PIP the tweets talking about how bad his first article was)




The premise of Dexter Thomas' argument was fairly well-intentioned: Black Twitter shouldn't be thought of as this monolithic group that comes down on the progressive side of issues all the time.



The columnist penned an article at the Los Angeles Times arguing that black Twitter, "like white Twitter," is made up of a diverse group of people with a variety of different opinions about a variety of different topics. They're not this kumbaya liberal group that is wondrously accepting of all isms.



Eh, but that didn't really need arguing, and the way Thomas went about proving his point wasn't all that effective. He cherry-picked a few examples of black Twitter users being transphobic to prove his point.



He used the Tyga-transgender-side-chick story and presented as exhibit A a few tweets from black people who tweeted nasty comments to the Los Angeles rapper who is said to be having an affair with a transgender woman.



"Not everyone doing this was black," Thomas wrote. "But it was black Twitter, the active community on the platform that is most in tune with hip-hop music culture, that led the charge." Thomas made the argument while never providing statistical proof that it was black twitter users who overwhelmingly slammed Tyga for his alleged relationship with a transgender woman.



Plus, Tyga is a black rapper, predominantly known by black people who listen to hip-hop artists (especially hip-hop artists like Tyga, who haven't quite crossed over to the mainstream yet). The only reason Tyga is fairly known by the mainstream is because he's dating Kylie Jenner, so it's not really fair for anyone to take away black Twitter's progressive card just because Tyga is catching hell from, well, his base: black people who listen to and follow B- and C-list hip-hop artists (no shade, just facts).



It goes without saying that people of all races, ethnicities and political affiliations can be homophobic.



Also, no one said that black Twitter agrees on everything all the time. But the way that black Twitter users have pulled together to coin and promote social justice movements like #BlackLivesMatters, #IAmJada, #NotOneDime, #FireElizabethLauten and #IfTheyGunnedMeDown is fodder enough to safely characterize the de facto conglomerate as a entity that generally trends progressive.



Black Twitter was not here for how Thomas, a guy who was hired by the Los Angeles Times to cover black Twitter, dropped the ball on his first official piece documenting the group.





Maybe Thomas should heed the advice from black Twitter, and run his analysis by people before presenting it, and if he wants to cover black Twitter well, he should learn the ins and outs of this group first.

[orangeblossom]

LA.Times article in question.

www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-black-twitter-20150715-story.html


Tyga, a rapper best known for his 2011 hit "Rack City," is fighting allegations of an affair with a porn actress. Last week, a gossip site posted images of text messages between the two and nude pictures of Tyga, and as expected, Black Twitter has been all over it. But because the actress in question is a transgender woman, a lot of the reactions online have been pretty vile.



Why advertisers steer clear of Reddit

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Tyga was a trending topic on Twitter for most of the week, and anyone following it would see a flurry of homophobic and transphobic slurs. One popular tweeter wrote that Tyga didn’t know the difference "between a tranny and an [actual] woman."



As transgender rights activist Janet Mock explained in a video essay, Tyga is being shamed for allegedly loving an "unnatural" woman and Isabella is being shamed for existing. Not everyone doing this was black. But it was Black Twitter, the active community on the platform that is most in tune with hip-hop music culture, that led the charge.





That’s not the face of Black Twitter the media fawns over in articles with headlines like "Black Twitter Flexing Muscles On and Offline." The phrase "Black Twitter" itself is a little strange because the community has plenty of non-black participants, but we insist on calling it black. And according to Pew Research Center, 61% of Twitter users are white – but we never call that segment "White Twitter." The label seems to have stuck, though, and most reporting on Black Twitter shows the community being one of two things: funny or progressive (sometimes both). But there seems to be a disconnect between that coverage and Black Twitter’s negative (if brief) fixation on Tyga. Here’s a representative tweet:





How can we reconcile this with our view of Black Twitter as a unified collective of progressive people who enjoy jokes and social justice?



That was a trick question. We can’t.



Black Twitter, like every other online community, is a diverse and tangled mess of opinions. We would be doing the community an injustice if we pretended otherwise. In other words, Black Twitter looks an awful lot like White Twitter.



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And just like White Twitter, Black Twitter does have a vocal minority that actively pushes back against all kinds of bias. On Sunday, Robert Jones Jr., who tweets as @sonofbaldwin, wrote a series of angry tweets about Black Twitter members who "support" Bill Cosby, despite the release of a 2005 deposition in which Cosby admitted to obtaining drugs to give to women he wanted to have sex with.





This is exactly what Alicia Garza, one of the founders of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, has been fighting for the last two years. Last year, she wrote that many people only seem to pay attention to certain "charismatic black men," leaving "sisters, queer, trans, and disabled [black] folk [to] take up roles in the background."



Both of these activists are knee-deep in a discussion that has plagued social justice movements for decades: the question of who, if anyone, should be "first in line" for equal rights. On Black Twitter – as in mainstream America – straight men usually come first. When the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide nearly three weeks ago, some Black Twitter users asked when it would be legal to be black. Some people meant this as a tongue-in-cheek joke. For others, it was an accusation: that rights for white gay people come at the expense of all black people.



But on the other hand, plenty of Black Twitter users reject the idea that gay rights and black rights are mutually exclusive. Black Twitter rarely agrees with itself, which is only fair, because we don’t expect White Twitter to make up its mind about anything either. So if we’re going to praise Black Twitter as a community that pushes us forward, then we have to also recognize when it takes a step back.

[pixy0stix]

I don't know why, but his scarf is killing me. He's going for a look... and then the soft, pastel scarf.

[orangeblossom]

Jul 16, 2015 17:57:55 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I don't know why, but his scarf is killing me. He's going for a look... and then the soft, pastel scarf.

I know, right.  He could have pulled of the look, if not for that stupid scarf.

[summer]

I mean, of ALL the things one could say about Black Twitter, Tyga is what you came up with? Can we just give Jesse L Williams a space to write and call it a day?

[dowagercountess]

Why...why would he try and go for Black Twitter like that? Was he at a loss for topics?

[thejackpot]

I don't even know what his point is. Is he attempting to explain the influence of Black Twitter? Tyga???! Really? There have been so many real hot button topics and he picks Tyga, this shows he is a very poor journalist with questionable style too.

[teflepi]

He made his article a personal one due to his partner? I can understand the defense, but in light of all other topics to start with? maybe In light of Junes decision, I can see, but transphobia isnot just a black thing.

[NitaX]

Chile. Have several seats. He lost e at White Twitter. TWITTER WAS CREATED BY WHITE FOLKS. Lawd.Jesus. Hold my mule.