Three Tweet Tenets for Black Women
I just hopped off of twitter. I shouldn’t get on twitter early in the day, but I did and I realized that I was blocked by a stranger. This isn’t new. There was a time when I prided myself on how many people blocked me on twitter. I don’t block people because of personal code. I think that people are entitled to have opinions that are different from my own, so I refuse to block anyone unless I’m being super petty. One time this guy blocked me, so I raced over to my second twitter account, sent him a message that I’m not proud of sending, and then blocked him really quickly. I was being petty. I got giddy thinking about it. My pettiness is a problem that I’m committed to addressing in 2028. I digressed.
So, this morning I was blocked by a woman who commented on my comment to a post. I hadn’t even had time to read her response, so I was curious about why she blocked me. I raced to my second twitter page and saw that the woman (let’s call her Susie, because it is the first name that popped in my mind) was in my sorority and not just in my sorority, she was an officer in her chapter. My original comment was on a post about Senator Nina Turner. Soror Susie responded to the post “Never Nina” and then blocked me. This caused my mind to begin racing, so I had to race over to medium to work out my feelings about it all, which consequently will help me with my personal commitment to at least one blog post a month. I’m grateful to Susie for the motivation.
I am a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated (AKA). I’m proud of my membership in the organization. Shontel Brown, who is also Nina Turner’s opponent in the Ohio Congressional race is an AKA too. I’m sure that’s why Susie blocked me and it’s why Susie vehemently supports Brown. Don’t put me in the category with people who belittle people who have different opinions than me. I know that it is possible that some may support Brown because of her politics, but a brief glance at Susie’s twitter page shows that she is a low information voter. This isn’t really the purpose of this post.
The purpose of the post is a code. I responded to Susie and I told her that I don’t agree with Shontel’s politics, but I make it point to not publicly disparage her. The same was true for Kamala Harris. I voted for her in the California senate race. I didn’t do a lick of research. The fact that she was a black woman, who was an AKA was enough for me. When she ran for president, I began doing research and I decided that although don’t agree with her politics or her leadership, I would not disparage her publicly. My personal code is that I don’t disparage black people publicly unless they are blatantly and openly disrespectful to the black community. Some examples of black people who I think should be publicly disparaged are Clarence Thomas, Candice Owens, Hershel Walker & son, Stacy Dash, Ben Carson, Lil’ Wayne and Senator Tim Rice, to name a few. There are people like Representative James Clyburn, who I want to add to this list because of his recent actions, but I’m still up in the air about whether he is actively against progress for Black Americans or if he is just an old guy who is so used to “cooning for the master” that he earnestly believes that the his actions are helpful to the community.
I told Susie that she may not agree with Nina Turner’s politics, but there was no need to publicly disparage her. I understand competitions and elections, but we have to rise above that pettiness (before 2028) and get to the root of truth. Any honest person can see that Nina Turner doesn’t want to hurt the black community. I don’t see any evidence to support that Shontel wants to hurt our people either, so we should be able to support the candidates without lies or attacks. Right? That’s not crazy. Right? Now, if Nina was running against Candice Owens, we could have a field day and we wouldn’t have to lie or mischaracterize, but this isn’t this case with the Turner v. Brown election. My point is that when two candidates run against each other, we don’t need to take on the stance of do or die fight mode. One will win, one will lose. Life will continue. Why put ourselves in a zero sum game against another black woman? I’m not from Ohio, but I recognize Turner’s importance on a national political level, so I’ve donated to her campaign, but I’m not going to write #NeverShontel. Shontel may be an asset in the future or the present. In my personal code, statements like Never Nina or Never Shontel are detrimental displays of ignorance and coonery. Politicians will disparage each other, but we as Black Americans don’t have to take part in it against a candidate that isn’t actively trying to damage our community. #Never Candice would be perfectly acceptable. You see what I mean?
In the interest of time, I will reveal my personal three of my tweet tenents as a black woman. I have more, but these are the three that popped into my mind. I will try to write posts (as time permits) to explain my reasoning. Without further ado, here are my three tweet tenets for black woman for 2021:
- Don’t publicly disparage black men and women unless that are actively working against the black community.
- Don’t use the term “black on black” crime. If you hear the term “black on black” crime, make sure to use the term “white on white” crime at a higher rate within the same conversation.
- Don’t block people who have different opinions. Blocking them makes it acceptable for them to block you. Blocking is only acceptable when people start name calling in a hateful way.
I’m not particularly pleased with the organization of this blog post, but I’m going to post it anyway because I’m officially working on my stamping out my perfection paralysis in 2021.
Thanks for reading!
