Black Twitter became a cultural phenomenon as a place to celebrate Blackness. Now that Elon Musk is buying the social media platform, are its days over?
For more than a decade, #BlackTwitter — a community of millions that has harnessed the power of the social media platform to create real-world change — has been a cultural phenomenon. But with Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, many Black activists fret for the future of the space they created and say they might not stick around to see what changes the platform’s new owner will make.
Today, how Twitter’s influential Black community is reacting to the controversial new leader — and where Black online social activism might thrive next. Read the full transcript here.
Host: Gustavo Arellano
Guests: L.A. Times columnist Erika D. Smith
More reading:
Column: With Elon Musk in charge, it’s the beginning of the end for #BlackTwitter
Elon Musk reaches $44-billion deal to buy Twitter
Black Tesla employees describe a culture of racism: ‘I was at my breaking point’
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Gustavo: Yup. Elon Musk bought Twitter, the richest man in the world.
It's the beginning of a new era for the social media site…
But likely the end of Black Twitter.
Tiktokclips
Elon Musk has taken over Twitter. Are we going to see him on black Twitter? Black Twitter is talking about leaving.
This could be good for the world, but it could also be a bunch of BS.
Black activists, creatives, politicians, and just regular folks will still tweet once a billionaire takes over.
But Black Twitter, the community of millions that's harnessed the power of the online social media site to create massive real-world change, isn't likely to stick around, to see what changes Musk is going to make.
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I'm Gustavo Arellano. You're listening to The Times, daily news from the LA Times. It's Wednesday, April 27th, 2022.
Today…how Twitter's influential Black community is reacting to the controversial new owner.
And where Black online social activism might thrive next.
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Gustavo: Erika D. Smith is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Erika, welcome to the times.
Erika: Thanks for having me on.
Gustavo: So for the people still stuck on Facebook, what do they need to know about Black Twitter?
Erika: So Black Twitter is kind of a name for a loose community of people, Black people, obviously, who kind of comment on things that are online. So it's a joke thing. It's also a bit about activism, it's a bit, many, many different things. But it's kind of a culture, a subculture on Twitter.
Gustavo: It's like a philosophy and you know, it's easy to dismiss stuff online, but so many influential, not just influential, but really society changing hashtags and movements have come out of Black Twitter.
Erika: Oh yeah, absolutely. Black Lives Matter is the most obvious one. I can't breathe. Say her name, Oscars So white.
AP:
We’re showing unity today for the black actresses and the actors.
When they came with all white nominations at the top of the Oscar night they said we’ll do better.
Erika: And these are all things that have kind of come up out of that subculture a, of Black Twitter under kind of the, more of the, the angle of activism, which I think black people learn pretty earlier on how to kind of use Twitter as a tool for activism and to create political change.
Gustavo: What was it about Twitter itself that made it so useful, I would guess for Black folks to be able to corral its energy into creating basically a new philosophy of sorts.
Erika: Yeah. It's interesting because it's kind of, it's, it's got that broadcast feature, right. You know, it's not like Facebook where you have to be friends with people necessarily, or to have more of a, more of an intentional direct connection.You can put a post out there. You can throw a hashtag on there. And if anybody who's following that hashtag they can, you know, follow along with it. So for example, we've seen. You know, several times over the years when a Black man has been shot by police, that person's name is trending. And so people know who this person is, they know what happened. A lot of times, videos of course unfortunately, you know, come along with those tweets, we learn about this person's life. And those are tools of activism where people feel like they're personally connected to another person. And the other thing I think that gets doesn't get talked about a lot is that Twitter really had a really good mobile platform really early on. Probably better around the time, probably than Facebook. But it was, uh, you know, Twitter is kind of a simple look to it and it's easy to type on it. And if you've got a cell phone, that's all you really need. And I'm talking not necessarily now today where we all have smartphones, but I'm talking, you know, 10 years ago where that was not so much the case, particularly for Black folks, particularly folks who didn’t have a lot of money.
Gustavo: So Erika, one part of Black Twitter we've been talking about has been like this collective watch to both elevate Black voices, but also go against anti-Blackness in mainstream society. But then its flipside; it's like this, just a place to laugh, a place to celebrate Black culture and humor.
Erika: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that often gets overlooked when we talk about police shootings and, and people's names who have died. But I mean there’s two major hashtags, Black girl magic, Black boy joy. I mean, those are two things that were just made up. And now they're part of the lexicon of our country. But they celebrate beauty in Blackness and in humor in it too, in ways that, you know, broader society often doesn't do. It's a way of highlighting the good stuff.
Gustavo: And then of course, just the hilarity. You know, there's so much hilarity. What are some of your favorite black Twitter memes or moments from the past?
Erika: Yeah, I was thinking about this, you know, I guess I tend to use a lot of headshaking memes, cause I think that's probably what I do spend most of my time during the day is shaking my head. But I liked the one of Viola Davis who's like picking up her purse and shaking her head as to walk away. I use that one quite a bit. I also like Steve Harvey when he's also shaking his head
Gustavo: Yeah. His lips are pursed…like no, no like, and you could even just see it just by hearing about it. You could see it.
Erika: Yeah. Those are probably two of my favorite ones. There's so many though. Um, those are the ones that use a lot. Yeah.
Gustavo: The Kobe one, the one where it's like Kobe's face is just look at you with this smirk. And it's this really, really, really, really, really slow uh zoom into him.
Erika: I also as like the Kobe one where he's just like saying soft to somebody, like whatever it is, this is like soft, soft. Like that one in the crying Jordan meme, I think probably get used Jordan,
Gustavo: ESPN just did a short documentary about the history of crying Jordan, where you see his face posted on any loser, whether it's Russia or Tom Brady.
Erika: Yeah. I mean that’s like a prime example in way, you know, black Twitter took something and it is now permanently part of the culture that we see every single day.
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Erika: It makes the day go faster…looking at Black Twitter.
Gustavo: More after the break.
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Gustavo: You've seen just how awesome Black Twitter has been, but how's its influence on Black culture changed as Twitter has gotten older, you know, cause these social media platforms changed. Facebook used to be cool. Then IG became the cool one. Now it's tiktok. And a lot of the times what sort of triggers these changes is the social media companies themselves either putting limits on what you could do, changing the technology, or sometimes even just changing the algorithms. So things do not get as popular as they used to.
Erika: Yeah. I think Twitter has changed, but I don't necessarily know if it's tthose reasons. I think it's changed more because it's become this place for frankly, just a lot of racist trolls. You've also had a lot of people on the far, right. A lot of conspiracy theorists as well. I'm not just talking about your basic straight-up Republicans. I'm talking about people who were just at least online, like awful human beings, or at least channeling the worst parts of themselves online. And, and I think that there's a money aspect to it as well. I mean, I think there's social media’s obviously grown up as a form and people can get paid for being online and that's how they build their audiences. So it's a business in that way too. And s then has also just gotten older. I mean, I think that people use it in different ways than they did, you know, back in 2008, 2009. I mean, it's just not the same thing. But I think it also showed platforms. I think that Twitter is kind of more or less stayed the same. I think in some ways it's like, it's still, we've got more characters now, but you still type in characters. You can still search by hashtag; it's still the same kind of broadcast medium. It hasn't done the kind of contortions in a way that Facebook, for example, has. And I think that's why it's kind of still stands out as unique, even as we've seen, you know, Instagram and Tik TOK and all these other platforms come out there as well.
Gustavo: And that toxicity it's interesting because you've heard people say, oh, Twitter doesn't allow things the way they used to. Yet you check in, there's still a lot of hate and a lot of those haters are going against folks of color, especially going against Black folks.
Erika: Oh yeah. I mean, my, my DM box is like full of. Honestly, I don't even really look at it that much just because it's just so… it's just so gross. Particularly the ones that are the, not people that I'm friends with that are just in that other box. So like, you know, I know that, you know, there's been some better content moderation in years, but it's, it's nowhere near grade. I would actually love to know what they're blocking and why they're blocking it actually.
Gustavo: So Erika, earlier this week, Elon Musk buys Twitter, the billionaire owner of Tesla, the richest man on earth. And in your column that came out that exact same day. You said, all right, it's the beginning of the end for Black Twitter? Why?
Erika: Yeah, it was interesting, you know, ever since Elon Musk has talked about buying it, like, so this has been going on for what, like more than a week now, I just been kind of looking at Black Twitter to see what who were going to say, because, you know, Elon Musk is not the most popular person around, you know, Black people right now.
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Erika: He's facing a lawsuit in California over alleged racial discrimination at, at his plant in Northern California.
AP:
The California department of fair employment and housing has filed a lawsuit against Tesla. Alleging the electric car maker h
It really calls into question that the tone at the top of the company that would enable people at the lower levels of the company to believe that they could perpetrate this kind of widespread systemic harassment and discrimination with impunity.
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Erika: People are really aware of who he is. And I think he's made some statements online that are controversial to say the least. So I think that the idea that Twitter is going to continue to be this place where Black people create culture and it's owned by somebody who's being sued over racial discrimination. And those things don't really match as much as again, Black Twitter has been dominant. People have been leaving the platform, you know, in a trickle anyway, just because of the toxicity of it. And I think that trickle is to turn into a flood at some point, I think that this is the beginning of that.
Gustavo: The Times did an investigation into those allegations of discrimination. Tesla's being sued by the California department of fair employment and housing saying that, doing it on behalf of more than 4,000 former and current Black employees. And some of the stuff that they were alleging was just, you know, being called the N word at work. Uh, not being, uh, promoted, not being supported by these people. And the guy who's fighting that lawsuit is Elon Musk. And now here he is owning Twitter.
Erika: Yeah. I mean, I think that's just the crux of the matter. I mean, like some of the stories out of those employees that Tesla just really, they're just really awful. Like the idea that some employees told our coworkers that, you know, they were segregated and that they were given the hardest work. I mean, those are the kinds of things that, you know, they cut through the noise and I think, you know, Black people are very aware of that. And so when Elon Musk as a person. His name is as much tied to that as he is, it is to, you know, him sending up rockets, you know, into the international space station. These things are all tied together and people know who he is. And they're concerned about that.
Gustavo: And God bless Black Twitter. I'm already seeing the memes about Musk, a white South African, of course, having to go after Black Twitter and buying it.
Tiktok clips:
Elon Musk came out and said that he's African American now…
Someone asked me what it means to be Black and why I choose to use the term Black versus African-American answers. Eli musket. African-American not surprisingly, this tweet took off.
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Erika: I mean, you knew that was going to come. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks as people start to wrap their heads around it and we start to get a better idea of what he's actually going to do with Twitter. Cause that's still up in the air as well.
Gustavo: Yeah, what has he said about his plans for Twitter?
Erika: Yeah. So he has come out even before making the hostile bid kind of pushing back on a lot of the content moderation and the like de platforming of people. So for example, Former president Trump, who is booted off after the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. But just other people, conspiracy theorists, you know, your Alex Jones is of the world. Um, people who have promoted stuff for Qanon, who've posted a lot of stuff about COVID-19 vaccines that aren't true and help spread this fear of them when it's not warranted. So, you know, Twitter has taken a more of a robust, like I said again, it's not so..it’s still pretty anemic, but it's more robust than it had been. And trying to moderate that. And Elon Musk has said that he doesn't really like that. And he wants to take a far more liberal approach to it because he believes that Twitter is this town square where free speech should reign.
Gustavo: If Musk does make Twitter into a worst place for people of color. Where does black Twitter go from here?
Erika: You know, it's interesting. I was talking to a few people about that when I was doing the reporting for my column. And, you know, it's not really clear. I mean, I think one of the, one of the, uh, the associate professor that I spoke to, uh, out of a Northeastern university in Boston, who said that she just doesn't think that we're going to see that kind of recreation of magic that we saw on Twitter, which makes sense because we're in a different world. Right. You know, when Twitter was founded, it was, you know, it was new, it was exciting. We understood it. But now we all know about the privacy concerns and that there was concerns about just, just straight-up like data privacy, but there's also just tracking ability and there's all these other things that have come up. And just again, the toxicity of what is social media. And so, you know, we might not have this mass movement of people to Tik TOK or some other platform that's invented in the next, you know, six months or something like that. It might just be that, you know, the way communities were formed on Twitter in the past, or just the way it was done in the past. And we're going to have to invent something new that's different. I do believe that like communities that, you know, black communities, we still have a day to organize and do different things. And so people will find a way to bend technology to their, their needs. It made me think about during the pandemic, how there were all these like DJ house parties that came out when everybody was stuck in the house and how, you know, those, you know, those versus came out and that now it's like sponsored and streamed. You know, we have concerts downtown LA yeah. Off of versus which was something that was created by Black people during the pending as a way to party without leaving your house. And so, like, I just think it's, we're going to, I think new things are gonna come up. I don't necessarily know if it's going to be a mass movement of people to platform X.
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Gustavo: And finally, Erica Twitter is the social media platform of choice for most journalists.
Erika: Yeah, I'm going to stay. I mean, I feel like it's, at the very least, I need to see what happens and then I'll make a decision.
Gustavo: Yeah. Me, at this point, I tweet out my stories and I also tweet out that in and out is overrated.
Erika: And that you're a prophet, right?
Gustavo: And I'm a prophet and I'm also in this gif war with like 48 people.And I've been at it for about five years. Like you have to make it fun. And if there are the trolls, well, then you have to fight the trolls with a good gift for me.
Erika: Absolutely, there’s no other way to do it.
Gustavo: Erica. Thank you so much for this conversation.
Erika:: Thanks for having me on.
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OUTRO MUX
And that's it for this episode of The Times, daily news from the LA times.
Tomorrow, it's been 30 years since the LA riots happened, but we're still working on learning its biggest lessons. We kick off a two-parter on the anniversary of the upright.
Kinsee Morlan was a half of the half on this episodes and our show is produced by Shannon Lynn, Denise , David , Ashley Brown and angel
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I’m Gustavo Arellano, we’ll be back tomorrow with all the news and desmadres. Gracias.