Thank you a million times over for saying this! At first I thought, and hoped, that the hashtag was one of those fly by night topics, but three hours later it was still there. Blacks have always had this “do (not) as I say or as I do” when it comes to demoralizing ourselves, but it’s hypocritical at best.

Question: If David Letterman or Conan O’Brien recited these #uknowublackwhen topics on their respective shows would WE as a people be outraged?! Would be be picketing, boycotting, protesting and calling for their resignations?! Most likely, yes. Oxymoronic, don’t you think?

You’re right, thanks for the comment

Let’s be honest. You’re only posting this because you’re black and somehow a trending topic that has a negative connotation towards blacks reached trending status. Had it been negative against white people or had it been “pro black” you wouldn’t have had a word to say about it.

You say you’ve been on Twitter since 2006, so you should be used to how it all works. Yet, you remark at the “alarming rate” at which tweets on this particular trending hashtag are coming in. Hello? It’s trending *because* of the enormous number of tweets about it… the same as every other trending topic.
As a matter of fact, it’s actually one of the tags receiving a less-than-stellar tweet rate because in the time it took you to write that blog post, it’s no longer trending.

I’m honestly embarrassed for you and any minority that acts and reacts this way. Is it unfortunate that we have people promoting stereotypes? Absolutely. But your reaction is *exactly* what those people are hoping to get by probing you. You use a commentary about this “building up” for a while as a gateway to launch into a rant about racism and giving black people a voice. You point out how you’re the only black guy at various conferences and decide it’s ok to be against the “white boy club” but then in the same breath say you want to have conference specifically for minorities.

When will anyone learn that by continually making everything about the color of your skin and taking every comment about your race personally and making an effort to separate yourselves into your own group, all you’re doing is creating a wider gap.

Please, for the sake of us all, stop with this garbage.

John thanks for the comment, you have your opinion and I have mine. I care and that’s the only reason why I wrote the blog post. I usually try to avoid topics about race and other controversial topics because of difference of opinions.

Until you walk in someone else’s shoes you could never understand. My goals are always to encourage and uplift for the greater good of mankind of any race.

Thanks

Wayne
Thank you

Bravo. This should be posted on Twitter’s bylaws or something. Great post.

#rememberwhen current affairs were most discussed topics? This was of course before Twitter made “trending topics” available on via web. Last week, I made a comment about #youknowyouajumpoff trending and why more current topics weren’t shown the same attention. Doing so back fired on me as I became attacked with suggestions of being upset that said topic was trending because “I was an upset jump-off”.

I will admit to participating in some topics, mainly the ones relating to #youknowyourefrom sort of things. Today’s topic was a bit much for me. There was a young man, Patrick, who replied:

#uknowurblackwhen You make stupid fucking Trending Topics.

and

#uknowurblackwhen you get angry at the white kid over the internet for making fun of your trending topics.

YES, he was white. I didn’t get mad at him because I felt he was being honest. Not to mention, if people are opening the gate for such comments to be mad, what gives them the right to be upset? I wish twitter would get rid of the trending topics and things were back to being social and entertaining, verses insulting and damaging…..

Wayne, so beautiful, so timely, so on-point. Being in the social media space for a little less than a year. I have watched, even in that short amount of time a downward spiral in the twitterverse, and the social media space in general. To be frank I see it from our folks and from others. As a a semi-politico, the level of negative rhetoric towards the president and our people, combined with the things that we perpetuate on our own have been most disappointing. Social Media can be such a powerful and useful tool for the rest of us who are not a part of the tech world, but to see it used in the way its being used at this juncture, makes those who want to dip their toe in the water leery.

We need more than social media etiquette, we need skills, methodology and purpose. I’m counting on folks like you to lead the charge to get the rest of us on the right track.

Peace.

It’s sad so many of us don’t “get” it. My breaking point came earlier in the day with the Tila deserved it hashtag. This is one of the aspects of social media my proposed SXSW panel plans to address.

I love the idea of a social media conference for minorities. I’ve been on the i-net for over a decade and consider myself quite saavy, but that sounds like one hell of a learning, building and networking extravaganza.

re: “john” up there and this statement:

“I’m honestly embarrassed for you and any minority that acts and reacts this way.”

so you eloquently and passionately point out giddy racism and stereotypical negative propaganda and he’s embarrassed for you? I’m amused by his transparency and indignant ignorance.

Wayne,

Having had the opportunity to interview you at SXSW and really getting a sense of what you are about and where you are coming from, I can understand that this subject would upset you.

Unfortunately there are jerks and assholes in this world and those traits come in all shapes, sizes and colors.

I wish we could wave a magic wand and make things like this go away but unfortunately I think we will be dealing with this through the rest of our lives on this planet.

Derek

Our paths have crossed lightly in this social media space over the past couple of years. As someone who is very familiar with your brand imprint, I totally understand your angst and passion for this issue.

I think social media etiquette is a concept that looks in the right direction. I feel we should be responsible cyber citizens overall…in Twitter and beyond.

I’ve been on Twitter since June 2007 and I’ve watched the sense of diverse community erode to specialized cliques (i.e., techies, entertainment, sports, MLM, etc.). I am also one of very few African-Americans at social media functions in my city, so I feel you in every way about this.

I enjoy having a social media presence that is not solely rooted in my ethnicity. I never wanted to be a black blogger or black podcaster – but a blogger/podcaster WHO HAPPENS to be black.

Your poignant post makes me ask the question: should we allow our blackness to be our brand description or simply one of many brand attributes that make us who we are?

John, it’s too easy to post sweeping, negative, marginally racist commentary, anonymously. I can’t help but notice your anonymity, here. I and other minorities don’t need you to be embarrassed for us, as you say. Open invitations for discussions, dialogue, or conversations, which we have in this post by Wayne, are positive and productive. I’m hoping that you didn’t mean to be as patronizing or inflammatory as your comment sounded. I’m hoping that you simply got your thoughts out in a hurry.

Wayne’s post, at its heart, is about racism. I had the same reaction to this trending topic as he did and have had the same reaction about the prior trending topics he mentioned in the post. Most of my followers are not people of color and have concurred with me (a person of color) that, for some reason, Twitter’s trending topics seem to get hijacked by the basest of emotions and by those with apparently appalling language skills. I am usually the first person in my Twitter stream to say, “Gawd, this is horrible. What are these people thinking?” I agree that this is “normal” for trending topics, in general, but I disagree very much that we should “get used to it”. I agree with promoting diversity, not just racial diversity, but also gender diversity. And I agree that we should all hold ourselves up to a higher standard than that which we see in cases like this.

I do not think the majority of people posting to #uknowublackwhen, or #3wordsaftersex (I cringed, at that one…it was spectacularly awful), had any intention of making any kind of “statement,” per se. I think they were just tweeting, without any sense that what we say to Google lives on Google forever. I, as someone who scours Google (and the socnets) for information about job candidates, know how damaging this sort of thing can be. I champion diversity (in all its forms), and I agree with Wayne that THINKING, not just about WHAT you say, but the way in which you say it, is important, regardless of the color of your skin.

I see this as less about etiquette and more about decorum and common sense.

John, it’s too easy to post sweeping, negative, marginally racist commentary, anonymously. I can’t help but notice your anonymity, here. I and other minorities don’t need you to be embarrassed for us, as you say. Open invitations for discussions, dialogue, or conversations, which we have in this post by Wayne, are positive and productive. I’m hoping that you didn’t mean to be as patronizing or inflammatory as your comment sounded. I’m hoping that you simply got your thoughts out in a hurry.

Wayne’s post, at its heart, is about racism. I had the same reaction to this trending topic as he did and have had the same reaction about the prior trending topics he mentioned in the post. Most of my followers are not people of color and have concurred with me (a person of color) that, for some reason, Twitter’s trending topics seem to get hijacked by the basest of emotions and by those with apparently appalling language skills. I am usually the first person in my Twitter stream to say, “Gawd, this is horrible. What are these people thinking?” I agree that this is “normal” for trending topics, in general, but I disagree very much that we should “get used to it”. I agree with promoting diversity, not just racial diversity, but also gender diversity. And I agree that we should all hold ourselves up to a higher standard than that which we see in cases like this.

I do not think the majority of people posting to #uknowublackwhen, or #3wordsaftersex (I cringed, at that one…it was spectacularly awful), had any intention of making any kind of “statement,” per se. I think they were just tweeting, without any sense that what we say to Google lives on Google forever. I, as someone who scours Google (and the socnets) for information about job candidates, know how damaging this sort of thing can be. I champion diversity (in all its forms), and I agree with Wayne that THINKING, not just about WHAT you say, but the way in which you say it, is important, regardless of the color of your skin.

I see this as less about etiquette and more about decorum and common sense.

It’s interesting that you post this tonight, because I was just wondering why Camp Rock and ABDC are such huge trending topics and Jay-Z is there again. It’s about the audience. Twitter is becoming more like MySpace everyday. What I mean by that is there are a large # of youth coming to Twitter now and not using it for professional or business means — or the sharing of news as many of us had earlier. Though stas keep telling us the youngins don’t use twitter, when I see #chrisbrownboetie, etc. as the top trending topics, I’m thinking it’s something else, especially when I go read the thread and see the kind of conversations happening there.

Also thanks for the shoutout. I only happened upon this post bc I was in the midst of checkign trending topics and then i saw @jbrotherlove RT this post.

I never understood why we choose to define ourselves by stereotypes in the first place. This issue is far beyond Twitter and social media. It’s about self-identity. I’ve talked about this with some people on Twitter before, I’ve been told I wasn’t Black all my life because I didn’t match some predetermined list of negative stereotypes. Several decades later, the technology has changed but we still have the same attitudes. Would we gladly participate if most of the avatars posting were not Black?

Back to Twitter: Since the trending topics were added to the main page, folks have been manipulating them. There was a time when you could find out what was going on in the world (or at least what people cared about) just by the trending topics on Twitter. Now they are filled with what amounts to spam. At one point it seemed that Twitter was cracking down on these intentional trending but I guess they aren’t doing that anymore.

The celebrities did bring mainstream audiences to Twitter. Many of them (from my experience) believe Twitter is make-believe and say things they probably wouldn’t say in person or if their real name was on their account. Perhaps it is the responsibility of the old-timers to educate them.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who has noticed these treading topics lately. I missed the #uknowublackwhen one thankfully, but noticed the #maiacampbell and a few other ones last week and wondered if this is turning into MySpace. I’ve been on Twitter since 2007 and have seen the fast evolution over the past year and wonder where its going.

The only think I can do is be myself; the blogger, etailer and social networker I am.

Wayne, as one who’s spent much time in the black ‘political’ space (with Jackson, Sharpton, Brath, Dr. West), I’m not so sure this is an offense at all. Its Twitter. When we march, protest, and fight the various fights we fight (the most recent in NY with an off duty police officer), we dare not look to Twitter for assistance. Its a free forum supporting freedom of speech.

What you are seeing, is the ignorant folks now have a forum too.

My suggestion, would be to start another trending topic in support of positive Black opinion.

Wow I cant believe I didn’t notice when this was trending, what can be done about it though? As you’ve sort of alluded to this is a preexisting problem in other forms of media that is now spilling over into online social media. As social media attracts more and more people online we will continue to see a growing and more diverse demographic of individuals form varying intellectual and moral standings. Should (and was?) this kind of trending topic be moderated by Twitter?

My issue with this entire discussion and the branding of *race* is that it seems as though the black community is supposed to have a leader or an authority when it comes to race issues.

Awhile ago a hashtag was created which was #blck.

I was against it because I felt that this entire discussion that you are having here about stereotypes, etc. would be hashed out and that it would be a race war between people saying that the black community was trying to be separatist and not integrating thoughts and ideas.

If you look at the formation of the black news media throughout history from Ebony/JET and local black news periodicals, the discussions have always been from a black perspective but not this stereotypical image that some individuals would like to label the black community.

Black people are in a minority which makes it easier to make us easy to target because we don’t have a majority voice.

I commend those on twitter such as @negrophile and @blackoncampus who are always keeping positive information and current information about the black community. I am sure there are others who are doing the same.

Why don’t we stop complaining and do something when we see these negative discussions?

Last night within my own twitter group I recommended instead of using that negative hashtags that are being used and to consider using #blackhistoryfact.

But of course it is easier for some to be negative than to be positive.

I don’t contribute to the madness but I try to be a solution.

I am a community builder but when I try to speak out on certain issues and ask people why they are negative about us, I am usually shunned away from the black people that want to perpetrate that myth.

We are all entitled to a difference of opinion and we should be respected for our differences.

Wayne,

You know my film project is about how tech has changed individuals and society to be more interconnected and authentic. To demonstrate the interconnectedness I only interviewed the subjects of my film by suggestion from my community. As I look more and more at the footage and narrate the story, there is one thing missing, “blackness”… I really did think the days of affirmative action were over, and I realize now that I was very naive to think that the tech community was any more open to diversity than any other community. I never though that I would have to actively seek out talent based on skin color and not merit – and it’s not that non-whites are without merit or of lesser merit. (You, Corvida, and Baratunde Thurston are excellent examples of very tech savvy, socially aware African Americans)It’s that many people in the tech space are simple ignorant to the fact that the racial line still exists, even in virtual spaces.

So many of us white folks (me included) have been delusional in thinking that racism does not exist in the digital space, we have been elitist to think that in opening up the opportunity to reach across cultures and colors that we have actually done it.

Thank you for reminding people racism, and stereotyping (self inflicted and otherwise) are still prevalent in our virtual spaces. I’d very much like to see this conversation continue.

Fave: Your take on this is exactly what we should all be looking at. Our skin color does not define us, it just happens to be part of what makes us who we are. I wish more people in social media and the world at large could think this way.

Yvette: You’re right, I put that comment out in haste to make sure my point got out there, as I believe Wayne did the original blog post. It was not my intention to be negative, but merely directly pointing out the hypocritical nature of the post, whether that was intentional or not. If my comments were shocking, then perhaps they did their job and made some people think about what’s going on, rather than blindly retweet a link to this post or just say “right on my man” or otherwise carelessly move on.
I fail to realize how anonymity has any bearing on what I’ve said, however. I can’t help but notice that the people here who have avatars are all black. If you knew for absolute certain whether I was black, white, hispanic, whatever, would that affect how my comment was taken? I should hope not.
What you say is absolutely correct, however. Wayne’s post, at its heart, is about racism. Simple as that. This is why it bothers me to see it stated that it has been “building up” as if racism is merely an additional topic of negativity that’s been added, and the rest that has caused the upset has been just general negativity not specifically race-related. Just please be straightforward about it. Am I the only one here seeing the double standard, when you first point out how all this racism bothers you, but then immediately turn around and want to have a minority-only conference?
If a minority-only conference is what it takes to get more people involved online because it somehow makes them feel at ease about it, then by all means do it, I think it could be great. But don’t turn it into a rally of minorities that want to rise up against some faceless Internet oppression and create their own clique, which in turn does nothing but keep them separate from the whole. That isn’t what Twitter and the social media world is about.