Gizmodo’s Right: You Should Stalk a Sexy Black Girl on Twitter
When Markus passed me this article, I did the immediate eye-roll. Was this going to be the digital version “Can I touch your hair?” or one of those “Is it true that black people…” questions I had to endure throughout most of my life? Or was this going to be the memoirs of some perverse internet voyeur getting some cheap digital thrills? The answer for lack of a better term wasn’t so black and white.
I cringed at author Joel Johnson’s opening line, “It all started one day whenAnil Dash pointed out how many black people use Twitter.”
“Um, duh,” I thought, “that story’s been covered by quite a few publications, including this one many times. Why is there still surprise that African Americans know how to not only use but leverage technology?”
But I read on, determined to see where this article was going. It was one of those “look at me, I’m exploring the ‘other’” type of articles, but I wasn’t as offended as I thought I would be. Johnson makes some observations on his new black friend and discovers that she is just like anyone else — chockful of foibles and contradictions, triumphs and revelations. He ponders “Are black Christians more open about their sexuality? Young people? Northern people?” The line of questioning makes me wonder if Joel has any black female friends online.
As I read on, I find myself simultaneously annoyed and bemused. Annoyed that this article even had to be written in the first place and bemused because Josh was able to approach his social networking from a different perspective. In my own Twitter journeys, I tend to follow folks that speak to my many passions and plain pique my interest. I follow writers, gamers, ministers, foodies, techies, car enthusiasts, sex bloggers, and more than a few celebs. It’s a regular United Colors of Beneton commercial on my stream. It’s the same for the folks that have chosen to follow the randomness that is misssmith11.
At any time of the day, I’m adding to the Twitter universe with little bits of my day. At the beginning, I worried about pleasing my followers. Should I tweet out that I’m performing my some of my racier poetry and risk losing some of my Christian followers who boost me with their words of faith? Should I cop to the fact I still am a sucker for teddy bears, that I almost fell off the stage at my cotillion, and politically I’m proudly independent? A year and 2000 followers later, I’ve decided to take a Drake approach to all social networking — I’m doing me and I hope that anyone that chooses to follow, friend, or add me can accept that.
I want you to follow me because you want to engage me on some point. I want to be challenged, enlightened, entertained, and sometimes infuriated. What I don’t want to be is stalked simply because I happen to add some chocolate to the milk, chai, or tea you’re used to sipping. So while I applaud Joel and Gizmodo for recognizing that the social network arena is indeed diverse, I challenge them and you to continue reaching out to new people outside of their comfort zone. Since he’s a fellow tech writer, I just started following Joel and hope he’ll return the favor as one techie to another. I’m sure we’ll both find we have more in common than we think.
Category: Diversity, Featured | Tags: Diversity, gizmodo, Joel Johnson, misssmith11, Social Networking, twitter
About the Author Sherri is a freelance writer that has a love of all things fun and geeky including gadgets, gaming, anime, and comics. When she isn't writing or out on the town living it up, she loves doing 10-12 hour marathon sessions on her Xbox 360 or one of her older consoles. It's not an addiction, it's a way of life!
See all posts by Sherri L. Smith.
I like your fresh perspective on this. And that's why I think people like, jonah lehrer, in the science blogs says this about joel's experiment: ” Instead, being exposed to a constant stream of unexpected tweets – even when the tweets seem wrong, or nonsensical, or just plain silly – can actually expand our creative potential.” He references scientific experiments to strengthen his position, which I say is a pretty good position.
I think often we look at innocence as ignorance, or worse as something deliberately negative. (Which I know this post didn't do, but reactions to Joel haven't been all gravy.) Anyway, it's best to reference and research the source before throwing out the baby with the bath water. You get my gist.
Well, it's clear that he doesn't have any black friends on or offline. But, I thought his write up was charming. I'm all for someone becoming a little less sheltered. I think it's far better that he had general questions, instead of specific judgments.
For someone to use twitter to observe others instead of to only indulge in their own narcissism is refreshing. So many people don't even bother to follow or take an interest in the people that are already following them.
Frankly, it's a piece that needed to be written. It's not written for us (Blacks) or anyone that frequents this site necessarily, but it's for those that are similar to the author.
How many african american's created Facebook or other big sites like that? Why is it all white males in their 20s? If you have ever been to a Silicon Valley conference looking for someone who was not white 20 to 40 would be like finding Waldo. When you see someone like that your like what the hell is wrong with this place?
The title of the piece Joel wrote is actually more shocking than what's actually there. I think conversations about race when they use racial and racialized language — we'll they're easy to get misconstrued. I don't know Joel very well, but I know him through people like Anil Dash and others and he did cover the “Where Are the Black Tech Bloggers?” http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/03/14/where-… panel at SXSW three years ago in a way that opened up thoughtful and insightful conversation. Because of that, I presume he didn't intend for it to come off as it did.
What would have been interesting is to hear more of the conversation he and Anil had about blacks on Twitter. The background of that conversation could have set up exactly why and how he was thinking about black people on Twitter and how black people use Twitter. Then it would've been interesting to kn0w how he chose this specific random person. Why her of all people? Yeah, it was someone he wouldn't normally follow – — and so some people wonder if it matters that she's black. Yeah it does. So then it matters to some why he chose to follow a black person and why this specific person.
As stated earlier here, maybe it could have been set up differently. But I'm not telling Joel how to write. And perhaps he was intending to get people talking, as they are.
Okay! Logged.
Poor Joel. He didn't know. Joel, you can follow me. You'll love my links from BlackWeb20.com. @thejstandard
@joeljohnson “I was thinking about black people on Twitter so I decided to follow a random black person on Twitter. So what? ”
I agree with you on that point. So what. Why even write an inelegant post that seems to not much about discovery or news?! Even though I know you know Black People, the way your second graph read as if observing such an unknown entity is the problem. I didn't like the post. You don't have to defend it. That is all.
Also, hi! (I would make a joke about not knowing you were black but, you know, time and a place!)
Who says I never knew any (or know) black people? I just wanted to follow someone random outside of my peer group. It's no big whoop that she's on Twitter at all. And I never said otherwise, except to note that *I* hadn't been following people I didn't know. That's a presumption you and others are bringing to the table.
I was thinking about black people on Twitter so I decided to follow a random black person on Twitter. So what?
Joel is not someone who have never lived in a big city. He lived in NYC and SF for a few years, so I am disappointed at how it sounds like he never knew any Black people. If you're authentic, you're the same online and offline, and it is sounds like this “Sistah Twitterer” is. So what's the big whoop about her being on Twitter. I cut him no slack on this. Stupid race baiting article.
“It was still kind of awkwardly handled […]” – very true. I'm not sure if it was awkwardly handled because of any race relations or not, however. Truth is, for those who haven't read much Joel, he's a little bit awkward. He's a great writer, in my opinion, but his writing is always tinged with a bit of awkwardness that has long seemed charming and endearing to me. Just, when the matter at hand is something as heavy as race, 'stalking,' gender, whatever, it can be tricky to see the innocence through the awkwardness. I'm not Joel, I can't really speak for him, but having read a lot of what he's written, this is the overall feeling I've gotten…
Hey Chieze,
I definitely appreciate that Joel took it upon himself to stretch outside of his norm. I'm still feeling some type of way about some of the observations that were made in the article. I'm more than a little miffed that it's a shock that black people are on Twitter and using it effectively. I can only hope that the article will serve as one more reminder that walling yourself up in an ivory tower either online or off really deprives you of a wealth of experiences.
So I read the article too and basically had the same exact reaction as you. “Oh dear lord, what's this going to be” followed by “oh, hmm, that's good. He's seeing a new individual that he wouldn't have seen otherwise by going out of his comfort zone.” It was still kind of awkwardly handled, but I definitely think that the article was a net positive.