No I don't necessarily mean flooding the websites to combat racism, people are people and they'll think what they think. We can't control that, if you think about it we can't control how we think either. I've said it before, my motto is "Live and let live," at least I try to apply that whenever I can.
However, I do think that avoiding sites just because they're predominantly white may help prevent you from getting a lot out of this limited time. Not all sites, but certain one can be very beneficial to you. Let's take a site like reddit. Millions of people of all races go through that site, and from my perception of it, it seems most people there are white. Interacting with them about social issues even just reading some of their posts gives me a headache sometimes, so I rarely do nor do I care for their opinions. That's also not to say that a lot of them are not open-minded either. Plenty of folks there call things non-biased. An example of this was the overwhelming logical and empathetic responses in the Charleston shooting discussion.
For instance here's one of the top posts on that site today:
http://www.reddit.com/r/news/commen...val_of_confederate/?ref=share&ref_source=link
But people aren't all stupid and they do get it:
That being said, avoiding that site all together, you're missing out on a ton of professionals giving advice and helping members of that site or just people passing through. They'll help you if you ask for it. Even if you have an issue that's specific to you, even as a Black male, chances are there's going to be someone to help you out if you explain your situation to them. But nobody can help you if you don't say anything, and you don't let your issue be known genuinely.
Here's what you miss out (not saying you can't get it on other sites or through life in general) when you go to reddit:
- 110,000+ people talking about personal finance. shyt like how to get your life together. Plenty of them are financial and life planning specialists. Now you have some cats here that'll help you with things as well, but you have places on reddit that are going to be specific. That just just one subreddit(sub forum).
- A place like lifeprotips where you learn all types of things that can help make your everyday life easier.
- AskMeAnything has celebrities and professionals of all forms stop by all the time to answer questions. Some of them are there for hours just hanging out with cats. If you're a songwriter/musician and/or singer that has a question, who better to ask than John Legend next week? RZA just did one recently as well. Lady Gaga had one earlier in this year that I thought changed my life in some ways, De La Soul stopped by recently, Mike Tyson answered an aspiring boxer's question specifically about how to throw a proper 1-2, Neil DeGrasse Tyson has done a few of them, Barack Obama has the highest rated one of all-time, Bill Gates also has done numerous ones, etc. Some of the most successful people in their crafts, world renown can help you with your specific question.
- I used to be more of a thinker/philosopher type, going to subreddits like GetMotivated, SelfImprovement, UpliftingNews, etc. helped turn me more action-oriented.
- shyt, even musically I've grown a ton partly thanks to reddit. Last week I got a spotify playlist from somebody who asked a question on the Music subreddit about what songs in the last 2 years have an 80's feel to them. Posters responded and the cat made a spotify playlist from the songs suggested. Been
ever since.
- The enlightenment and meditation forums have helped me grow a ton as well.
- Have math, science, engineering, etc. questions? They have some of the brightest minds and students studying under them on that site helping people out with their homework and questions. Answers to differential equations sees no color lines.
That's not even cracking the shell of what a site like reddit can offer. It's highly popular/mainstream and highly organized also highly customizable.
You can even make your own reddit front page by only selecting the subreddits(subforms) you choose to view. Kind of like your own personal web site. You don't have to deal with all the bs. More of the good, less of the bad.
Why miss out on this opportunity for yourself, just because of a mixed demographic? The earth is mixed anyway. Besides, I see plenty of cats all over the internet steal material that came from there, even this site has posted a few things from reddit.