NY Times: Discussing blackness on Reddit, show your forearm first
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OfTheCross
Veteran
You not gonna post the article?
OfTheCross
Veteran
That subreddit is full of brehs but is also full of lame white people obsessed with gay jokes talking about other men's attractiveness and d1kks. Also heavily represented by LGBT
Sometimes they speak that real though
Sometimes they speak that real though
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Pure Water
Veteran
I just want to go to a forum where white people and other people just leave us alone and let us discuss our own. I thought The Coli was that when I joined.
following black people around and harassing them IS white culture.
Good luck.
White people have no culture so they will just follow us around
Holy shyt this is late. They started the country club or whatever where you had to prove you were black MONTHS ago
Also that subreddit is full of cacs and nonblacks...i daresay they're the majority there. As usual, 1) we can't have shyt for ourselves and 2) we are the bastion of culture that everyone believes they HAVE to be involved in or give their opinion on...funny how "Black people twitter" is constantly one of the most popular subreddits on a GLOBAL website MOSTLY used by NONBLACKS
Oh and I've seen a post or two on there where content was ripped straight from the Coli...
Also that subreddit is full of cacs and nonblacks...i daresay they're the majority there. As usual, 1) we can't have shyt for ourselves and 2) we are the bastion of culture that everyone believes they HAVE to be involved in or give their opinion on...funny how "Black people twitter" is constantly one of the most popular subreddits on a GLOBAL website MOSTLY used by NONBLACKS
Oh and I've seen a post or two on there where content was ripped straight from the Coli...
Domingo Halliburton
Handmade in USA
Discussing Blackness on Reddit? Photograph Your Forearm First
Moderators of an online forum called Black People Twitter have caused an uproar by requiring participants to submit a photograph proving they are not white.
By Amy Harmon
- Published Oct. 8, 2019Updated Oct. 9, 2019, 12:34 a.m. ET
It was meant to be a destination on the internet where black people could let down their guard.
The forum, one of the many on Reddit, featured a feed of jokes and memes and commentary circulated on social media by black people, and comment threads where discussions could unfold. A post parodied the discomfort many white people seem to feel with the phrase “black lives matter.” Participants riffed on the rapper Kanye West’s suggestion that slavery had lasted too long to have been involuntary. Conversations about topics in the news and personal encounters with racial bias were interspersed with sometimes off-color humor about sex, romance and lifestyle advice.
Given that the vast majority of Reddit users are white, no one seemed to be under the illusion that only black people would weigh in. As one of the forum’s moderators recalled, the thought was that the white users who held sway in nearly all of Reddit’s 157,100 other communities, known as subreddits, would see no need to dominate this one.
The moderators were wrong.
It can be difficult to tell a person’s race on Reddit. Its several hundred million users are known to one another only by their screen names, without the profile pictures and biographies that are typical of other social media sites. That can be a boon to free speech, say proponents of the policy. It also encourages hate speech, detractors maintain.
In the case of the Reddit forum, which was called Black People Twitter, some of the comments appeared to be more an attempt to mock black culture than to appreciate it.
Many black users came to believe that white users were pretending to be black to give their unpopular opinions more credibility. Some of the posts casually dropped racial slurs. Others repeated anti-black stereotypes about crime, parenting and intelligence. Beyoncé was disparaged.
“These people are white,” said Tony Hinderman, 23, a black actor in Chicago. “Black people love Beyoncé. There is nothing to not love about her.”
The weight of unseen white opinion also made itself felt through the Reddit ranking system, in which posts and comments rise or fall in visibility based on users clicking on the “up” or “down” arrows next to each.
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Wesley Moreno, who was a moderator of the Black People Twitter forum on Reddit until recently, called disruptive comments posted by white users pretending to be black “a constant form of gaslighting.”CreditCody O'Loughlin for The New York Times
A comment on a post about a first-generation black college student’s entry to Harvard Medical School— “you’ll be attending thanks to affirmative action” — received hundreds of “upvotes” before it was removed by a moderator. In conversations about police violence, allusions to “black on black crime,” carrying the false implication that black people break the law more often, would float to the top.
A discussion meant to be a respite from the racial tensions out in the world began to mirror them.
“It was like a constant form of gaslighting,” said Wesley Moreno, 30, a black information technology professional who until recently served as a moderator of the forum.
‘Isn’t this just racist?’
The first moderator of Black People Twitter was a white Reddit user who had become enamored of the candid perspectives on culture and current events that were circulating among black Twitter users and started posting screenshots of them in late 2014. These days the subreddit is run by a multiracial group of more than two dozen moderators, many of whom are black.
Like all Reddit moderators, they perform tasks like approving posts and banning users; they work without pay, in exchange for mostly free rein to run their subreddit.
The forum grew rapidly to become one of the 50 most active on Reddit, according to Pushshift.io, with tens of thousands of weekly participants and more than half a million readers a day.
But by last spring, it was having increasing problems with violations of its “bad-faith participation” rules. The moderators found themselves shutting down dozens of conversations each week. So they decided on a bold change, one that has unleashed waves of outrage across Reddit for months.
The most heated comment threads, they announced, would give priority to nonwhite participants. Anyone who wished to participate would need to send the moderators a photograph of their forearm, proving they were not white.
Complaints flowed in — from proponents of far-right ideologies, avowed liberals and many people in between. “Isn’t this just racist?” read one.
The forearm photos, according to the controversial new guidelines, had to include commenters’ user names written out by hand, as well as time stamps to make clear they were recent.
“People are complaining, but I have yet to figure out a better way to do it,” a black moderator whose user name is Nasjere told a reporter as he chipped away at a backlog of thousands of forearm photographs one recent afternoon, using various methods to root out fakers.
Brown forearms, white fury
Moderators, most of whom declined to give their real names, reported receiving significant abuse since they began enforcing the policy.
One user sent a stock photograph of two black men hanging from a noose, with the message, “Let me and my brother in we are both black.” Others compared the exclusion of white people from some conversations to Jim Crow-era laws that relegated black people to second-class status in all of civic life.
There was considerable discussion about whether a photograph could demonstrate a person’s blackness, given the wide variety of skin colors among African-Americans and the complex social meanings of race that extend beyond skin color.
And the proliferation of consumer DNA tests, which break down geographic ancestry to precise percentages, prompted one critic to query:
“My mom is 1% Ghanaian, meaning I’m .5%. Does that count?”
Image
Thousands of users submitted photos to the Black People Twitter subreddit moderators showing their skin color and user names — and in some cases, other things suggestive of black identity, like hair and skin care products.CreditBigKahunaBurger17, TheYellowRose, JokersHigh, DrkTitan, Tredog101, Sailor_Calisto
Others said it was the height of hypocrisy for a forum full of discussions on combating racial injustice to exclude people on the basis of race. “Ever heard of fighting fire with fire?” asked the user swiper33. Another user, Sunny1296, wrote, “Confused how it’s okay in 2019 to exclude over skin tone when we’re all the same underneath.”
Under the new rules, comments are initially open to all. But nonwhite participants are allowed to continue contentious discussions after they are closed to white users. Those threads are labeled “Country Club,” a term the moderators said they chose in reference to a place where black people in America have historically found themselves excluded, and often still do.
When participants who have been verified as black post a comment on any thread, a check mark now appears next to their username. Hispanic, Asian and other nonwhite people can also be added to a list of approved users, though they do not get a check mark.
There is one way that white people can get on the list as well: Those with a history of thoughtful participation in the subreddit can write to the moderators about what white privilege means to them.
“We wanted to find a way to allow actual black people to be heard without being drowned out,” said a black moderator whose Reddit user name is MGLLN. “We had no idea it would blow up this site.”
Welcome to the Country Club
The idea for the Country Club threads had its genesis in an April Fools’ prank that was meant to last just a few days.
Over the previous year, the moderators had banished thousands of obvious provocateurs. Of the many users they suspected of pretending to be black, they had caught a few by researching their posts elsewhere on Reddit: “As an African American male I would love me some Wendy’s,” one user who turned out to be white wrote about the fast food President Trump served to a championship college football team at the White House. “Who the hell calls themselves a ‘male?’” the moderator IceBrotha replied.
More aggravating to some of the moderators were the seemingly well-meaning white participantswho appeared to think their questions about police violence — questions like “Don’t you think it would have been different if he hadn’t resisted?” — were original or illuminating. Or those who thought it was important, in discussing the need for more black doctors, to suggest that it was best to “teach your kids to look up to people regardless of skin color.”
So this spring, the moderators decided to use April Fools’ Day to make a pointed joke about their frustrations, announcing that “we are now restricting access on this sub for black folks only.”
Image
Instead of just photographing his forearm, Tony Hinderman, an actor in Chicago, submitted a self-portrait with his hair and skin-care products around him. CreditTony Hinderman
It was the influx of photographs featuring forearms in all shades of brown that persuaded them to make the joke rules permanent.
Some black users scrawled their screen names directly on their skin. Others wrote them on paper. A handful cast aside their anonymity and sent photographs of their faces. One sent a picture of his whole family because he was light-skinned and wanted to prove he was black. Moderators worked around the clock on the first day to verify users
SupaDupaFresh
Superstar
Engaging with and manipulating black voters has been a decades-long priority of the right wing. They use to send white people to Fox News to talk about black voters, call us idiots who "blindly vote Democrat," encourage us to "think for ourselves" by committing to not vote for Democrats, make condescending comments about our communities and their mostly liberal leadership, scold us about crime and parenthood based off of stereotypes...now they have faceless internet profiles claiming to be African Americans all over social media pushing this shyt.
There are Republican PACs out there that are dedicated to engaging black voters with right wing talking points and bad faith "concern" for African Americans and Democrats. These PACs collect data and keep a list of popular web sites where a number of black voters can be found.
And yes, you can bet your sweet ass thecoli.com, lipstickalley.com, various Reddit and social media pages are all on that list.
So when you see "black people" on black websites constantly bytching about "liberals" "the left" and "the far left" and other Fox News language, Democrats not "addressing" African Americans, white nationalist conspiracies of illegal immigrants replacing American citizens, committing to withdraw their vote with no further resolve, eagerly "agreeing" with Trump on anything without critical thought even when he attacks black people, and all types of other cac aspirations and talking points you have NEVER heard expressed by anyone working to uplift black people, you have every reason to suspect your engaging with white trolls and paid operatives with their own agendas.
And the sad part is its working. Thanks to social media the right wing now has more insight and ability to engage and manipulate black voters. It doesnt help we have hustlers like Nasheed and keyboard militants so desperate for attention theyll co-sign any fukking thing that gets attention and gets a rise out of people. They now know how simple it is to pit us against one another and even commit to willingly withdrawing our votes. They now know conflating immigrants and reparations--completely unrelated issues, but they wont notice--as a topic of discussion is all it takes to create aimless chaos that always end with more of these fools promising they wont vote for anyone. Easy.
There are Republican PACs out there that are dedicated to engaging black voters with right wing talking points and bad faith "concern" for African Americans and Democrats. These PACs collect data and keep a list of popular web sites where a number of black voters can be found.
And yes, you can bet your sweet ass thecoli.com, lipstickalley.com, various Reddit and social media pages are all on that list.
So when you see "black people" on black websites constantly bytching about "liberals" "the left" and "the far left" and other Fox News language, Democrats not "addressing" African Americans, white nationalist conspiracies of illegal immigrants replacing American citizens, committing to withdraw their vote with no further resolve, eagerly "agreeing" with Trump on anything without critical thought even when he attacks black people, and all types of other cac aspirations and talking points you have NEVER heard expressed by anyone working to uplift black people, you have every reason to suspect your engaging with white trolls and paid operatives with their own agendas.
And the sad part is its working. Thanks to social media the right wing now has more insight and ability to engage and manipulate black voters. It doesnt help we have hustlers like Nasheed and keyboard militants so desperate for attention theyll co-sign any fukking thing that gets attention and gets a rise out of people. They now know how simple it is to pit us against one another and even commit to willingly withdrawing our votes. They now know conflating immigrants and reparations--completely unrelated issues, but they wont notice--as a topic of discussion is all it takes to create aimless chaos that always end with more of these fools promising they wont vote for anyone. Easy.
Sounds exactly like thecoli tlr
We do the same shyt at times. Surprised nobody tagged a special someone 
I’d love to see the coli make posters verify race, not to ban them but at least know who TF they are. And people should be able to make any time challenges to any suspect poster with an automatic ban bet. You don’t verify in X amount of time you get your card pulled
And, if you’re not verified you should have a little rebel flag over your avatar until you DO
And, if you’re not verified you should have a little rebel flag over your avatar until you DO
following black people around and harassing them IS white culture.
Too lazy to look it up but this white woman did a speech about what white supremacy really means. One of the tenets of WS is the notion that whites have unspoken access to anything black people do, say, go, or have. Touching your hair without your permission, feeling like it’s a rite of passage to use black slag (got 50 year old white men saying 10 year old slang in commercials), and coming into black forums like this to “join in.”, etc.