When Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone founded Twitter back in 2006, I’m 60 percent sure that they didn’t know how much the app was going to blow up, and I’m 99 percent sure that they had no idea it would lead to a verified cultural phenomenon—Black Twitter. Twitter’s Black users, affectionately and simply known as “Black Twitter,” have become an entire community, spanning across the diaspora to create some of the most out-of-pocket, viral, and shocking tweets of all time.
There are several stages to joining Twitter. When you first made your account, perhaps in 2014 or 2015, chances are you had no idea what the app was or how to use it, so you fled back to the relative safety of Instagram’s Valencia filter and excessive grain. A few weeks later, your curiosity got the best of you. What is it about Twitter? Hell if I know, but it’s insanely addictive. You still don’t really know what the fuck you’re doing, but at least it’s fun! It’s not until phase three that you become a Certified Twitter User—if you know what subtweeting, “oomf,” fleets, “ratioed,” spaces, and mentions are, you’re on your way.
Twitter as a whole is already known for being controversial, but Black Twitter takes things to a whole other level. Topics of non-ending, contentious debate include: whether men should pay on the first date, the notorious diaspora wars between Africans and African-Americans, whether we’ve had enough “Black trauma porn,” the existence of colourism, “pretty privilege,” and more. I want to use this article to take a little trip down memory lane. Here are some of Black Twitter’s most memorable moments (in no particular order), including the good, the bad, and the ugly:
1) Yahoo’s Twitter Fail
In 2017, Yahoo Finance got epically dragged when they tweeted an article preview about Trump wanting a “much bigger navy”… but with an “n” instead of a “b” in the word “bigger”…
Obviously, Black Twitter jumped on this one, creating 24,000 tweets in the time it took for Yahoo to delete the preview and apologise for the spelling error. The hashtag #n*****navy, as well as potential ship names like the “USS Hennessey,” were trending the entire night (a night that was probably sleepless for whichever social media intern made the typo).
2) December 21 superpowers
In December 2020, during an attempt to claim that COVID vaccines would fundamentally change people’s genetic code, Twitter user @lottidot wrote, “As Black people, genetically we are stronger and smarter than everyone else, we are more creative, on December 21 our real DNA will be unlocked and [a] majority will be able to do things that we thought were fiction.”
The tweet has over 15,000 quotes and 18,000 likes to date, with people creating memes about Black superheroes and swearing that they could suddenly punch through walls and turn invisible when December 21 came around. Personally, I’m still waiting for my powers, but the tweet was funny as hell. Extra points because “Negro Solstice” has now become an annual occurrence.
3) @emoblackthot reveal
Only OGs will remember @emoblackthot, a Twitter account with over 177,000 followers that was known for tweeting relatable jokes and constant reminders to drink water and do your skincare routine (they were so famous that celebrities like Ariana Grande, Megan Thee Stallion, and Lil Nas X would interact with them on the timeline). The catch? No one knew who was behind the account—their profile picture was just a pink heart emoji against a purple background, and they never dropped any hints about their identity other than the fact that they were Black and a girl (hints that included talking about period cramps and the struggles that darkskin Black women face).
It turned out that only one of those things was true… On October 19, 2019, an interview with PAPER Magazine went viral, exposing @emoblackthot as a 23-year-old Black man named Isiah Hickland. The vitriol that erupted was swift, and he was forced to delete both the main account and his new personal account, despite hoping that he would be able to rebrand.
4) The release of Black Panther
This one hardly requires an explanation. When the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with an all-Black cast was released in 2018, everyone on Black Twitter collectively lost their shit. Aside from sharing wholesome pictures of going to the movies dressed as the characters from the film and/or in traditional African clothing, a slew of jokes were created about the plot, the MCU in general, and Black moviegoers.
Black Panther was a huge win for the community (and the box office) and I can’t wait to do it all again when the second one drops this year!
5) #Verzuz
The #Verzuz challenges (created by Timbaland and Swizz Beats) were a series of song battles live-streamed on Instagram that pitted two artists against each other to see which one had the better discography. These challenges arguably saved quarantine, engaging as many as a million viewers at a time and featuring battles like Brandy vs. Monica, DMX vs. Snoop Dogg, and Ashanti vs. Keyshia Cole, among others. If you weren’t watching the battles on Instagram Live last summer and immediately running to Twitter to participate in the debates, you weren’t doing it right. (Drake vs. Kanye…who y’all got?)
6) HTGAWM/Scandal/Insecure
Although I have a soft spot for Insecure (go watch it if you haven’t!), I decided to include all of these shows because each of them dominated the timeline at one point or another. How to Get Away With Murder, Scandal, and Insecure are just three shows that revolutionized the portrayal of Black characters in television, and the timeline always had a lot to say about whichever episode was airing that day (don’t get me started on the series finales). From “it’s handled” to “Bonnie, wake up!” to #LawrenceHive (to making fun of Kerry Washington’s teeth and Viola Davis’ snot tears…), Black Twitter has tweeted it all…
These are just a few out of dozens of iconic examples, but if you take anything away from this piece, it should be the acknowledgement of just how much of an influence Black culture has on our society. Twitter is just one small way that Black people get to express their creativity and uncanny ability to make jokes out of literally any situation. Our community has been through a lot, but with the right hashtags and a healthy dose of humour, we’ll keep getting through it together. <3
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