Brown Twitter Bird: a reaction to "How Black People Use Twitter"

Some who were the subject of a recent Slate piece titled "How Black People Use Twitter" were annoyed at being referred to as a monolithic, homogeneous group.

From this, #browntwitterbird sprang forth.

Innyvinny.com's original post, and search the hashtag—sorry! the blacktag here. (via Farai Chideya)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

I found the article pretty interesting. I’d like to read more about the thinking that ‘black’ social interaction norms lead to groups which naturally structure themselves in a way that trip out the trending topics recognition algorithms, but instead we’re talking about race.
holtt

You know I’m more concerned about how people use cellphones and choose to stand out. What is it with that group that chooses to talk on their phone like it was a walky talky? You know, phone to ear to listen, then phone in front of their face to talk, then back to ear, etc.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I’m even more concerned about the people who have an actual walkie-talkie mode and lay the cell phone down on their table in a restaurant and scream at it in between bursts of static.
  - Jack
    
    What about people who walk around like zombies talking so loud and clearly into their Bluetooth headsets or iPhone headphones you stop a beat to figure out if they are talking to you?
    
    Also, white people Tweet like stealth warriors. Never forming groups. Yeah, right….
- Shelby Davis
  
  I know, right? I’ve observed this time and again (first informally, and then systematically for an ethnography project). And there’s the whole holding-it-delicately-twixt-forefinger-and-thumb business. I am baffled by how this came to be a thing for a whole group of people.
  - Anonymous
    
    @Shelby Davis; they were iPhone users.
- Rossy
  
  I think they do it to avoid getting facial oil or hair product all over their phone.
sardonicus

The twitterbird with the microphone reminds me of Meatwad when he dances.
brian901

I have been discussing this topic for almost two years now at my Holder Challenge Web site, a discussion on race relations prompted by the Attorney General’s call for dialog. On my site, I explain why I consider myself Black even though I don’t even have any obvious Brown in me, much less Black. I also riff on the absurdity of the Census requiring folks to choose between black and white — which I crossed through and put Caucasian, by way of protest.
The Holder Challenge
- brian901
  
  Sorry, the address is:
  http://www.theholderchallenge.com/
Teller

Slate should know better. Christians are the reliable chum.
Anonymous

:D i love grace jones bird!
narrowstreetsLA

Slate is full of trolling clickbait like that article. Responses like browntwitterbird’s, although necessary, also have the unfortunate side effect of boosting Slate’s SEO rank. Big sigh.
Anonymous

Innyvinny links to this piece, which I think is better. It’s more thoughtful and detailed (imho, ymmv).

http://blacksnob.com/snob_blog/2010/8/11/things-that-are-not-surprising-black-people-use-twitter.html
GIFtheory

Unfortunately, I understand that the Grace Jones twitterbird was faked.
SvennDiagram

“…were annoyed at being referred to as a monolithic, homogeneous group. ”

From the article:
“Given that these hashtags are occurring in a subgroup of black people online, it is probably a mistake to take them as representative of anything larger about black culture. “
Jane

Whoever is spreading this should stop-I do not trust any info from Slate
Chocolatey Shatner

I don’t understand how anyone uses Twitter…

And yes, the Grace Jones bird rocks almost as much as the lady herself.
pyster

yeah. this is one huge racist troll. no valid points. fake outrage. all meant to stir up emotion in idiots.
bobhughes

I don’t understand this. I don’t twitter but those sound like hashtags i might add to and probably have no idea i was in a “black” tag…
semiotix

We can still generalize about what (for example) women, Muslims, and “workers” think and do and say, though, right?

Someone needs to come up with an authoritative list of which groups can and can’t be treated monolithically, since apparently the answer isn’t “none.”