Black Twitter is a Twitter community with unplanned, organic origins as a result of African-American Twitter users banding together to tackle issues regarding the black populace chiefly in the United States of America. This virtual community champions the cause of granting social and political change for the better and encourages its members to share tweets regarding matters that needed bringing to light. The group believes that awareness is the first step to resolving problems the black community faces.
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The first Black Twitter linked content was a piece by Anil Dash in 2008 and an article by Chris Wilson in 2009 discussing the success of Twitter memes and hashtags #YouKnowYoureBlackWhen and #YouKnowYoureFromQueens that was a hit to the black and non-black communities who recognize humorous situations these memes and hashtags portrayed.
As the 2010s went on, Black Twitter began to take more serious steps to black community solidarity. Twitter and the black community’s creation of hashtags reinforced what the said community wants for itself and at the same time shows the people outside their community how they think things should be in the world we all live in.
Black Twitter has come to evolve to be a refuge, a forge of ideas, a venue for black creative expression, and a force that aids them in the difficulties that the average black American face in their everyday lives.
Even as Black Twitter developed into the progressive instrument that it has become; it has not lost sight of its comedic roots. A lot of issues are tackled in humorous ways as they did in their days of inception. ‘Barbecuing While Black’ is a viral video that has become a wellspring of many a meme that pokes fun at a white woman who called the police because black people were barbecuing at her local park.
Since the first comments of Black Twitter in 2008, it has had more than a few notable hashtags that made the world take notice. Several, if not all these trending hashtags all aimed to shine a light on the issues of unfair treatment of the black community because of their difference of culture. Black Twitter was used by the black community every time they needed to be heard and these hashtags were a reaction to what the world deals them with.
In 2020, #ICantBreathe has been given new traction when a black man named George Floyd was arrested for suspicion of using a fake $20 bill was killed by arresting officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes despite Floyd’s pleas of “I can’t breathe”. The whole world took notice and the incident thrust Black Lives Matter into being a worldwide issue.