I feel like there's 2 types of black personas that become really popular when walking to white folks about race.

There's the "everything's racism, there's little hope"

And the "you're fine, everything's fine, it's all overblown"

1/

I feel like so much of the story gets lost between these two caricatures. First, it requires understanding that black political thought is extremely diverse. Just because people vote for parties like the Democrats don't mean they're all the same politically. 2/

Growing up in the church I knew a lot of black conservatives who will tell you that yes, racism is a big deal, but you better not let that hold you back mentally. I think that position is almost a given though, so it's not controversial 3/

There are the black folks that rail against everything. I don't even know if you call them "personal responsibility" folks. They'll tell you all day "if we do X, Y, Z we can accomplish all these things". Pan-African and "Buy Black" types tend to fit here too 4/

Black folks of course have our super leftists, socialist types that believe it's all a mess. But don't let Twitter mislead you, they don't really talk that much in the language you see caricatured by James Lindsay types. 5/

Of course you have a huge so-called moderate wing. They'll vote, they aren't super political, but they still know what's going on. In a way they tend to move the ball forward, but don't disrupt the system. They take the lumps, but continue on. 6/

Can't ignore the fact that you have black folks that are neither poor nor middle class. Wealth and comfort seem to carry a whole other dimension to it, but not fair to say it defines people politically, though it often gives a whole other perspective on the world. 7/

I'll say the views on racism having a meaningful impact are almost universal, but day to day, for a lot of us, I wouldn't say it's as all-engrossing as Twitter may make it seem.

Even when I was poor, I simply faced it more, but there was of course love and life still 8/

The topics I often talk about have me dealing with issues of racism all the time, but that's on Twitter. I see and deal with racism offline, but most of the time I, we, have our families and lives to thrive and survive for. That's the same for all of us really 9/

Not sure where I'm going with this thread. I think I just want to give the impression that black folks are more complex than even Twitter presents. We can talk about and confront racism together and then laugh at the next silly storm in a teacup on social media 10/

I appreciate a lot of the people I've met on Black Twitter. I see real diversity of opinion on here. I'll fight today and the next day we're still family. You can be non-black and if you're cool you're still family. The lines aren't as sharp as Twitter suggests

/end

Oh FFS, a typo on the very first tweet

No one is "walking to white folks", or...are they
Anyway, y'all know what I meant.