Read on Twitter
It's a holiday and I wanted to log off and I will soon. But first a thread about my work, the struggle of being a #Blackcreative in a society still so anti-Black in so many ways, and the impact of @instagram disabling Feed The Malik.
I need to make money, I won't lie about that. But I'm intentional about using my platform through Feed The Malik to support local food businesses, especially #Blackowned businesses. My efforts have been modest, but I'm COMMITTED. See some of the impact: https://www.feedthemalik.com/post/i-set-out-to-help-black-owned-restaurants-five-months-later-taking-stock
That impact assessment above is just a bit of the work that I've done beyond building a directory, working on multiple Black-centric initiatives in the DMV, etc...
And for that work, I get comments and DMs and emails about how the sender hates Black people, how Black people are whiny, how we don't deserve anything, and worse...
That comes with the territory. Every single Black creator I know who is outspoken about racial justice gets it at some point. One friend is being stalked & dealing with death threats, another also had her IG disabled after being targeted by trolls and is struggling to get it back
Yet we persist because we love ours and others' Blackness with a ferocity that makes some uncomfortable. And we want to show the world that love.
That's just part of existing as a Black person in a world that wasn't designed for us. We deal with trolls and hate, we are undermined at work, people discount our experiences, it's even freaking harder to get verified on social platforms... It's like the hits don't stop.
But ok, we deal. I've learned to deal. I don't engage the trolls, I work my butt off, I try to shrug off the small things and embrace grace.
For these and other reasons, I've known that my work/position was particularly precarious. So I invested in multiple platforms, my website, a Patreon, an email list, and more. It was EXHAUSTING but I needed a sense of extra security.
Because of that, because of not feeling secure, I pushed myself to only take four weekends off and worked 10-12 hour days since June. People often told me to take a break, and I'd tell them I couldn't yet.
Because how do you feel comfortable taking a break when you know that your very existence makes people want to hate you? Honestly how?
So yes, Feed The Malik being taken down on @instagram could totally be human error, an honest mistake, or some issue I have no clue about. But it's really hard to rationally think about it that way given everything else I've shared about in this thread.
And losing access to that account means it's harder for me to make money to support myself financially, harder for me to support local businesses, and harder for me to do this work. https://www.feedthemalik.com/post/i-set-out-to-help-black-owned-restaurants-five-months-later-taking-stock
