I'm Nobody's Darky

A year ago, history was made. It was interesting to see that I was experiencing a day that would be in textbooks, 100 years from now. The chapter would be called "The first Black United States President was Elected." Kids would have to memorize the day's events for their quiz. Barack Obama would be in the index pages, with his name in bold and an asterisk. He is just that special.

It was a beautiful feeling to sit on history's lap and watch it tell a story that unfolded as it went along. THAT is the significance of today to me, and it will remain so.

But the day started tinged with negativity. I woke up this morning and on my commute to work, got on Twitter, as usual. What I saw pissed me off for at least an hour where I ranted and raved. The #2 trending topic was "ThingsDarkiesWouldSay." What this means is that around the WORLD, on the 2nd most used social networking site, the second most popular topic was "Things Darkies Would Say."

Tell me, Black people. Has Twitter become our newest way of kicking ourselves as white folks laugh at us? Are we using it to make self-sabotage easier and faster? There isn't ONE day where there isn't an offensive Black-focused or initiated trending topic, and each time, it pisses me off to no end. I still remember Lil Duval starting a "TeachANiggaTuesday" trending topic a couple of weeks ago, and it went on for over 30 minutes. I have a HUGE amount of disdain for him. But that's neither here nor there.

People said that "Darkies" is a South African term used similarly to "nigga" so it isn't offensive. First of all, don't get me started on the falsity of that statement. I'm gonna leave my thoughts about "nigga" and "nigger" for another day.

For a trending topic to exist, the subject of it has to be tweeted by a lot of people, and a lot of times, simultaneously. South Africans are not so concentrated on Twitter that they could (by themselves) make a trending topic that not only gets so high, but sustains for so long.

This makes it clear that the topic had help from around the world, probably, especially from Americans. Black Americans, I presume. THIS is where I truly have a problem. We do these things to ourselves and then get mad when white folks join in. If we calling ourselves darkies, what do we expect them to call us? Fine citizens? Blackface stopped being overt entertainment for White folks in the 40s and 50s but we've kept it up in other forms. I feel like this is one.

Trending topics come and go on Twitter but this one has had staying power.

"Darkies" may have started as an inoffensive term describing Black folks in South Africa. However, it isn't continuing as that. Words are given power and meaning by those who use it. Look at the evolving meanings of the words used in the Bible, and what they mean today, as an example. As the trending topic went on, "darkies" was used as a term to make fun of Black people by OTHER Black people. It was all on some dumb ish like "#ThingsDarkiessay imma either be a nba player or a drug dealer." (Yes, that was one I copied and pasted). So on Twitter this morning, "darkies" wasn't being used to refer to South Africans inoffensively.

A darky is a caricature of Black people. I lay no claims to it.

I'm nobody's darky. I'm Nigerian first. African second. Black always. Darky or nigger NEVER! They say it's not what you're called that matters, but what you respond to. I give a damn what I'm called and I surely won't respond to the foolishness. 

We need to spend the day remembering how far we've come. And that we are better than we give ourselves credit for. One of us is sitting in the White House. I'm sure Barack isn't claiming "Darky" anytime soon either.

Edit: It is now the #1 trending topic, and has now been up there for 2 hours. 

Edit 2: Twitter finally intervened and deleted it. Bravo.