Every Wednesday i host an event on The Twitterer called a Hashtagging game.
More specifically my game is called @AFrikkinHashtag and it is a lot of fun. And if you download the FREE @HashtagRoundup App then you can play it and a whole host of other games like it as well.
Hundreds of people from around the world jump on board, usually for an hour or two and try to come up with suggestions to a fun tag that i have come up with, ranging from Continue reading
Two weeks ago @KeshaTedder [aka Binks] and i challenged Hashtag gamers to come up with their best suggestions for the Tag #AndThenTheWorldEnded and there were some great suggestions worth checking out.
Last week it was @TheatreAfrica co-hosting with me as we looked at #MyLastBucketListItemIs which saw 306 people come up with 1289 tweets with an audience of 727, 406 people… We were quite guy heavy as a stat of 78.1% of those playing tells you. Hopefully we will do better this week. Best way to play is to download the @HashtagRoundup app and play from there. Continue reading
So it’s official. South Africa has joined the International Community of Hashtagging games with the first official tag game which took place yesterday which was #ArtAMovieOrTv. Every Wednesday at 12 lunchtime our time on @HashtagRoundup – Come and Play.
And it was a LOT of fun. Thank you to everyone who pitched up and got stuck in. Continue reading
So there’s this little thing called Hashtag games [which i wrote this article about for 1Africa.tv] which i got into while i was in Americaland.
Someone comes up with a clever Hashtag, something like #WaterACelebrity and then anyone in the world who is on the Twitterer plugs into their creative minds and tries to come up with clever or witty responses.
So examples might be: Sea-gourney Weaver, Drip Torn or Harrison Fjord. Continue reading
If i was a pastor in Americaland this coming Sunday, my sermon would definitely contain the words ‘If i die in police custody’ which is a trending hashtag on The Twitterer right now.
TAKE A MOMENT WITH THAT. #IfIDieInPoliceCustody
Last Friday, a black woman was returning home from a job interview in Waller County, Texas, when she was stopped by police after failing to properly signal a lane change. Two days later, she was dead in a jail cell, and Black Twitter wants to know why. [Dexter Thomas, Black Twitter demands answers: What happened to #SandraBland?]
In fact, just take five minutes to log in to your Twitterer account and search for the hashtag #IfIDieInPoliceCustody and read what is going on there:
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody don’t let them tell the world who I was. You tell the world who I was.
[Why So Serious? @The4th_Duck]
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody it had nothing to do with my pants sagging, rap music, or black on black crime. Don’t let them derail.
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody is a trending hashtag.
Let that sink in.
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody IS TRENDING.
People are afraid. Change is needed.
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody don’t try 2 use my background and education to say I didn’t deserve this. I didn’t deserve it without degrees either
And on and on it goes… with this one by Michaela Angela Davis perhaps coming closest to summing it all up.
I actually can’t take the realness of #IfIDieInPoliceCustody right now so many young Blk people prepping for that possibility is so painful
[MichaelaAngela Davis @MichaelaAngelaD]
BLACK LIVES MATTER
Next thing you know, people are once again adding the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and it won’t be long before a ‘well-meaning’ white person jumps on to reinvigorate #AllLivesMatter as a direct response.
Of course all lives matter, that should go without saying. The reason #BlackLivesMatter keeps coming back is because white people are not feeling the need to write tweets under the hashtag #IfIDieInPoliceCustody.
LET THAT SINK IN.
We don’t need to. Because, for the most part, if a white person is arrested and put in prison, the likely scenario is that we deserved to be there. We weren’t put behind bars [and whatever else might follow and need to be ‘explained’ or justified later] because of our whiteness. People of colour don’t have that luxury.
So yes, All Lives Matter, but the ones that seem to be needing more fighting done for them in Americaland right now are the black ones [and other minority groups] and so #BlackLivesMatter – deal with it.
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody tell the media to use the 1st pic and not the 2nd
King Fee speaks to the reality of pictures used by the media whenever a person of colour is arrested, put in jail or killed. It is far easier for us to feel like he deserved it when we see the drug smoking ‘thug’-image poster on the right than if the story of another death is accompanied by a guy wearing a suit looking all cleaned up.
The hashtag is also filled with tweets talking about people struggling with depression or being a veteran [don’t let them say it was my PTSD] begging not to let any of those reasons be used as the reason for ‘my suicide’. In fact tweet after tweet down the line echoes the cries of black people saying ‘if I die in police custody, know that i didn’t commit suicide.’
THERE BE ANGER
Then there are the angry tweets. The ones calling for violence. These are harder to read and take in. My gut reaction is, ‘No, you can’t do that. You have to show them you are better. You have to respond peacefully.’
Yet week after week as yet another incident happens, typically involving white police officers and people of colour and a new hashtag trends to be replaced by the new one before it has even grown cold, then even though i absolutely don’t condone the violence, i start in part to understand the anger and the calls for it.
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody blow up the nearest police prescient.
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody: do everything possible to make them wish that I didn’t, and bring all nine circles of Hell to their doorstep.
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody don’t cry for me, comfort my mother and father, and burn the city to the ground. Tell @donlemon to go to hell.
YOU STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND?
If there are any white people who have gotten this far and still don’t understand [i imagine if you don’t then you likely haven’t gotten this far], this excellent article shared with me by my friend Megan Furniss, is one of the best pieces i have read on this, especially the powerful last paragraph:
Risk the Truth: There was a Suicide – by Abe Lateiner
Seriously, read that one, and there are so many other powerful posts around that if you realise the seriousness of this all and the need to catch up a little, here are two more powerful pieces worth giving yourself time to really digest.
Letter to my Son by Ta-Nehisi Coates
i don’t think we have the same story in South Africa as in Americaland right now. But i feel like there are some strong overlaps. And it has felt important to me for a long time to keep an eye on what is going on over there to somehow be able to understand a little bit better some of the principles and machinations of what is going on over here in our stories. i feel completely helpless in terms of being able to make any difference to the people of colour in Americaland, but i do want them to know that i am an ally and if using my blog can potentially help open the eyes and then actions of one more white person, and hopefully then white people, well then that is one small step in the right direction.
We need to hear the cries of our black brothers and sisters and if they don’t feel like brothers and sisters, then we need to be reaching out and seizing opportunities for deeper relationship, because perhaps the moment they move from ‘people of colour’ to ‘my friend and my family’, perhaps then i will be more urgent about getting off my butt and doing something that actually makes a difference.
it feels like there is still so much more to say, but i don’t know if i’m the equipped to say it well, so i’ll keep reading and sharing and rallying and praying and hoping… and i’ll end off with two more tweets that no doubt will punch you in the face, like they did me…
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody put on my tombstone, “Arrest in peace”
Elderly White people write wills. Young Black kids tweet #IfIDieInPoliceCustody
It’s been a while since i shared one of these, but this is a typical Rat strip, and so if you’re a fan of Pearls before Swine, this one will resonate with you… and if not then, BECOME A FAN:
[For another Pearls strip on Encyclopedias vs The Internet, click here]
[For more funny, insightful or just plain weird Pearls before Swine strips, click here]
Twitter has been making me a little mad lately.
Angry mad, that is, not chop up all the vegetables and throw them in the bath tub and declare it ‘Salad Bath day’ mad… and sad mad as well – somewhere in between the two.
And by Twitter i don’t mean the whole of Twitter, and i do mean Facebook to a lesser extent as well, but christians on the various social networking sites, especially the Twitterer.
And not all christians on Twitter, thankfully. In fact, i can probably divide it into two camps [and this post in my mind originally contained a bunch of names of people but i think i will leave half of them out, so as not to become that which i am railing against – use the ‘test and see if this is me and if it is take it on and if it’s not don’t’ approach if you read this] and this is somewhat generalised but i think largely true, and of late seemingly worsely so.
THE FIGHTERS AND THE LOVERS
now i have been in the first camp for the majority of my life, i think, and so i am trying to keep my mind on that, while at the same time being able to critique why it has been frustrating me so much lately – but those who more often than not seem to be picking fights with people or issues [although the issues tend to be linked quite closely to people more often than not] and these might be people and issues that are deserving of having fights picked with them, but i think there comes a point when all you are doing seems to be picking fights and take a breather and smell a flower or celebrate something good for a change. not to say these people don’t do that, but the overwhelming nature of some of their voices has seemed more belligerent and fighty of late.
in the midst of all the fightiness and arguing and point-making and name-and-shaming [which, as i’m saying, i feel definitely has its place] on Twitter, i am hit by huge big breaths of fresh air – and this is where i will mention names – Eugene Cho [@eugenecho]talking about One Day’s Wages and the work they are continuing to do in the disaster areas of the Philippines, Donald Miller [@donaldmiller] who is currently on honeymoon and tweeting out some gems he prepared beforehand but often sharing exciting stories from the Storyline blog he helps put together, Mike Pilavachi [@mikepilav] who generally shares exciting things about exciting kingdom happenings that he gets to be involved with all of the time, whoever is tweeting for Pope Francis [@pontifex] which tend to be inspirational Jesus-focused messages and calls to live like Him, and the Tim Keller Wisdom [@dailykeller] tweets which are often inspiring quotes or scripture verses. as well as anyone who shares C.S.Lewis quotes.
and in the middle of that, on her own planet [and what a fun planet it is] is Jamie Wright [@JamieTheVWM] who bounces between completely serious and mouth-wateringly-sarcastic and vulnerable and crazy and inspiring and fun… so often fresh air in the midst of the fresh air.
MORE LIGHT, LESS DARKNESS BASHING
i do believe there is a time to take on the darkness [slavery, woman’s rights, human-trafficking, racism] and maybe there is a case for some people feeling the need to do that more often than not [there are certainly some Old Testament prophets who didn’t get their fair share of the friendly messages to deliver] but i do believe that it is a lot more helpful and inspiring and all-around-fun to shine the light more often and more regularly and with more intensity than taking on the darkness.
so when you need to take on the darkness, by all means do so… but if there is ever a choice, rather shine some light.
you see, light drives away the darkness simply by being light [not by any active drivingness on its part] and Jesus called us to be light [not hidden light, displayed light]
also i don’t know too much how people are swayed by Twitter fights and Facebook wall arguments and i imagine the watching world does not take away the hugest declaration of ‘You shall be known by the love you have one for another’ from a lot of what has been going on of late.
the responsibility is so huge when you have a huge following as people are strongly influenced by the how as well as the what.
may we be faithful in every aspect of our online presence and may we be surrounded by people who love us well who we invite to call us on stuff when we get it wrong.
thank you to all of you who are drawing people towards Jesus and a Jesus-following life through your efforts, whether it be light-shining or darkness-taking-on.
together for the kingdom. but let us always ‘err’ on the side of Love.
[how about you? who do you follow on Twitter who brings life and light to your day? please leave their name and Twitter handle in the comments section]
Irresistibly Fish 