Writing this newsletter on a Sunday morning, with the sunshine peeking through my window, I decided to look through the Black Ballad archives to see the date of the first newsletter I ever wrote. It was seven years ago. It was published on a Tuesday. Tuesday 13th January 2015 to be exact and it was titled: Why Doesn't The Internet Like Black Women (this newsletter isn't published as it was on our old website). Lets be honest, not much has changed in seven years and unfortunately too many black men have been key players in creating and upholding an online experience that sees black women endure violence through Twitter jokes, memes, comments and now Twitter communities.
This week, for those that don’t know, a group of black men held a Twitter community to bash black women. They thought it would be cute to use hours of their time to not be productive, but to sit online and inflict misogynoir upon black women; more accurately, visible black women who do important work to elevate the voices of women and in particular black women on issues that include everything from sex, relationships, politics, identity and a lot more.