LA Times’ First Black Twitter Story Slammed by Black Twitter

Social media users lambast reporter Dexter Thomas

The Los Angeles Times has just learned a valuable lesson: Don’t mess with Black Twitter.

While other major newspapers have written stories about the alternate social-media universe referred to as “Black Twitter,” the LA Times is the first to have a full-time reporter dedicated to subject. But judging by the reaction, this new coverage beat is off to a bumpy start.

The Times found itself on the receiving end of outrage Thursday for a story suggesting that Black Twitter doesn’t operate with one collective mind.

The article, “When ‘Black Twitter’ Sounds Like ‘White Twitter,’” found reporter Dexter Thomas stating the case that Black Twitter might not be “a unified collective of progressive people who enjoy jokes and social justice,” as it has sometimes been characterized.

“Black Twitter, like every other online community, is a diverse and tangled mess of opinions. We would be doing the community an injustice if we pretended otherwise. In other words, Black Twitter looks an awful lot like White Twitter,” Thomas wrote.

Thomas cited “vile” Black Twitter reactions to rapper Tyga, who has been accused of having an affair with a transgender porn actress.

Black Twitter might not, as Thomas suggests, be a monolithic social-media entity, but the responses to his article seemed to be pretty unanimous in their condemnation.

“You get hired to cover #BlackTwitter and the first thing you write is how it sounds like “White Twitter.” Wut. @dexdigi, that was a fail,” Twitter user Awesomely Luvvie posted.

“Is this an episode of Blackish? Cuz @dexdigi sounds like he got lost in Hancock Park trying to find S. Central,”
writer-producer Alyss Dixson tweeted.

Read more Black Twitticisms on the article below.

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