Jason Toney

Your Boy and The Boys in Blue

"Now I'm the new Nat Turner. Spread somethin' to the kids like Sojourner. Man, the truth." - David Banner, Ridin' ft. Talib Kweli and Dead Prez

Considering how much it's been on my mind this week, I thought I had a lot to say about this topic. My feelings about it are too visceral, though, I think. I'm struggling with finding the right words.

I mentioned Samhita's post earlier this week, where she struggles to find the context in which to talk about the relationship between the police and black people in the wake of Lovelle Mixon's Cop Killing Spree in Oakland. The vast majority of her feministing readers missed her point, which was:

While the conversation in mainstream media is really focused on Lovelle Mixon's history of crime, violence and imprisonment, let's try and change the dialog and have a honest conversation about police brutality, the production, harassment, imprisonment and murder of "angry black men" everywhere, and ways we can work collectively to bring peaceful solutions to our communities.

And I'll remind you that the murder of Oscar Grant is fresh in the minds of the residents of Oakland.

Thea Lim at racialicious tries to make sense of it all and fails. Her frustration is palpable:

Is it really impossible for us to have a conversation about the effect of racist, classist and cruel systems on the behaviour of Americans? Are we so thick-headed that we can't even consider that the state of the prison system or the racist nature of American policing somehow affected how Mixon saw the world and how he made choices?

Meanwhile, I'm thinking about the recent Real Sports story about Robbie Tolan

Robbie Tolan dreamed of following in the footsteps of his father, retired Major League Baseball outfielder Bobby Tolan. But in the early morning of Dec. 31, 2008, those dreams may have ended in a confrontation with police in affluent, predominantly white Bellaire, Tex. Wrongly suspected of stealing his own car, Tolan and his cousin were detained at gunpoint by police on the doorstep of his family's home. A moment later, Robbie Tolan's parents watched as their son was shot in the chest by a police officer.

and today's Dallas News about Ryan Moats

Officer Robert Powell had been placed on paid administrative leave in connection with the incident last week, in which he stopped a family rushing to visit a dying mother, keeping them for 13 minutes to write a traffic ticket. The woman died before two of the family members were able to see her.

I have nothing in common with Lovelle Mixon or Oscar Grant or Robbie Tolan or Ryan Moats except the color of my skin. I have never been in trouble in my life. Never been booked for a crime. Never committed a crime above traffic violations and jay walking (and even then, I was selected out of a crowd of violators for ticketing) but I will tell you this: I'm scared of cops.

You don't need to sell me on a police officer's value. I know the good they do. I respect your uncle the sheriff and your brother the probation officer. I really do.

But here's my truth--the scariest moments of my life are when police are in my vicinity. Driving behind me. Patrolling my neighborhood. Coming out the restaurant. Whatever. My heart starts racing. I start sweating. I start considering what possibly they could think I've done wrong.

In my head and in my heart, I believe that regardless of what I do, any interaction I have with a police officer could be the last thing I do on this earth.

The laundry list of black men, young and old, who have run afoul of an overzealous police officer is too long to recount. There are names you know. They are the same names I know. And again, I'm left thinking about someone like Robbie Tolan, in his own car, in front of his parent's house, shot. In the chest.

Ta-Nehisi Coates remarks on how Ryan Moats handled the situation is something to which lots of black men can relate. He says, It reminded me so much of how my mother taught me to deal with the police.

Why should anyone's mama have to teach them how to interact with people whose job it is to protect and serve...you?

So, you tell me -- should I be more concerned about the Lovelle Mixons of the world who I know to give a wide berth or the boys in blue who I'm supposed to trust but who, again and again, show me that's like playing Russian roulette?

Beyond the 140: Justin & Janet & Ciara & Lovelle

"All I need is one mic." - Nas, One Mic

It all started with a Soulbounce post entitled How Can Justin Timberlake Still Objectify Black Women and Get Away with It? which opens with this heater of a premise:

Someone please explain why Justin Timberlake continually gets a pass to fetishize and exploit the image of Black women. Right now. Because after watching him aggressively pulling on a chain wrapped around Ciara's neck only to later use her bending body as a leaning post in her new video for "Love Sex Magic," it's getting ludicrously difficult to understand.

Which, on twitter, immediately went to a discussion of the Super Bowl Incident and, well, turned me into a twitter machine:

@odeisel jumping into your convo with @lynneluvah, I think if Usher had done it to Madonna, her image and privilege would've mitigated it.

@odeisel I think she would've owned it as a sign of her sexual power and politics. It would've become marketing instead of scandal.

@lynneluvah I think some of us are hyper-sensitive to the hypersexualization of images of black women.

@lynneluvah I'm fascinated with people who have a problem with justin timberlake. He's such a funny, talented, likable guy. That said...

@lynneluvah I think there's a lack of maturity to our view of black women and sex/sexuality. Throw interracial politics in the mix...

@lynneluvah that's a stirred pot that reflects much more on the person viewing the imagery than the actual image itself.

@lynneluvah at some level, yes. There is so little healthy black sexual imagery in pop culture at all. How could we be much different?

@odeisel janet had none of the privilege or the support in the broader community that madonna would've gotten. [ed. note: this is one I wish I could take back. There's not enough room in 140 characters to unbox this properly and privilege is the wrong word.]

@odeisel hell, bruce springsteen thr[ew] his crotch at the world this year and nobody batted an eyelash.

@odeisel I don't think you can separate the apology from it. You couldn't make Madonna apologize for farting. That janet did adds the shame.

@odeisel because Janet apologized. Because of that factor, he got to say, "Who me?!"

@odeisel she blinked first so he gets a pass. If she had said, "He did it. It ain't my fault. Besides y'all liked it." JT now has drama.

Hmmm, reading through all that, it doesn't feel like I need to say more. Back to the original question, though, I don't think that judgment of Justin Timberlake is accurate at all. Nothing about the Ciara video objectifies her. She's the power player. Justin, while the consummate pop artist most primarily interested in making mega-hit records, has always had a healthy and genuine respect and love for "black" r&b/soul music and -- to use what feels like an archaic term -- been a friend to the black community. I thought he was unfairly judged after the Super Bowl--Miss Jackson should've woman-ed up!--and I think he's being painted with the completely wrong brush here.

Slightly related (although I don't really remember how), this sparked an intense conversation about my fear of the cops with Samhita in relation to her Lovelle Mixon post.

And don't forget, we were talking twitter and privacy heavily in the comments at Tiffany's spot.

My brain is tired. Can I stop thinking now?

Over-Sharers, Protect Ya Neck

"Treat her like a lady. She's that special lady." - Murs, Love and Appreciate II (feat. Tyler Woods)

Tiffany is talking about twitter, privacy, and self-determination where, in the comments, I say...

oh, I think we need to be socialized for all of it. Our parents teach us proper phone etiquette. We learn naturally the proper ways to behave in physical spaces. Who knows the rules online and, in particular, on social networks. It's a challenge my teacher friends have to deal with constantly and there isn't much out there to help them. It's a challenge personally at work where everything I do is kid-focused and the concept of privacy is completely lost on them but is of paramount importance to their parents -- even if they don't quite understand it in the online context.

The problem, though, is that most people don't think about online privacy like you do. The natural ways in which people use these tools makes them not think about the larger impacts for themselves or others. I'd argue that if that was, in fact, put front and center for people to have to consider with every interaction with these services or as part of the registration process, it would become a huge barrier of entry for them. Hell, myspace and facebook both have robust privacy tools now and I'd bet good money that the overwhelming majority of users don't take advantage. And that they don't take advantage isn't really hurting them.

Blissful ignorance and easy points of entry often go hand in hand and, ultimately, the makers of these tools/services are trying to gain the most usage possible.

And, frankly, I think that over-sharers don't get to have their cake and eat it, too. If you want to say some wild shit online, own it, or do it anonymously. When did the responsibility of protecting your reputation move from the individual to the tools? Hell, when phones were first in wide use, you could just sit on the open bell line and eavesdrop. People knew it and talked anyway. It's the risk you take sometimes so protect your own neck.

Getting Smarter About Twitter

"The universe is but a question mark." - The Police, Bring On The Night

SXSWi featured way more discussions about how we use online tools instead of how we make these kinds of tools this year. One of the most common discussions centered around twitter, the many applications available for it, the management of growing friends lists and the different types of "friends" we follow, and how to deal with the signal vs. noise factor.

This has been a common concern for me since I started using the service just over 2 years ago (which...wow, is crazy to me). I've gone through periods of being public and private. I've spent more time than I care to share micro-managing and pruning my follow list (i've set follow limits before - I wouldn't follow more than 75 people, 100, 125...). I've debated with myself over whether or not I care who follows me (outside of spammers and bad marketers who I block with reckless abandon). During South By, however, I was dealing with two specific issues: first, how do I follow some of the celebrity and service-type twitter streams without it mucking up the on-going conversation of my true friends and second, how do I maintain more acquaintance type relationships via twitter without everything else getting lost as well.

In short,

how do I follow more without losing my sanity?

I've been a fan of tweetdeck for a long time but after a few conversations with people, it was obvious I wasn't maximizing it's potential for quieting the noise. I was using groups to easily see what the lady and my co-workers were saying and I had a group called "my people" but the order was wrong. I prefer keeping tweetdeck in single column view on my screen so I can glance at it while still working or surfing or whatever but was still feeling like my main feed was messing me up.

In a duh moment, I realized, I could make the "my people" grouping the dominant feed for my glancing and move everything else to secondary importance. In fact, I moved the "all friends" group to the very last in the column. That's for scanning when I'm actually interested in that larger conversation. I also reminded myself that clicking on someone's name will bring up their profile and stream right in the screen so if someone replies to someone that isn't in my "my people" group, I can still easily find the conversation.

Having used my iPod Touch as my primary device in Austin, I also realized the power of having twitter search easily available (thanks Tweetie!) and so, I also set up some search groups (right now, one for "disney xd" and one for "disney.com") which has already found some fascinating results -- like a 9 year old twittering unofficially on behalf of Disney XD and lots of adults watching their kids play video games on disney.com.

Tweetdeck allows you to have up to 10 groups (which, for me, doesn't feel like enough) and the beta version out currently also includes facebook integration to track and post status updates. I quickly found that annoying though. This facebook service is far less useful than the facebook toolbar in firefox. Tweetdeck remains a resource hog which is a common problem for AIR Applications. Running it and firefox on my iMac is a recipe for frustration when both are in heavy usage.

The simple switch of groups and the search features, however, have made me far less concerned with following many more people. No matter how many I follow, the noise now doesn't get in the way of my real relationships and easy conversations.

SXSWi Panel Thoughts: Me, The Afrosphere and Obama

"This is a repetition of words." - The Black Ghosts, Repetition Kills You

image by Denise Jacobs

I confess to coming into Denise's panel -- Can the Afrosphere Survive in the Age of Obama -- with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. After the Can Social Media End Racism panel where a culturally diverse group of panelists gave barely a fraction of their time to definitions of Online Identity moving right on past to practical and intriguing usages of online tools and how they can be used to combat racial and social inequality, highlight underrepresented stories, and, in meaningful ways, create positive change, I walked through those meeting room doors feeling like the wrong question was being asked.

Why are we asking "Can it survive"? I wanted to know "Should it survive"? I wanted to know "how it survives"? What shape does it take? And, hey, not for nothing but was is this "it" anyway?

I didn't come to SXSW this year thinking I would feel that way. The 10 questions Denise pitched as being the crux of the discussion are compelling but the panel never really got to them. It's also interesting for me to note that the last thing I wrote on this blog was about -- in the age of Obama -- moving more towards the idea of one people. Moving towards a connection with my neighbors of all stripes that simply wasn't there before. So, you know, I got a little bent out of shape when there was a pull towards self-segregation on twitter during the conference

New hashtag #blackxsw - do what you must

as that's not what I'm looking for in 2009.

In a year when the diversity of SXSWi was in such display that I didn't meet or hear about every black person in attendance and where there were, obviously, people of color with wide ranging and diverse opinions -- hell, folks that straight up didn't like each other -- then what is this "afrosphere" we're talking about?

Are they political bloggers focused on the particular plight of African Americans? That doesn't seem right - Markus, Liz, Corvida, and Frederic are all, primarily, focused on technology. Liz runs a black lifestyle blog from behind the scenes but political conversations aren't really the forte of these panelists.

Is the afrosphere technology bloggers focused on African Americans and the web? This would be a good group to talk about that but that isn't what I think of when I hear the word "afrosphere" and that didn't seem to be the focus of the discussion.

Denise's slides include a chronology that make some broad connections between previous SXSWi panels (three of which myself and Lynne participated in) as well as the digital divide, the blackbird browser, and Obama's rise to power. Maybe there's some tangential line between these things but I'm straining to keep it together.

And so, I'm left with the question -- "Should it survive"?

I'll define the Afrosphere as bloggers focused on the black american experience and who self-select or self-segregate into a community of like minded individuals. The Afrosphere is a THE black-targeted online community.

Is that good enough? No (with a caveat).

I say no because we have this great opportunity to make a leap forward in matters of race in America. We have this grand chance to put into action the "big tent" philosophies that many of us cling to as ideal. We are in this moment, I'd argue, where it's okay to be a little uncomfortable. To be less safe. To be truly progressive and inclusive. To step out of the box.

That isn't to say we should give up shining the light on issues relevant to black folks. This isn't about giving up identity. It's about shedding a least a little bit of the baggage that comes with it. Let's stay black-focused but let's get more "everybody-inclusive". If the President and Cory Booker and the influx of intelligent, forward moving people of color in politics and elsewhere in America have taught me anything, it's this: you can do as much, maybe more, for your community by caring about and including others.

As Corvida said during the panel, "...my skin color says enough..."

That also doesn't mean I want safe spaces online where black folks interact and connect to go away. As Tiffany pointed out to me after the panel, we still live in a country with predominantly homogenous communities. When the kid from the predominantly black neighborhood goes to the predominantly white college, there's a culture shock that can be ameliorated with safe "black" spaces on the web.

I'm all for that but I'm also all about forward movement. I want to move the ball down the field.

Let's be bigger than the afrosphere. Let's look for opportunities where we can turn "our" issues into "everyone" issues. And let's make sure we're not too busy hanging out in the online equivalent of the black student union to notice that the world is passing us by and leaving us behind.

What's next? Let's Go!