Reverse racism or innovative empowerment? That’s the question many users are asking the moderators of a Reddit forum called “Black People Twitter.” Moderators are now requiring participants to send in a snapshot of their forearms to prove they are Black to participate in certain discussions, reported the New York Times.
According to the Times, the feed began as a place where Black people could come let their guard down and discuss things that were relevant to the culture. However, after noticing an uptick offensive comments by people believed to be non-Black, moderators decided to change the rules.
“Some of the posts casually dropped racial slurs. Others repeated anti-black stereotypes about crime, parenting and intelligence. Beyoncé was disparaged,” the Times reported.
Not Beyonce. That was enough for Tony Hinderman, a Black actor based in Chicago, to think there were white people posing as Black folks. “These people are white … Black people love Beyoncé. There is nothing to not love about her,” Hinderman said.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 67: Jamarlin Martin
Jamarlin goes solo to discuss the NFL’s entertainment and “social justice” deal with Jay-Z. We look back at the Barclays gentrification issue in the documentary “A Genius Leaves The Hood: The Unauthorized Story of Jay-Z.”
The moderators implemented “Bad Faith Participation” rules to discourage disparaging comments. When that didn’t work, they decided to make the controversial forearm photo policy – which started out as an April Fool’s joke – permanent.
Through the policy Black users are verified and given a checkmark by their names. Once heated threads are shut down for white users’ commentary, Black users can continue discussion. So can other people of color, but they don’t receive the verification checkmark. White people can get into the exclusive group by writing about white privilege’s meaning to moderators.
Users complained almost immediately calling the policy hypocritical and racist. However, moderators stand by the policy and even have labeled the threads that are closed to white users after a certain point “Country Club” discussions.
“We wanted to find a way to allow actual Black people to be heard without being drowned out,” one of the Black moderators identified on Reddit as MGLLN told the Times.
