Aisha Blake Profile picture
DevRel leader, Organizer of @TitleOfConf & @selfconference, Owner of @OpalGroveGames, Reading w/ @DevEdBookClub
Jun 27, 2020 21 tweets 4 min read
Storytime, friends.

This feels like an appropriate moment to talk about the time I tried to start a jewelry business and ended up fleeing my makerspace after someone used it to make a shield with this exact symbol on it. I was a Member Advocate. I was a relatively new member, so I wasn't entirely comfortable taking on this role. I didn't think I could effectively guide new members. I was asked to take it, frankly, b/c I'm a Black woman and they tried to keep a man and a woman in the role...
Jun 5, 2020 9 tweets 3 min read
Um, so, this should be obvious but... YOU DO NOT GET TO DECIDE WHO IS BLACK AND WHO IS NOT.

This person is a racist troll but, unless you’re Black, you may not have noticed how often a person’s Blackness gets called into question.

A thread... @brian_armstrong on Twitter says: I want to unequivocally say that Black Lives Matter.<br />
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@HeyTaiZen says: If black lives matter then they should go into the ghettos in America and protest the black people killing black people. They can start in Chicago.@HeyTaiZen on Twitter says: ‪You ever live in the ghetto around black people before?‬<br />
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‪I have lived around more black people in my life than most black people in america and I'm not falling for that dumb nonsense that white police purposely go out and kill more minorities.‬<br />
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@tweetmonster999 says: ‪Yes I have..... First off. I AM BLACK. My FAMILY is black. So many of my FRIENDS are black. I'm not sure where you're getting at with this one making that statement to a BLACK person lol.‬@HeyTaiZen on Twitter says: You might have dark skin but you ain't a real
‪I have lived around real black people most of my life and they don't think that nonsense like u do.‬

‪If u understand an ounce of the "struggles" of real black people u would instantly see through the BLM bullshit. ‬" src="/images/1px.png" data-src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZx3wu5WsAAyxc8.jpg">
Growing up, this was part of my daily life.

“You’re not like OTHER Black people.”

“You’re not ghetto.”

“How’d you get so smart?”

“You’re so articulate.”

“You don’t act Black.”

“You’re like an Oreo! White on the inside, Black on the outside!”
Aug 29, 2019 15 tweets 5 min read
Okay! I'll give it a try because this has been on my mind lately. First up, a little background on me for context: I've been speaking for a few years off and on and really kicked it into high gear last year. I attended ~20 different conferences, most of them as a speaker. I've volunteered for some conferences (notably @codemash and @strangeloop_stl) and co-organize @selfconference and @WordCampDetroit. I'm starting a musical tech conference called @TitleOfConf. I've participated in tech conferences in most of the ways it's possible to do so!