Many people don’t know that the phrase “crabs in a barrel” comes from an old Geechie Gullah tale.

A thread: A long time ago, it was impossible to catch crabs. They were too crafty. Even when they got caught in a net, other crabs would come and free them. Then, one day, a fisherman found a crafty old crab in his net one morning. He was just about to eat it when the the crafty old crab said:

“Please Mr. Fisherman, don’t eat me. Please don’t eat me!”

7 years ago, I wrote a small piece about a man who was falsely accused of a crime.

A few days later, I got an anonymous telling me to look up the woman they called “the evilest white woman on earth.”

What happened next is the absolute wildest story you’ll ever hear

A thread The story begins in 2017, when an editor asked me to fill in for a coworker and do a quick write-up about Lamonte McIntyre, who spent 23 yrs in prison for a double murder he didn’t commit.

I thought it was weird his conviction wasn’t actually overturned

theroot.com/lamonte-mcinty…

Good question.

A BETTER question is why is Youngkin so determined to give Klan-affiliated white women welfare by stealing money from Black kids?

A thread.

https://twitter.com/GovernorWilder/status/1779926979254579422

Contrary what people who don't read things say, the Virginia legislature is not "targeting" the Klan-affiliated, pro-Confederate hate group that is responsible for the "lost cause" by taking the tax-exempt status from the KKK's little sister.

One more thing:

In 1924, lawmakers tasked the census bureau was tasked with figuring out the “national origins of the white population of the US.”

If white people were from a certain country, that country was considered “Good.” Nonwhite people were from “bad countries.” To preserve the country’s racial composition, they created a formula. Ppl from good countries could immigrate based on the % of pop. in the formula. Immigration from bad countries was limited.

And no Asians

This was why we call it the Asian Exclusion & National Origins Act

I'll take this one.

The idea that affirmative action or diversity, equity & inclusion policies equal lower standards is something that a lot of people believe.

Instead of citing what "I believe" like Elon did, let's use facts & a something I like to called "math"

A thread.

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1769842544425279898

First of all, there is a good reason why Elon referred to Duke. It's part of a discussion began by Ben Shapiro and some other white people after a white girl said some things about Duke Medical School's DEI program

By its own admission, the school has a DEI program.

Three years ago, I realized one of my lifelong dreams that reflects the racial progress this country has made throughout its history.

I became a diversity hire.

A thread. Growing up, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED stand-up. As a kid, I watched episodes of "Evening at the Improv) & once got in trouble for listening to Richard Pryor (Even worse, I dubbed it over my grandma's James Cleveland album).

And I LOVED Late-night TV.

Three years ago, I realized one of my lifelong dreams that reflects the racial progress this country has made throughout its history.

I became a diversity hire.

A thread. Growing up, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED stand-up. As a kid, I watched episodes of "Evening at the Improv) & once got in trouble for listening to Richard Pryor (Even worse, I dubbed it over my grandma's James Cleveland album).

And I LOVED Late-night TV.

Here’s an interesting #BHM challenge:

You get to choose any three people, living or dead, to answer 1 question:

Who is responsible for saving the most lives in all of human history?

I’d argue than no one can beat my team.

A thread. The first 1 is easy. You probably already know her name:

Henrietta Lacks

Although her cells were harvested without her consent, its possible that we’ll EVER KNOW how many lives were saved because of HeLa cells.

hopkinsmedicine.org/henrietta-lack…

I know I tweet about history a lot, but for Black History Month, let's talk about math (OK, there'll be a little bit of history involved)

A thread: The first thing you should know is that after the fall of the Roman Empire, there was so little intellectual & scientific progress, that historians later referred to this period as "the Dark Ages."

To be fair, that term only refers to white people

Today, a lot of old Black men will be rooting for the KC Chiefs.

It has nothing to do with Taylor Swift, a Black QB or Travis Kelce's pioneering haircut. It's about HBCUs, Black history, a kidnapping & white affirmative action.

How Racism Invented the Super Bowl

A thread. Pro football existed before the NFL. Independent football teams played each other & they even crowned a "national champion."

Remember, many colleges were segregated, which meant a lot of the BEST football players played at HBCUs, Ivy League colleges & on the West Coast.

Too often, when talking about the violence of Reconstruction, we focus on what whites did to Black people.

But what about the white community?

Well on this day, 150 years ago, SC finally addressed a problem that had plagued the state for years.

White on white crime

A thread It was 1872 in SC and Black people were doing great.

SC was ~ 60% Black. The legislature was majority-Black. The Lt Gov was Black. SC had America’s 1st Black Secretary of State, 1st Black Supreme Court justice & the 1st Black state treasurer.

BUT white people were NOT ok

This could literally be the definition of whiteness.

Or white supremacy.

Or any variation of the specific brand of Christian nationalism that has been weaponized and used to justify white supremacy since the beginning of America history.

A thread:

https://twitter.com/davidpollack47/status/1753061053053768101

1606 - The first Charter of Virginia granted with a goal of “propagating of Christian religion to such people, as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge& worship of God & … bring the infidels and savages, living in those parts, to human civility”

“a recruit reported hearing him describe his day by saying to someone on the phone, ‘Oh, just another day with the old boot on the n****r’s neck’ … a dozen troopers confirmed they heard Allison use the slur.”

This isn’t the wildest part of this article

oregonlive.com/crime/2024/01/… There was the cop who killed someone and wanted to keep the gun as a keepsake

Little known fact:

Although much has been written about America's PAST treatment of Black veterans, few people are aware that tens of thousands of Black people who served in the US Armed Forces are technically and legally excluded from Veterans Day.

A thread (and a story) First of all, the mistreatment of Black veterans dates back to the beginning of America. Many enslaved people who fought in the American Revolution were promised their freedom.

America reneged.

Don't trust my version of history. Ask a little organization called the US Army.

Everyone knows the story of Nearest Green's whiskey recipe. But the Jack Daniel family's wealth ain't got SHIT on the family that made money off the scam they pulled on Stephen Slade

A thread

https://twitter.com/mynameisCHANSA/status/1718159593451217152

In 1839, Stephen Slade fell asleep in the barn.

Stephen, an "exceptionally intelligent" man, was enslaved by Abisha Slade, a farmer who inherited his land Abisha didn't know shit about farming. He was a politician who talked a good game, tho.

One of the most frequent questions I’ve received about Black AF History is:

“Is there something you left out?”

The first draft of the book, had a game based on my belief that every Black American is connected to one guy:

Let’s play “Six Degrees of TRM Howard”

A thread: The story begins with a secret meeting.

On August 12, 1846, 12 men representing every state that still enslaved human beings assembled at a house on the corner of Green and Seventh Street in St. Louis, Mo. They each put their hand over their hearts and recited a pledge:

160 years ago today, the state of Georgia refused to seat 33 Black elected officials from the state legislature, sparking a series of events that led to one of Black Twitter's most celebrated memes.

A thread. A lot of people believe the Civil War wasn't about slavery. Those people are either liars or dumb.

Every single declaration of secession mentions slavery. The Confederate president and VP said: We're doing this for white supremacy

Well, they put it more plainly

He's right.

If you believe a lone racist gunman killed 3 people in Jacksonville, it's probably because you only learned a whitewashed version of history. But there is a reason why a white supremacist chose this specific location:

A thread

https://twitter.com/QasimRashid/status/1695852456066916566

The shooting happened in the New Town section of Jacksonville, Fla.

Wait... Why is the black section called "New Town?"

You've probably heard about the Great Chicago Fire & the San Francisco Fire. Well, the 3rd largest urban fire in American history was in Jacksonville, Fla

Last year, Spike Lee interviewed me for his upcoming doc on @Kaepernick7.

He was so nice & even gave me a tour of the studios. I'm a Spike Lee stan. So when he said he loved my writing and wanted to meet me, I was too flustered to tell him that we'd met before.

A thread.

https://twitter.com/rodimusprime/status/1692181057611726900

In college, I was on the board of the Black Student Union.

I don't want to make it sound like I was so militant because the school was only about 4% Black, so BSU was basically our weekly get-together.

The only other time we saw each other was at the Free Movie.

A lot of outlets have been telling the story of Tony Bennett marching with MLK.

But have you ever heard the story about how “wokeness,” DEI, Jesus, an actual anti-racist, 2 church choirs & 1 of the greatest dance moves of all time got Tony Bennett into show biz?

A thread The story begins when Black soldiers returned from WWI & white folks went wild & just started killing Black veterans. The Klan’s numbers surged, sparking the “Red Summer of 1919”

history.com/news/red-summe…

He might be telling the truth.

Let’s analyze the statement and the song:

A thread

https://twitter.com/tmz/status/1681399102343397396

First of all, here are the lyrics to Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town”