…oh, Slate…

Slate decided to post an article about “How Black People Use Twitter” (shouts out to @ManAboutIt for providing the link).

Umm…yeah.

I’m sure this was all based on actual research (because we need to fund worthy research projects in this economy), and that the title of the article itself was meant to generate “discussion,” but damn. I’ve said it once and I will say it again:

BLACK PEOPLE ARE NOT A MONOLITH.

I managed to make it to the end of the article where a bail-out attempt is made in the “of course this isn’t all black people” vein.

Ahh, redemption…

I’m still not sure whether this is a surreptitious attempt to talk about class differences in America or if the writer really, REALLY thinks that what *some* black folks have to say on Twitter is THAT interesting…then again, I don’t usually participate in trending topics or do “the Twitter” into the wee hours of the morning, so what do I know?

Either way, I’ve taken the graphic used for the article, a brown bird holding a blackberry and wearing a fitted baseball cap, and altered it a few times over. I figure that if Slate and the world are really that intrigued (and because Twitter can’t provide empirical data on who is who), those individuals who want to be identified as a black person using Twitter should be able to do so with a brown bird wearing a fitted cap in a color that best represents them.

UPDATE: I seem to have gotten a bit carried away…birds now available in more than fitted caps! ON SPINNING RIMS EVEN!!

Feel free to use these at will. Need a larger file? Email me.

And since I got chewed out by night’s end, here is one for my lighter skinned peeps:

Annnnnnnnnnnnnd more from today…I’m stopping after this, I promise. These are the special requests that I pledged to fulfill. If I didn’t get to yours, I am sorry…

UPDATE 8/12: I can’t believe I’m still making these…

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I’m laughing with a supreme side-eye on my face (a la Latifah):

Just to be clear, I’m not crying racism…I just think this piece could have been thought through a bit more…or written in a style that wasn’t trying to provoke a response…like this one…

Awwwwwwwwww shit.

Well played, Slate. Well played.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: Since this article was based largely on what I believe to be “some BOOLSHYT,” feel free to take a brown bird even if you aren’t…brown. LOL. They are cute.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A post on this…article…that I really enjoyed is over at Black Snob. It’s basically everything I wanted to say, but was too busy to say because I was having way too much fun with Photoshop.

AND ANOTHER UPDATE: my good friend over at Stop It Right Now has contributed a bird. Anyone else who wants to make one, do it and I’ll post it here. =)