Megan speaks out
Megan Thee Stallion’s interview with Gayle King aired recently on CBS. She talked about her childhood dreams of being a rapper and close relationship with her parents, but the part that has everyone buzzing is when she talked about the 2020 shooting incident between her and Canadian rapper, Tory Lanez, which is set to go to trial in September. He has pleaded not guilty.
The interview was hard to watch. All across social media people are blasting her for speaking out when Tory has a gag order against him. Hellooooo….Megan is the victim here. She’s not on trial. Plus, everything she said is a matter of public record. But the bottom line is she doesn’t even owe the public “her side.”
To be fair, Megan said she created some of the drama by lying to police and saying she stepped on glass after an argument with her friends. Megan said she didn’t want to bring any trouble to herself or her friends. And she didn’t want Tory to get in trouble. She was trying to protect the man who shot her. That’s what so many Black women do…try to protect Black men. So it’s really sad that in the end, they still end up attacked. From the perpetrator. From the public. From the press.
While this story is clearly about Megan Thee Stallion, it’s also about Black women. If people can’t believe a celebrity, just imagine the Black women in their everyday lives. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in a fair trial. I don’t want to crucify a Black man. But the proof was in the blood….Megan was shot. And it’s a sad state of the world, that she has to go on national television to convince people that she. was. shot.
Black Twitter, what you gonna do?
People are packing their bags and bolting from Twitter, now that Elon Musk is purported to buy the social media platform for $44 billion. For those mad at the Twitter board for selling, remember, they’re about that business.And it would be financial malpractice to turn down that money, even if it grants unfettered control of one of the most popular digital properties in our present history to a man with a questionable past.
Musk, the founder of a company that California is suing for allegedly silencing thousands of Black employees who complained about racism, is buying a company that has given millions of Black people a megaphone-like voice to complain about racism. And the billionaire insists he’s doing it all to protect free speech. Musk’s intentions for Twitter remained unclear. But if his past commentary and the way he’s run his other businesses are any indications, the platform will welcome back misinformation, lies, racism and threats of violence with impunity, which often hit communities of color the hardest.
So now the question remains, Black Twitter ‘what us gon’ do?’ For those that don’t know, #BlackTwitter is a community of millions that figured out how to turn a nascent social media platform into an indispensable tool for real-world activism, political power and change. Whether the bulk of Black Twitter lives on or morphs into existence elsewhere remains to be seen. After all, if there’s one tradition that lives on amongst Black people everywhere, it’s the ability to find new places to congregate and new ways to be entertained. I do think that you will see Black people doing what we have always done. And that is bend communication and other technologies to our needs and our will. And find ways to thrive in those various areas of the internet. We’re in wait and see mode. But our bags are packed and by the door.