Remember the Human…

In mid-December, I put up an experiment . This experiment had a goal, which was only known to me. The goal was can someone outside the Black community can related or not relate to an article within for a Black audience. The results were not meant to be scientific, but I wanted to see how people would answer as well as if they will cooperate l. More importantly, I wanted to see how people would cooperate in this experiment that only hints but so much.

So, did the target audience gave me the answers I seek? Well, there were no right or wrong answers. It’s a very targeted article towards heterosexual Black couples. What I expected was they can’t relate to the article because it wasn’t written for their race. What I got was actually the opposite. While they do claim word usage was a little bit different, they can’t/can relate for their own reasons, and not one reply was because it was written for a Black audience. And that’s fine and dandy. So, if you’re waiting for the answer to that, that’s it.

I wanted to say even in a non-scifietic study, even if the something was written for a Black audience, White people can or can’t relate to it for about the same reasons the target audience can/can’t relate to it.

And I was going to post some of their answers anonymously… but this turned into something a lot bigger than my initial findings.

First thing I noticed was a miscount in the notes… there were (at the time) 15 notes. But the numbers didn’t match up.

Turned out that some Anti-Social Justice bloggers found a way to block it so that they won’t show up in the notes. So far this is what I found… which by the way, I wasn’t surprised .

But looking for the missing notes lead to something else entirely different.

I went into an analytics software originally to research the experiment post’s traffic. For those who don’t know what an analytics software is, it’s something that helps me track results so I know what topics to expand on as well as where traffic is coming from.

I saw a lot of traffic coming from reddit. Like a huge spike in one day. (1.7 visits)

I was the target of a subReddit called “ TumblrInAction ”, an anti-social justice community, discussing and poking fun at a wide range of social justice topics. They have a full resource on how to search for topic to make fun of.

I noticed that I was getting reblogs for this post , one that I didn’t added commentary to. And I was getting frustrated with the commentary that was being added to it. I would call it “white tears” (a subject which I am oddly an expect on, according to Google), it seems to be more than that.

Like any community, they have rules, one was how to not harass the bloggers/tumblr users. But this clearly wasn’t the case. After I subliminally blog this post , a week later, this sticky reddit popped up .

This subReddit community was built on basically is about one thing: cultivating a close-minded culture of bullying “social justice warriors”. One thing that I don’t like is when people say things like “it’s only the Internet, you shouldn’t take things seriously”. This old standby is meaningless. There’s a reason why you hide behind pseudonyms to the point that there’s an outcry about the YouTube switching to Google+’s commenting system… a method to curve YouTube comments as well as giving you A FACE so that you are careful with what you write. You hide because it keeps you safe and it makes another person’s experience meaningless.

What was the first rule of “ reddiquette ”? Remember the human.

When you communicate online, all you see is a computer screen. When talking to someone you might want to ask yourself “Would I say it to the person’s face?” or “Would I get jumped if I said this to a buddy?”



At times, I forget that I’m human. Mostly because I was told all my life, people told me that I am a “strong black male”. That fuels my ego, because I’m suppose to be strong. But I’m not really that strong. Sometimes, I forget that, because I’m literally turning myself into an Android. I didn’t create this forum to snap at people every chance I get, I created it to explain a concept. It’s easy to forget that at times, because of the watch an interface of a computer, or getting illuminated by the glow of a tablet, or you’re feeling the glass of a smart-phone.

But the difference however… is that I probably would say the same things I blog about… to your face… in a tactful matter. Hence why I spend the last few days off tumblr and adjusting myself so that I’m the same across the board. The same experience you get online will be the same you get offline.

So, to the subReddit community… thank you for reminding me that there are still nasty people out there that rather hide behind names, exploiting the experiences of others for their own amusement. Thank you for reminding me that I need to make quality posts and take the harder road. Thanks for exposing yourself and reminding me that sometimes, I’m no better than you when I certain posts.

I will reconsider my stance on how I approach things. I’ll be more tactful.

Except with communities like yours and people such as yourselves. I know yours are a dime a dozen. But it’s your right. You have the freedom to make fun of social justice if you want. But considered this…

… all the reddits I seen so far… are from people who are not so-called “social justice warriors”. No matter what you tell yourself, you are encouraging negative behaviors and a disconnect from humanity of others.

So, my only advice to you?

Remember the human… assholes.