Black Twitter—previous to the Elon Musk period—has been a comical, informative and a trendsetting car that has translated throughout social media. This elite group not solely speaks to the Black expertise of occasions previous and current, nevertheless it dictates it. The Black social media customers who dive head first into making waves into these platforms have performed a pivotal position in transferring the needle on essential conversations and cultural moments that can be laborious to overlook. Moreover, people just like the “Dean of Black Twitter” Michael Harriot have taken up the torch to have actual dialogue concerning the points that matter.
As a scholar, educator and cultural commentator, he has grow to be a premier voice in breaking down how our shared Black historical past impacts us to at the present time in methods we have not even imagined.
Michael Harriot caught up with EBONY to talk concerning the surprise of Black historical past and his mission of upholding it on his new podcast Drapetomaniax: Unshackled Historical past.
EBONY: Social media generally is a tough place to make waves in. Why did the nickname “Dean of Black Twitter” stick for you?
Michael Harriot: I am Black, so I do know which you could give your self a nickname. Truly, I feel Tiffany Cross made it up, or she could have heard it some place else. However I used to be on her present someday, and she or he launched me as that, and it made sense. All through my profession, I’ve discovered that I’ve all the time been a great explainer. As for Twitter, individuals would ask me to interrupt issues down, and I turned just like the “negro explainer” on the app. Though I used to be a professor and an educator, I used to be by no means an precise dean, however I feel that simply turned my default place on Black Twitter. It is the place some individuals battle, 50 Cents begins beef, Dr. Seuss makes you snigger and I clarify issues.
As a Black particular person, it may be taxing to constantly break down our historical past for minds hesitant to just accept our truths. Has this follow ever felt like a burden?
After I’m explaining a few of these issues, I am not explaining them to help white individuals. I’m the one that’s attempting to make Black individuals really feel seen and present that we’re all collectively seeing and listening to the identical issues. Typically, simply explaining and saying there is a purpose why we’re listening to and seeing the identical issues is sufficient for Black individuals to grasp that their expertise shouldn’t be essentially distinctive. We’re not explaining for the individuals who do not know what they’re speaking about.
How did the chance to work with Pharrell’s Different Tone in your new podcast, Drapetomaniax: Unshackled Historical past come about?
Pharrell and I are literally associates. I’ve identified him for a number of years and I do not know if I’ve ever had a dialog with him about music, despite the fact that he is one of many dopest producers within the historical past of Black music. Sooner or later, I informed him about this loopy concept that I’ve for a podcast, and he was like, “Man, we should always try this.” Time handed, and I began writing a e book and writing on The Amber Ruffin Present, and circled again about it each week as he talked about the thought to the OtherTone people. Finally, we began the podcast and recorded a pilot. But it surely sat on a tough drive for 3 years. Lastly, once I was prepared, we did it, and it has been a pleasure.
Within the podcast, you’re employed towards dismantling the sense of disgrace that comes from Black People not understanding their historical past. Why is that this necessary to do? The place does it come from generally?
I discovered early on in life that white individuals specifically are no smarter or superior to the Black dudes I performed kickball with in my neighborhood. However I additionally acknowledged that Black individuals had a delicate, unconscious deference to whiteness. I by no means actually understood the place that got here from. So usually, we’re preventing for [white Americans] to validate our existence, understanding full nicely that they do not have the compassion, expertise or the life classes to have the ability to accomplish that. Why would you ask an auto mechanic to validate your coronary heart studying take a look at? White individuals cannot validate the Black expertise, however the concept that we want them to is pervasive amongst us. I feel that is a part of what we have got to dismantle the concept that white individuals have this type of uncommon smartness or expertise that we have to emulate. They do not have higher morals or faith than us, however they prosper as a result of they’ve constructed the system we exist in. That is why I really feel a duty in my work and thru this podcast to elucidate issues on this manner as a way to erase our disgrace and delicate deference to whiteness.
