Hello! Welcome to COTL, a discussion place for BIPOC. Posted the first 3 Wednesdays of the month

Thread Rules
1. We ask that only those who identify as people of color participate in this discussion. White Avocados, while valued members of this community, should remain in ‘lurk’ mode.
2. Shaming and hateful speech are unacceptable.
3. Please keep potentially traumatic content safely behind spoiler tags.
4. Nobody on this thread is more or less a person of color than anyone else. (We will not set clearly delineated boundaries on who qualifies as a ‘person of color.’ As a starting point, this thread uses the definition of ‘non-European heritage of sufficient prominence to affect one’s navigation of a society built on white normativity.’ However, we recognize that there are identities which skirt either side of the divide. If people feel that they meaningfully experience the identity of being a person of color, then they are welcome to participate.)

Hello CotL community-HP again this week keeping the home fires burning while our regular host is away!

I’d hoped to have a longer intro for a prompt this week, but, well..circumstances. And also my Black History Month thread takes up the little bit of extra time I have these days! So, briefly, I wanted to ask about what I’ve been thinking of as ‘digital migration’. I wish I’d had more time to give you context, but the idea, roughly, was this: with Twitter/X being completely (and rightly) objectionable, Facebook/Instagram being about the same, and other social media apps in upheaval, what social media do you use these days, if you choose to engage? Have you been a part of any community that has diminished/disappeared/etc as a result of the disaster that is ‘Twitter/X’, or another social media platform?

My occasion for thinking about this was due to a conversation I was having with a colleague about the recent book ‘Bearing Witness While Black’. My colleague and I were talking about the implications of something like Black Twitter, which had a variety of important ways in which Black people established communities, shared information, and sustained each other in difficult moments. I mused about what might happen next, but as I’m not really a social media person, I really wasn’t sure what to say. So I thought I’d ask the community here for thoughts..

And again, I want to leave space for/encourage Sanity Checks. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, from a research paper published in 2000: Of vital importance to emotional survival and well-being for African Americans are personal “sanity checks.” These are steps taken to seek corroboration from other African Americans of experiences and treatment at the hands of a racist society. For example, sanity checks are another reason black students and co-workers “sit together in the cafeteria,” and talk with each other at school and work.
Imagine that we’re all sitting together in the cafeteria. The definition above is specifically about Black people, but it is readily applicable to any PoC. If something’s weighing on you and you’d like to share it here, that’s fine!

Be safe and well this week.