Sonnie Johnson: Black Twitter vs Hotep Twitter

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When speaking on the subject of abortion, I’ve often stated, “You say we come from the bloodlines of Kings and Queens. Kings and Queens don’t kill their unborn children. They fight for a legacy to leave to their unborn children.” I made the reference due to some of the chatter I’d seen on social media. I didn’t know I had pulled from the #blacktwitter and #hoteptwitter feud.

By now, we should all know about #BlackTwitter. If you think you don’t have the time or inclination, you are doing this nation a disservice by not paying attention to the non-Arabic radicals and the radically tempted in American society. Bernie Sanders is making inroads and socialism is being preached as socially acceptable. #BlackTwitter created @deray and he is now running for mayor of Baltimore. Please pay attention.

However, #HotepTwitter is a new enigma to me. I ran across this and it sparked my interest.

Hotep was a late 25th century BC Egyptian vizier. He is credited with creating one of the first “books” ever written: The Maxims of Ptahhotep. It was a guide for Egyptian men on how to behave in society.

In an article entitled, Hotep Twitter is not Black Twitter, @VibeHi writes…

The Black Twitter community speaks so poorly of Hoteps, that an outsider would believe that we are an outcast to the society. So, let us go. You can chill with the, “How Hotep are you?” quizzes. Fall back. But we know you can’t because you love us. You love us because you want to be us. You want to have the strength to focus on self but it’s so much easier to focus on others. So envy consumes the ego.

And what does Black Twitter think about Hotep Twitter?

Black women must avoid Hoteps at all costs and my tips on how to spot them!

Added to the Urban Dictionary…

Black men who are only concerned about matters of social justice when it comes to black men and have little or no regard for the health and well-being of other members of the black race unless those people can serve to uphold their misogynistic societal ideas.

Hoteps are bitter black men who are somewhat progressive, though undereducated on issues of racial prejudice and use pro-black rhetoric to support ideas that are clearly not in the best interest of all black people.

These men are typically misogynists who display a particularly high level of disrespect for the thoughts, bodies, and experiences of black women, black homosexuals, and black children. These men regularly espouse anti-intellectual and anti-scientific beliefs about nutrition, women’s menstrual cycles, and child development on social media.

Hotep Twitter Rehashes Willie Lynch Mentality

Usually I have a live and let live philosophy about such things. I love a good debate and make it a point to have people in my circle with varying opinions. Yet after thinking back on some of my personal experiences with this particular group, I gotta say – I think Hotep Twitter is borderline dangerous.

Blue Telusma

I’ll save you the trouble of reading all the articles. They all attack Hotep Twitter as sexist, homophobic, and transphobic. Basically, they are not good little social justice warriors. When a black man is killed at the hands of the police, Black Twitter is quick to become his hero. If that same black man says, “I am the head of my household and it is my responsibility to take care of my wife and children,” he is apart of the patriarchal society meant to oppress women, gays, and transsexuals.

Think about it like this… while we conservatives are debating whether the breakdown of the black family is the cause of the poverty within the black community, blacks within the black community are fighting over a “traditional” family vs “progressive” family. We are still asking how to get into the black community instead of actually paying attention to what’s going on inside the black community.

Are they misogynistic? Maybe. But you are a feminist. You balance each other out.

Are they homophobic? Maybe. But you have rainbow flags flying everywhere. You balance each other out.

Are they transphobic? Maybe. And maybe you’d have to put me in that category. Don’t tell me a man, with a penis, who decides to put on a dress is the equivalent of the diamond that meets at the intersection of my thighs. I’m not buying it.

The question that black twitter never asks, “Are they racist?” Black Twitter likes that they are pro-black, against the police state, and savvy at clowning white supremacists. And if that’s the case, there has to be more than just Social Justice causing the divide.

Since I spend zero time playing the social justice warrior game. Let me tell you what my immediate instincts are on Hotep. When Donald Trump announced he was going to run for president, I was the first to say, “he will win a large portion of the black vote.” Before I knew their name, Hotep Twitter were the black people I was talking about.

The major difference in the attitudes of Black Twitter and Hotep twitter is how to solve the problems in the black community. Black Twitter wants to bring down the Capitalist system and insert a more just model of government or socialism. Hotep Twitter says…

Fake Deep 

Black Twitter will only attack Hotep Twitter on questions of social justice. When Hotep Twitter dismisses their need for “safe space” or notions of “white supremacy being replaced with Black Nationalism,” they don’t care about the feelings of those oppressed and maligned by white supremacy and the black male hierarchy. Until of course those black men are gunned down in the street. Then they are symbols of the black struggle as a whole.

What is truly funny? Black Twitter hasn’t been able to live up to its own standard. Three black queer women—that’s their self-description—started Black Lives Matter. Yet, the two most dominant names in the movement are Deray Mckesson and Sean King. Hell, Sean King isn’t even black.

The Black Lives Matter movement only gained traction at the bodies of dead black men. When Black Twitter started #SayHerName, they noticed the cases of police brutality against women didn’t garner the same attention as the cases against the men…within their own twitter circles.

When all the black men that stood with Black Lives Matter didn’t rush to define Netta Elzie’s Essence cover photo as the definition of #BlackGirlMagic, black females on twitter realized the men marching next to them weren’t the beta-males they presumed them to be.

Notice…it wasn’t a charge of racism. It was stop hating. That is black on black language.

I will remain under the banner of conservatism but there is one synopsis of the Hotep that speaks perfectly to my position. The Hood vs Black Politics took me back to when I was 17…

Under the summer moon the whole city is lit, and every hood turns into the club. I can remember emerging from an abandoned house from a basement with bricks falling out of the wall. The DJ played nothing but fire and the only light came from a small window and the glow of Nextel phones. Dancing on each other so hard it had to be a ritual. Hopping in my tinted out hatchback about 7 goons deep, front seat removed because, why not? Hit the chicken store parking lot doing donuts with way too much green lit. An enormous feast funded by the fat stack in my pocket from transactions earlier in the day. Jokes on top of jokes because those benches became our living room and that chicken was fried just right. The perfect mix of Henny and THC in the system, I know how we got here, but no clue how I got home. A perfect night in the land where the news cameras never come.

And speaks clearly on how I feel today, with the “they did this to us” replaced by “we allowed with our apathy”…

The last thing anyone needs is another history lesson. Let’s just keep it simple and say everyone understands why the majority of black people come from hoods. They did this to us. The most efficient part of their plan was to make us blind to our self-destructive, poverty-stricken cages.

American hoods are breeding grounds for ignorance. It multiplies faster than we can hope to contain. Of course we all know people who have made it and became a monstrous success story. That very thought is foolish. We cannot ignore the masses to point out a few outliers. We also cannot keep accepting this dangerously low standard that things are fine because a few make it. Our communities should be a pipeline of success stories that reflect our greatness and contribute to a cycle of success and prosperity. Time to lay down some soil to eliminate every successful black person having to be another rose that grew from concrete.

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