[Ads-l] "Black Twitter" Not in OED

[Rich Lowenthal]

Baratunde Thurston gave a talk at SXSW on March 14, 2010 on "How To Be 
Black (Online)" that referenced "Black Twitter." His slides can be found 
at

https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/how-to-be-black-online-by-baratunde/3431054

An article in Slate (August 10, 2010) also referenced the phrase.

https://slate.com/technology/2010/08/how-black-people-use-twitter.html

Rich Lowenthal


------ Original Message ------
>From "ADSGarson O'Toole" 
<00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date 8/16/2025 16:22:17
Subject Re: "Black Twitter" Not in OED

>Fred Shapiro wrote:
>>  The term "Black Twitter" is not in OED.  I'm embarrassed to say that I asked Chatgpt what is the earliest known
>>  occurrence of the term.  Below is its response.  I have not made any attempt to verify the citation.
>>
>>  Chatgpt says:
>>
>>  The earliest known published use of the term “Black Twitter” appears in an article titled “Black Twitter: A Starter Kit”,
>>  which was published on the online magazine The Root on February 4, 2010
>
>There exists a similar type of article posted to The Root website, but
>it appeared in 2014. I could not find a 2010 article with the title
>specified by ChatGPT. It might be a hallucination.
>
>Article: Here’s Your Black Twitter Welcome Manual
>Author: Akoto Ofori-Atta
>Date: January 3, 2014
>https://www.theroot.com/here-s-your-black-twitter-welcome-manual-1790885228#!
>
>Wikipedia has a pertinent article, but the earliest instances it lists
>are for "black people twitter" instead of "black twitter":
>Website: Wikiepdia
>Article: Black Twitter
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Twitter
>
>[Begin excerpt]
>Brock cites the first reference to a Black Twitter community—as "Late
>Night Black People Twitter" and "Black People Twitter"—in the November
>2009 article "What Were Black People Talking About on Twitter Last
>Night?" by Choire Sicha, co-founder of current-affairs website The
>Awl. Sicha described it as "huge, organic and … seemingly seriously
>nocturnal"—in fact, active around the clock.
>[End excerpt]
>
>Below is the article referred to by Wikipedia.
>Website: Medium
>Article: What Were Black People Talking About on Twitter Last Night?
>Author: Choire Sicha
>Date: Nov 11, 2009
>https://medium.com/the-awl/what-were-black-people-talking-about-on-twitter-last-night-4408ca0ba3d6
>
>[Begin excerpt]
>The only reason that White People Twitter knows about Black People
>Twitter is because when you white people wake up on the East Coast or
>when you go to bed late on the West Coast, the trending topics are
>hilarious chat-memes, ruling the trending topics, and yes, last
>night’s was the very funny #uainthittinitright.
>[End excerpt]
>
>There are a wide variety of early tweets which match "black twitter".
>I think this might be the best place to search. Unfortunately, the
>denotations vary and are often ambiguous. The accompanying links
>within tweets are typically dead. Here are some examples:
>
>https://x.com/sugree/status/764527108
>sugree @sugree
>anyway, i love black twitter
>11:39 AM · Feb 28, 2008
>
>The tweet immediately below is included to help explicate the next
>tweet from Wayne Sutton.
>https://x.com/waynesutton/status/640675292
>Wayne Sutton @waynesutton
>I need a list of my African-American (black) twitter friends to DM me
>for my post on diversity in social media, thanks
>10:56 AM · Jan 25, 2008
>
>https://x.com/waynesutton/status/742269702
>Wayne Sutton @waynesutton
>DM & I'll add you to the black twitter pack list
>11:12 PM · Feb 21, 2008
>
>https://x.com/Relborn/status/866890928
>RicGames @Relborn
>Black Twitter down ...
>4:13 AM · Jul 24, 2008
>
>https://x.com/yourblacknews/status/1029074229
>yourblack.news @yourblacknews
>A black Twitter Portal  http://blck.me/
>1:28 AM · Nov 29, 2008
>
>https://x.com/JimmyRothzchild/status/3074978692
>JBLANKO @JimmyRothzchild
>#itsuckswhen you don't know the Rules of BLACK TWITTER http://bit.ly/6wQvq
>4:07 PM · Aug 1, 2009
>
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