mekka okereke :verified:

Building Digital Ecosystems at Google, but opinions my own. he/him. Black Lives Matter.

Blog: https://mekka-tech.com
GitHub: https://github.com/mekka

Public Key

npub1ay2kzqh4g6g42p40jsux865gsdr058uym8clmx0jskhaz2xken2qq7exel

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqswj9tpqt65dy24q6hegwrra2ygx3h6r7zdnu0an8egtt739rtve4qpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds8vhujt

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ay2kzqh4g6g42p40jsux865gsdr058uym8clmx0jskhaz2xken2qq7exel

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-09-08 07:10:24

- reply

🤦🏿‍♂️ I'm about to block you, because you're the worst kind of wrong: loud and wrong.
I'm talking specifically about police in the US pulling Black people over and having the legal right to take their money without a criminal charge. Not other forms of asset forfeiture that existed before that, even in the United States, as part of RICO.
🤔You're either intentionally trolling, or you really are going off half-cocked in my mentions about a topic you know nothing about.

2024-09-08 06:02:02

- reply

Civil asset forfeiture in particular has been going on since Biden started it. Let me be super clear:
There was no such thing as civil asset forfeiture before Biden invented it. Then he invented it, and passed legislation making this theft by cop possible. Now we have it, and it's terrible.
But yes, it's been going on for decades. Because Biden is old as dirt. And he's been passing legislation like this, that's genocidally harmful for Black people for most of his political career.

2024-09-08 04:45:53

Big props to Jeremy Saulnier who wrote and directed Rebel Ridge. Recommend.
The film covers so much of what is wrong with US policing, in an action packed drama movie. It also covers the evil and racism in the system vs the individual. I don't think a cop calls a Black person the N-Word once in the whole movie.
*Civil asset forfeiture
*Cash bail and prison violence
*Why Black folk don't give statements
*The power of sheriffs in small towns
*Violence of the war on drugs
https://youtu.be/gF3gZicntIw?si=rn_1NYGSB1zUS8Im

2024-08-28 23:32:50

🤔 Fascists love Star Wars. Even though the whole point of Star Wars is that fascists suck, and that the universe would be better without them.
🤔 Billionaires love Star Trek. Even though the whole point of Star Trek is that billionaires suck, and that the universe would be better off without them, and that once we get universal basic income and solve SF homelessness, and end the very concept of billionaire, humanity will usher in a real age of technological advancement.

2024-08-10 23:32:04

Great game by France! But the US team has a Steph Curry. 🤷🏿‍♂️
And yes, Steph made this shot.
France did not roll over. Victor Webanyama is only 20 years old, and dropped 26 points on the US dream team. Respect.
🤔4 years from now, Durant, LeBron, Curry, will all be retired. And Victor will be close to his prime...
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/939/837/079/209/801/original/ff2d9417393b66b4.jpg

2024-07-27 21:16:27

- reply

If you are an admin or mod of a mastodon instance, do you have any Black women members on your instance? If so, are you curious about which instances attacked Kim? Are they just known trollish instances? Should they be blocked by you? Are they blocked by you?
What if I told you that these instances are already blocked by mastodon.social, hachyderm.io, and others?
How many new troll servers pop up daily? How much time do you want to spend curating your own block list?

2024-07-27 21:11:47

@npub1nau…d9fd is one of the people that I'm bringing with me to my convo with @npub1zu5…pytj .
Context:
https://dair-community.social/@KimCrayton1/112854600825016604
* She should not have to experience this
* It should be easier for admins at DAIR, and across the whole Fediverse, to prevent this
The content that drew the harassment was simul-posted on Mastodon, BlueSky, Twitter, and other social networks. Only Mastodon drew this level of racist replies. I need you all to believe Black folk when we say that Mastodon *is* the nazi bar.

2024-07-20 21:58:11

This WNBA all-star game is about to be hot fire! The all-stars are taking on the US Women's National Team. It's supposed to be an exhibition game: no one playing too much defense or trying too hard. Cheryl Miller is coaching the WNBA team. But there's a problem...
The WNBA team has Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Clark and Reese are feeling some type of way about being left off the Olympic team. They basically told coach Miller "F*** an exhibition. We want to win."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EiTYwecY41c&45s
1/N

2024-07-18 16:41:46

- reply

I've had to explain the difference between a currency and a store of value more times than I care to remember.
I've had to walk people through why an indelible public blockchain (that feds don't even need a warrant for!) is not that conducive for scheming and criming.
I've had to explain how reversibility of transactions is good actually, and how traditional bank exchanges are *more* efficient once you factor in fraud mitigation as a cost.
Some get it. Most don't.
2/N

2024-07-18 16:36:52

- reply

No, many of them fundamentally don't understand how money, banks, or large scale transactions work.
I've accidentally gotten some friends into crypto.😭 I was showing a friend that works on Wall Street how silly crypto exchanges are, by showing him the arbitrage opportunity between two different exchanges. He couldn't believe how long the spread stayed open. Next thing I know, he's taking suckers' money...
I also had to explain wash trading to some "serious" NFT traders.
1/N

2024-07-18 14:38:29

- reply

Anyway, maybe don't put these people in charge of the global economy, is all I'm saying.🤷🏿‍♂️
2/2

2024-07-18 14:37:10

Does anyone remember that 2 month period when the crypto VCs did a bank run on their own bank, and collapsed it?🤡
And then they predicted that Bitcoin would reach $1M in a few months because of magical hyperinflation?🤡
And then they predicted that the global economy would collapse if we didn't restore their monkey jpegs? I mean, their money?🤡
And so we all learned that they don't know how money works, how banks work, or how the FDIC works?🤡
No? No one remembers? Just me? Cool cool.
1/N

2024-07-16 02:56:37

Tim Scott, Nimarata Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy, finding out that sycophancy will not save them.
I mean, the GOP base wasn't subtle.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lumRQnf5qA8
It would be funny if it weren't so sad. First these candidates genuinely thought they could win the nomination of an alt-right party? No. I refused to pretend that those were serious campaigns. Then they thought that they could even have a seat at the table?
I said what I said: you can't hate Black people enough for them to like you.

2024-07-13 18:48:17

[@david_megginson](https://mstdn.ca/@david_megginson ) Quick thread on why all these things are connected:
1) So many Black folk in tech are Nigerian
2) ChatGPT uses the word "delve" a lot
3) So many of the top 100 Scrabble players are Nigerian
4) So many Black doctors in the US are Nigerian
5) Why the most murderous terrorist organization in the world is not Al-Qaeda or ISIS, but one in Nigeria 😬
African history y'all didn't ask for, but are going to get anyway.
Like most messed up stories, this starts with the British...
1/N

2024-07-11 04:51:08

- reply

But all the conversation is around "But is Harris qualified? Maybe there's someone more qualified? We can't just hand it to her for DEI reasons!"
Harris won the San Francisco DA, California Attorney General, and California Senator elections.
Obama won the Illinois State Senator, and Senator from Illinois elections.
Swapping candidates at this point is not smart. But pretending that Kamala is not the most qualified replacement, requires suspension of all previously agreed upon criteria.
2/N

2024-07-11 04:47:12

Here's what I mean when I say that Black women have to prove themselves over and over, and are held to a higher standard.
In order to be the Dem president of the USA, you have to be able to do two things
1) Win big elections
2) Draw enthusiastic support from Black voters
Pete Buttigieg won his 1st mayoral election with only 10k votes. Not margin of victory! Total votes! Smaller than many college student body president elections. His 2nd term was 8.5k. And he polled ~2% with Black voters.
1/N

2024-07-06 03:15:31

Ah, Ryan Garcia's racism apology (non-apology) tour:
* I was drunk! (when I said the comments, not when I doubled down on them the next day)
* Black people say the N-word too! (But they don't say I hate n-words, I am the KKK, let's dig up George Floyd's body and kill him again)
* I've been under a lot of stress lately! (Unlike Black folk, and non-racist white folk, who magically feel no stress, ever).
* I'm going to rehab! (Where is racism rehab? I've never seen it).
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/05/ryan-garcia-apologizes-for-racist-slurs-and-boxer-says-he-will-go-to-rehab

2024-07-03 14:10:30

- reply

Our choices:
1) Climate disaster.
2) The world stops using fossil fuels. But the US under-invests in green tech. China *becomes by far the largest and most important economy in the world. They build an insurmountable lead in batteries, solar, wind, grid, transportation and storage.
3) The world stops using fossil fuels. The US adequately invests in green tech. The US remains the largest and most important economy in the world.
We're waffling between 1 and 2.🤷🏿‍♂️
(*Some say we're already here).

2024-07-03 13:57:16

- reply

If green investment is so bad for the economy, then why is green investment double fossil fuel investment already? Why are so many US fossil industries saying that they can't compete with China now (fuels, automotive, transportation, etc). That seems like pretty good ROI for a few years of subsidizing green industry, but hey, I'm no economist.
🤔 Wait, don't Venture Capitalists tell us that we're supposed to cheer when old industries get disrupted by tech and subsidized pricing?
3/N

2024-07-03 13:50:50

- reply

How the hell am I the so called "climate doomer," when I'm the one that believes that transitioning the world to Green energy is not nearly as hard as we pretend that it is? I'm the optimist. The people that think that we can ignore racism are the pessimists.
China invested $317B in clean energy. We invest $44B just in buying Twitter, to be anti-woke. It's silly.
Imagine if instead, the US was pushing as hard as China. Where would the world be now?
2/N

2024-07-03 13:42:20

CBS News reports that the "Global shift towards Green Energy is Accelerating!" Yay!😀
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6fKfaJheWbk
Isn't that a good thing?
CBS cites the International Energy Agency report. But they don't say the word "China," much...
But if you read the report, you see that:
* Most of the green investment is from China
* Most of the rest is made possible by cheap solar, batteries, and EVs, also from China
* The US and EU are working to... slow this green investment.😮
https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-investment-2024/china#abstract
1/N
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/722/341/648/829/222/original/fadf5eea6462271c.jpeg

2024-07-02 02:07:40

- reply

Y'all are betting the future of the free world on Biden being able to say and do stuff like this, and then still get 95% of the votes of Black men? Seriously? That's the strategy?
Man, lemme go ahead and prepare for this next Trump term then, because that strategy is awful.
How did y'all ever think that would work?

2024-07-02 02:03:39

A quote from the Biden Trump debate. Which candidate said this, Trump or Biden?
"I put more – we put more police on the street than any administration has. He wants to cut the cops."
As a reminder, Biden is the candidate that needs more Black men to vote for him, or he is likely to lose the election.
As a reminder, Biden is the one that pushed for and passed the 80s crime bill.
As a reminder, Biden is the one that instructed cities to transfer ~$1B of Covid relief funds to police budgets.

2024-07-01 17:36:05

🤔 Okay, I had birria tacos 5+ years ago, and they weren't that good. They weren't bad, they were just okay. I thought maybe I just don't like birria or something.
But In the past year I've had birria 4 or 5 times, and it's been heavenly every time. I haven't had a single birria experience that I would rate less than 8 out of 10. It's hard to get bad birria now?
My taste buds haven't changed. US birria has been elevated. Like the quality of Pho broth.
Why did this happen? Who started this?

2024-06-30 17:27:09

- reply

"Well fix it after the election," is a lie that has been told by the Democrats to Black people since the 60s. Unfortunately, for an increasingly growing share of Black people, that lie no longer works. The trust is gone.

2024-06-25 15:56:48

- reply

Just as some people get to be "expats," while other people are "immigrants" or "migrants."
Just as some people trying to survive a disaster are "survivors looking for food," while other people are "looters stealing food."
Some voters get to be "undecided," worthy of our attempts to persuade them, and worthy of concessions on their key issues... while other voters are "stupid, low information, selfish, ignorant Black men," who should "have fun getting lynched when Trump is back in office."
2/N

2024-06-25 15:50:55

More white women voted for Trump than Clinton in 2016.
More white women voted for Trump than Biden in 2020. In fact, Trump's margin of victory with white women, grew.🤷🏿‍♂️
More young white people (18 to 29) voted for Trump than Clinton in 2016.
More young white people voted for Trump than Biden in 2020. In fact, Trump's margin of victory with young white people grew.🤷🏿‍♂️
But you don't see people cursing out white women online and then blocking them, like they do to Black men.
You know why.
1/N

2024-06-22 18:45:06

It's telling that in all the push back on this, and calls for optimism, no one, not a single person, said, "But we can make progress on anti-Black racism!"
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112660113829272552
It's ironic because I know that we can make progress on anti-Black racism. We can and we will, I promise you that. Just not in time for it to matter for 2.5 degrees of climate change. 🤷🏿‍♂️

2024-06-19 14:32:27

- reply

Speaking of violent abolitionists giving it back in kind to violent slave owners: A part of US history that many US folk don't know about, is the closest to a real life Robin hood / The Punisher. Kansas Jayhawks were gangs that robbed from the rich (slaveowners) and gave to the poor (themselves and freed Black slaves).
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109923425095322572
Before anyone asks, no I am not condoning violence. I'm just wondering why we don't "celebrate this history" like we do confederate generals.

2024-06-19 14:16:49

- reply

And when you "Remember the Alamo," remember that the US side died defending their right to enslave people. They were killed by Mexican abolitionists. Basically, this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cze5A4iyQGk
And stop saying that the Mexicans killed every US man at the Alamo. That's a lie. Because one of the men that the Mexicans captured was a Black dude. The Mexican soldiers were like, "Bro, we're here to liberate Black people, and he's shooting at us?! This brother is confused!" and they just... let him go

2024-06-19 13:04:33

Juneteenth does not celebrate "When news of the end of slavery finally reached Texas."
Juneteenth celebrates when the racist people in Texas that tried to hold on to slavery for as long as they could even after it was abolished, finally couldn't keep up the lie anymore.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/110548225287299347

2024-06-17 18:51:09

- reply

I rarely drink at work events or conferences, *because* I'm in a position of privilege and influence, and so people shadow me. They drink as much as I drink.
I've tested this! I can affect how much beer is left over at the end of an event, just by whether or not I drink.🤯
5/N

2024-06-17 18:50:45

- reply

So the question is not "alcohol or no alcohol?" It's "How do you want other people to feel at the conference? How do you ensure that everyone is having a good time?"
I'll take a conference with a strong code of conduct committee and a whiskey tasting session, over dry and unsafe.
4/N

2024-06-17 18:49:53

- reply

And for those of you that went to college with me and saw me throw people out of parties... relax. I don't mean physically throw people out of tech conferences.
I mean "Politely ask them to leave, and write up why in our notes, so that they are not invited back."
3/N

2024-06-17 18:49:07

- reply

I serve on the code of conduct committee for several of the tech conferences that I attend. If you get drunk and try to treat a tech conference like Tinder, then I'm one of the people that will throw you out.
There are whole entire apps for hooking up. Don't be messy.
2/N

2024-06-17 18:48:56

I rarely drink at conferences. I rarely drink at work events.
I can have a drink or two and still have fun. But some conference attendees don't know how to act, and don't keep their hands to themselves when they get drunk. This makes conferences more risky to attend for women.
1/N

2024-06-15 19:16:18

- reply

Yeah, a lot of the wrestlers are a lot more decent human beings than their personas.
Dave Bautista is Greek and Filipino. His wrestling fan base was similar to John Cena's. He doesn't have time for homophobes.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/_87H07sY1Ag
https://youtu.be/QN6tyHbhcSA
Stone Cold Steve Austin has a similar fan base. He rips his racist fans online.
These folks make a conscious choice to reject the most toxic parts of their fanbase. 👍🏿
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/621/750/858/669/092/original/0c9def67c8868cfb.jpg

2024-06-15 19:00:03

- reply

John Cena makes it clear that you're not going to use his fame or chiseled jawline to push hatred of any underrepresented group. Find yourself another racism mascot.
Is it fair that he has to do this? Argue amongst yourselves about how much responsibility he has to make sure he is not used in this way. Smart people disagree on exactly how much responsibility he has.
Paige, Hailey, and Caitlin, and Cameron Brink, all have that same responsiblity, wherever you draw that line.
5/5

2024-06-15 18:53:22

- reply

John Cena is a white man from Boston, whose brother is a cop. He was a pro wrestler, that was really popular in Boston and the Midwest, and popular among cops, firefighters, and the military.
He released this PSA, drastically reducing his popularity among white men, which is his base.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IApvU6SMq-8
After his popularity among white men tanked, he doubled down on (politely) giving racist/sexist/homophobic/islamophobic/ableist fans the middle finger. He doesn't want those fans.
4/N
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/621/666/768/878/010/original/e398f9847f3762aa.jpg
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/621/666/646/128/675/original/e8f3e0292216d69d.jpg

2024-06-15 18:43:15

- reply

Caitlin Clark has made several attempts to indirectly distance herself from her racist fans.👍🏿
Unfortunately, this is something that she is going to have to deal with her entire career.
And addressing the racism more directly, the way that Paige and Hailey have done, would go a long way to reducing the racism experienced by Black women in the WNBA.
And yes, this would mean a reduction in Caitlin's fan base.
3/N

2024-06-15 18:39:38

- reply

You can't always control your racist fans. But you can make them not your fans. If half of your fans are racist, then you can make it clear to those fans that you don't like them, and that you don't want them around. Let them choose another symbol. Don't let yourself become the figurehead of their racism.
If this seems like a lot to expect a young woman to do, remember that Haley and Paige do this. Remember that the Black women targeted by the racist fans, are the same age as Caitlin.
2/N

2024-06-15 18:35:38

Questions about responsibility and community:
Caitlin Clark is not pushing racist agendas herself. A lot of her fans are. Caitlin is a young woman, trying to navigate intense expectations, and being thrust into professional sports superstardom rather suddenly. How much can we really expect her to control racist fans? How much control does she really have over them anyway?
Answer:
Paige Bueckers and Hailey Van Lith are both younger than Caitlin Clark.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112193399199658857
1/N

2024-06-12 03:34:50

*sigh*
*Deeper sigh*
*Sighs so deeply, exhales all breath and falls off couch*
The levels of irony here: A news headline saying that most Black Americans believe "conspiracy theories" about US institutions, including the news. But when you look at the "conspiracy theories" that Black folk believe, they are supported by data.
🤡
Including the "conspiracy theories" like "the news is designed to make Black folk look bad."
🤡🤡
Sorta like this article.
🤡🤡🤡
https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/06/10/most-black-americans-believe-racial-conspiracy-theories-about-u-s-institutions/
1/N

2024-06-11 17:01:48

- reply

If you can understand why a Black person might feel more comfortable in Brooklyn than in Boise, then you understand why a Black person might feel more comfortable on Twitter than on Mastodon or BlueSky.
If you want more Black people to move to, or stay in Boise... then maybe support the tiny Black community in Boise. Don't just yell, "There are racists on Long Island!" or "Trump is from Queens!" or "Giuliani is a New Yorker!" That won't work.

2024-06-11 16:57:41

There are more racists in NYC than in Boise Idaho. Because no one lives in Boise.🤷🏿‍♂️
But there's a much bigger Black community in NYC than Boise. Safety comes from the Black community. Not the NYPD. Not Long Islanders. Not Trump voters in Queens.
Stop asking why Black folk are still on Twitter.

2024-06-09 03:26:17

- reply

But maybe cops in schools stop some shootings? No? Or at least make them less deadly? No?
No.
https://www.thetrace.org/2023/08/guns-armed-guards-school-shootings/
We can't stop school shootings for the reason the US can't stop so many crimes: we only know how to address crime by "Be more cruel to Black people!" So if Black people arent doing most of the crime in question, our efforts will be useless.
We refuse to address gun ownership or access, or do anything other than "Harm Black people!" so we won't make any progress.
4/4

2024-06-09 03:08:17

- reply

More silliness: we put school resource officers (cops with guns), in the hallways of schools, mostly in Black areas, ostensibly to stop school shooters.
But as we've seen with Uvalde, a cop armed with a handgun is overmatched by a shooter with an AR-15. The cop is also under no legal obligation to even engage the shooter. So... what are they doing there then?🤔
If we look at the stats, we can see what they do. They arrest and brutalize unarmed Black students. A lot.
3/N

2024-06-09 03:02:40

- reply

This distinction is important, because you'll see how silly US attempts to stop school shootings are:
Almost no school mass shootings occur in predominantly Black areas with Black shooters. It just doesn't happen. But whenever people talk about "preventing school shooters," they put metal detectors in schools in Black areas?
Meanwhile, almost all school shootings occur in predominantly white suburban and rural areas, with white male shooters. They don't get metal detectors.
🙂🙃
2/N

2024-06-09 02:55:13

- reply

Only correction, but an important one.
US school shooters don't get their guns "on the street."
Guns are extremely expensive. US school shooters are usually rich, white, men and boys (~85%) and use guns legally owned by their families.
I don't think people realize how expensive guns are, and how much US gun ownership is concentrated in rich, white, men.
As you look at this picture, realize that each AR 15 costs about $1000.00.
1/N
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/583/922/639/010/384/original/e2eb5a81fae5c7b8.png

2024-06-07 17:58:46

If you made a lot of noise yesterday about the D-DAY anniversary, but have nothing to say about rising fascism in your country the other 364 days of the year, then all that tells me is that you like war movies. 🤷🏿‍♂️

2024-06-04 14:31:42

- reply

1. The most accurate indicator of Trump support, is racism. The 2nd most accurate, is sexism. Not "economic anxiety." The only anxiety that they have, is that Black people might have some money.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112509146141942999
2. Most Trump voters, were not working class.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109876824739991841
3. Most Jan 6 participants, were rich.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109880485930219870
4. Venture Capital, is the most racist part of the US financial/capital allocation system, by far.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109982115166606787
3/N

2024-06-04 14:18:46

- reply

There's a statistical lie that the US tells itself:
"Poor white people are more racist than rich white people!"
This is objectively, demonstrably, false. It's been shown over and over. But we still cling to it. We use lies like: "college educated white people are less likely to vote GOP!"
First of all there's not a 1:1 correlation between racism and GOP. Second, business owners are richer than employees, and most US business owners *didn't* go to college.
2/N

2024-06-04 14:14:13

Some of y'all are still confused as to why it seems that Silicon Valley billionaires are "turning to Trump." That's because you don't listen to Black people, you disrespect poor white people, and you ignore obvious statistics that have been staring you in the face for decades.
Silicon. Valley. Billionaires. Have. Always. Supported. Trump.
Not because they like the tax breaks. Because they are more likely to be racist, and racism is the greatest predictor of Trump support.
1/N

2024-06-03 10:14:56

So the Black man that everyone was laughing at for dialing in to his court case from his car, while his license was suspended, is not so foolish. Racism has people laughing at its victims.
https://www.wxyz.com/news/why-was-the-driver-in-a-viral-videos-license-still-suspended-2-years-after-a-judge-ordered-it-lifted
We'll see how many of the people that were laughing because they thought "Foolish criminal dials in from car, on suspended license case!🤣" have anything cute to say now. You know that none of them will.
It's just the regular anti-Black cruelty in the US criminal justice system.
1/N

2024-06-03 01:56:40

Godzilla Minus One was great! Recommend.
I can't really describe it. It was simultaneously like an old Godzilla movie, a contemporary one, and something very new, all at the same time. I'm still processing.
Toho added just enough Kaiju to give the moments weight, but not so many that the movie felt like a VFX demo reel. And their take on atomic breath had so much weight.
It's now my favorite Godzilla movie ever. Sorry Mothra! I think people that don't like Godzilla movies would still like it.

2024-05-30 03:28:53

- reply

🤔 People keep saying that Mastodon doesn't have this problem "because no algorithms," but Mastodon absolutely does have this problem.
For example, whether or not a fediverse user sees this post that I'm writing right now, depends on whether or not their admin thinks that they should see posts from hachyderm, or from me in particular. 🤷🏿‍♂️
Someone is still deciding which replies you see and which ones you don't see, presumably for your safety and enjoyment.

2024-05-25 21:29:30

4 years to the day after George Floyd was murdered, here's where we are:
* Racist people are just as racist as the day before George Floyd was murdered.
* Black people are still asking for the exact same things.
* "Liberal" and "Centrist" white Americans are *more* racist, and *less* supportive of DEI than they were the day before George Floyd.
* Police budgets have grown *faster* than they did the day before George Floyd.
* Biden has undone any of the gains made during the protests.
1/N

2024-05-11 03:50:40

- reply

Underrepresented people that were driven out of working on open source in the mid-90s, didn't get the chance to contribute to these projects. This artificially puffs up the perceived "brilliance" of these early hateful contributors.
Underrepresented folk are not being forced out of current open source projects at nearly the same rate.
It's better now, but not perfect. We should hold *current* open source project leaders, who lead relevant and important projects, accountable.

2024-05-11 03:45:55

- reply

Hateful people are usually much louder then the rest of us, so it can seem like there are many times more of them than there really are. And they can do a lot of lasting damage. I don't want to understate their harm.
But...
By number, there are a lot more good people than hateful people.

2024-05-11 03:40:18

- reply

And the mid 90s was a quarter century ago! Open Source leadership is better now.
That's not to say that bigotry or lack of inclusion don't happen in open source today.
That's to say that the most relevant open source projects today, are very different than the ones from the mid 90s. 🤷🏿‍♂️
2/N.

2024-05-11 03:39:41

Reminder for underrepresented folk feeling sad discovering that some of the "founders" of Open Source are also open eugencists. Don't feel so sad! Because a lot of founders of Open Source are openly and vocally disdainful of those eugencists, racists, and other bigots. ♥️👍🏿
There are a lot of different personalities in Open Source. And given the demographics of what OSS looked like back in the days, the percentage of bigots is higher than the public at large.
1/N

2024-05-02 17:04:20

I told y'all, cops don't do what you think they do.🤷🏿‍♂️
Black folk know this from lived experience. Some white folk only learn this when they go to report a theft or sexual assault and find out that the $11B/year NYPD are not equipped to handle that.
15K NYC bikes stolen a year!
https://www.404media.co/nypd-bike-lock-chain-kryptonite-columbia-university-protests/
1/n

2024-04-29 21:34:47

- reply

To some extent, that's already happening.🤷🏿‍♂️
When I say that a lot of straight men don't even like women, I'm not talking about sexual attraction. Yes, they are sexually attracted to women. But they don't like women. They don't want women to have agency, or autonomy. They don't want to have conversations with women.
Women feel that. It's impossible to ignore. So women are *choosing* not to date men that are so very loud about their "political" stance built around not liking women.
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/356/170/634/175/907/original/4c869720a46c25ba.jpg

2024-04-28 14:16:44

- reply

I humbly ask you to consider:
If our society cannot even sustain itself without child abuse at such an enormous scale, that 15 and 16 year-olds meaningfully contribute to the number of live child births? Then our society might be trash.
If our society is so dystopian and broken, that the best way to get a woman to choose to have a child, is to force her to make that decision before she understands how that society works? Then our society might be trash.
I don't want my society to be trash.

2024-04-28 14:08:39

- reply

Yesterday's thread, for those who don't want to wrestle with Mastodon search:
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112343320915722724
There is no birth rate crisis.
There are only a bunch of manufactured crises, because we don't want to fix immigration, and we don't want to treat women fairly, and we don't want to confront racism.
We could end every single problem related to the so called birth rate crisis, within a month! But we won't. 🤷🏿‍♂️

2024-04-28 13:55:37

Yesterday I pointed out that the fertility rate dropping is a good thing, because the biggest drop has been the disappearance of teen pregnancies.👍🏿
I also said that the right way to increase the birth rate, is to build a society where girls who grow into women, *choose* to have babies *when they are women* and understand the world and the implications more.
But many of those women, choose not to have kids. Why not?
This is easy to know. Because women tell us.
https://www.tiktok.com/@tallmomrunning/video/7362198294891760942

2024-04-27 15:25:17

- reply

But let's talk about replacing the births that girls aren't having as much anymore, with births that women can have.
* Provide affordable housing
* Provide reproductive rights, education, and care
* Provide affordable healthcare and medical care
* Provide affordable childcare
* Provide women equal access to higher education and employment, and equal compensation
Then *women* that *want* to have kids *choose* to have kids.

2024-04-27 15:13:04

- reply

👴🏻But growing our population through immigration ain't natural! We should grow it like we've always grown it: through good old American procreation!
🧔🏿‍♂️A) Don't procreate with children. Not debating this.
🧔🏿‍♂️B) No, that's not how the US population grew
Shout out to all my fellow Americans that still believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny, and that the US population got to 350 million mostly white people, in only 400 years, due to the "hard work" of a few boatloads of frisky settlers.
🐇🐇💘

2024-04-27 15:08:08

- reply

👴🏻But Mekka! Without young people, our economy will collapse! We need fresh meat! I mean workers! To serve me! Always serving me!
🧔🏿‍♂️Young workers are smuggling themselves into the country, just to serve you. Will you let them?
👴🏻No! Illegal!
🤦🏿‍♂️
NYC has a 400K person blue collar worker shortage🤯
NYC has 10K+ legal migrants that want to work, but work permits are delayed.
If you were NYC mayor, would you:
a) Issue temporary work permits, and not enforce fed law?👍🏿
b) Make the migrants homeless?🤡

2024-04-27 15:05:37

- reply

Y'all are literally complaining that not enough white children aged 15 to 17 are getting pregnant.
Do you even hear yourselves?
You know y'all are saying this out loud right? And that other people can hear you?
I'm running out of ways to tell you that this is a good thing.
I don't know how much you know about anatomy or biology, or how long 9 months is... but the things required for a 15 year old to give birth, are not good.
Less of that is a good thing.
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/343/324/164/675/467/original/4cdbed3ea6ed777c.png

2024-04-27 15:03:56

Again for people (racists), complaining about falling birth rates:
The birth rate for women over 40 is not falling. The birth rate for women over 30 is not falling.
What's happening, is girls 15 to 17 are having fewer babies. Kids are having fewer kids.
Also, this is an interesting way of saying that "Teen pregnancy is down, due to sex education and contraception."
In 1991 25% of 15 year olds gave birth before they turned 21. That's bad. Now it's 6%. That's better.
https://npr.org/2023/01/08/1147737247/teen-pregnancy-rates-have-declined-significantly
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/343/317/742/168/797/original/8b62f7dbca39b1d4.jpg

2024-04-26 13:56:17

- reply

I'm not sure if that's what Paul meant, but my point is much simpler. You don't need to read Immanuel Kant to know that the 2nd amendment is not a real right. It is not "the right to bear arms." It's "the white to bear arms."
Because simply trying to exercise that right, can get a Black man summarily executed in the streets by the state. And there will be no consequences for the executioner. "Police shot an armed Black man, etc" Having a gun is the only justification needed.

2024-04-26 08:44:03

- reply

When you can understand why there weren't mass arrests of the proud boys, or mass arrests at Jan 6, but there were mass arrests at BLM protests, and there are mass arrests on college campuses... you'll be one step closer to understanding free speech in America.

2024-04-26 08:41:44

Most BLM protesters were white people advocating for Black civil rights.♥️ All their lives, they thought that they had the 1st amendment right to protest, because they had seen white supremacists march without being beaten by cops. They didn't realize that the right to free speech depends heavily on what you are speaking about, and who you are speaking for.
Now I'm seeing college professors and students learn the same lesson about what US cops will do to you if you speak up for the wrong thing.
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/112/336/138/104/213/654/original/505b1fbb69f8087c.jpg

2024-04-20 18:46:28

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/lay-off-workers-for-ai-investment-19408308.php
I'm not going to speak specifically about my employer for obvious reasons, but I will say what I'm telling all of my mentees in tech right now.
Losing your job to AI in 2024 doesn't look like what people think it looks like. AI will not replace your job function 100%. AI also will not make us all 20% more productive, allowing 20% of staff to be laid off.
Your employer wants to control costs, but has a big AI bill. They choose between you vs more GPUs+ML folk+infra.

2024-04-17 14:15:15

Something a lot of white folk don't realize happens to Black people a lot:
When there is a competition between a Black person and a white person for a coveted prize, if the white person wins, they're celebrated. If the Black person wins... they're asked to share the prize with the white person that came in second place.😮
This happens to Black women more often than Black men.
Literary awards (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/15/bernardine-evaristo-margaret-atwood-share-booker-prize-award)
Whitehouse invitation for championship teams:
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/04/1167965013/iowa-lsu-jill-biden-ncaa-basketball-championship

2024-04-15 12:22:24

Rap beef is silly. People really die behind this nonsense.
People that say that they love rap beef, do love rappers... But in the same way that people that love dog fights, love dogs. Some people go to NASCAR races to see who the most skilled driver is, and to marvel at the engineering. Other people just go to watch the crashes. Their entertainment is watching you burn.
And like I've also said before, gangster rap is a performance by Black people for white people.🤷🏿‍♂️
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109893482569845648

2023-04-28 03:16:47

- reply

I'm not interested in having Fedi 'splained to me. I'm just saying why more Black folk are on BlueSky:
1. It should be almost impossible for a new, non-technical user to onboard onto the Fediverse and accidentally join a server where they will receive racist death threats.
2. It should not be possible for racists to reply to a Black user's post with hateful gore images, without other users on the server knowing it.
3. It should be easy for a new admin to default into a safe, general denylist.

2023-04-27 23:44:53

- reply

It really is the social media equivalent of white folks telling Black folks that Boston is less racist than the South, and completely ignoring any Black folk that live in Boston or anywhere else in the US trying to talk about what their real, lived, experiences have been.
Many Mastodon users are just completely convinced of the superiority of their moderation philosophy, and they are as happy to ignore the few Black Fedi users in 2023 as they were in 2017.

2023-04-27 23:41:43

All of the posts on Mastodon about how the Blue Sky team was silly for releasing a social media network in 2023 without blocking and moderation, even in private beta, and that the Blue Sky team should have known what would happen...
...are being written on Mastodon: a social media platform that in 2023, still doesn't take into account that Black users face a disproportionate amount of very specific types of abuse, and is missing key features that would make the Black population safer. 🙂🙃

2023-02-21 04:07:50

Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
I'm still not onto Black history. I'm still on white US history.
Q: Why were Black folk so happy when OJ was acquitted? To be honest, it feels disgusting. Why does it seem like you're happy he got away with murder?
A: Racism. Black folk did not like OJ that much. In fact, many Black people think he did it. Black folk didn't "celebrate OJ." Black folk celebrated the hope that a brutally unjust, evil, and racist system, could be defeated at all.
#BlackMastodon

2023-02-17 15:12:36

- reply

83% of the US population lives in cities. Don't drive to some tiny town in Idaho and point to a poor racist white person. Most poor white people in this country live in places like Los Angeles, or Detroit or Houston, or Chicago or New York.
Jan 6 was the perfect example of the rich, white, racist phenomenon. Stop blaming Trump on poor white people.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/january-6-busts-key-myth-about-trump-supporters-rioters-ncna1287105

2023-02-17 15:11:32

- reply

To this day, if you find a white trades person over the age of 50, and ask them what "It's not race, it's class" means, many can tell you. If you ask them "Who is Fred Hampton" many can tell you. If you ask them what a "rainbow coalition" was, many can tell you.
Why does an old, white, union steel worker in Detroit know who Fred Hampton is?
I've pointed out many times, in many threads, that the trope that "poor white people support Trump more" is not supported by data. It's more disinformation

2023-02-17 15:09:12

- reply

The Black Panthers also provided free clinics and vaccination for kids. ♥️👍🏿
“First you have free breakfasts, then you have free medical care, then you have free bus rides, and soon you have FREEDOM!” Fred Hampton.
https://time.com/5937647/black-panther-medical-clinics-history-school-covid-19/
How did the Black Panthers, with relatively zero funding, set up free health clinics for Black people, where the government of the richest nation on earth could not?
These are uncomfortable questions, most easily answered by destroying those clinics.

2023-02-17 15:05:26

- reply

The Black Panthers provided free breakfast for poor school kids. ♥️👍🏿 Today, the US has a Federal free breakfast program. Black people that know white US history, know where that program started.
The FBI felt so threatened by the Black Panthers' school breakfast program, that they dedicated police resources to violently destroying it.
Imagine. Trained FBI agents, instructing grown men to urinate on Black children's food.
https://www.history.com/news/free-school-breakfast-black-panther-party

2023-02-17 15:04:13

- reply

Regardless of your race or political philosophy, think about which of these above points you would disagree with. No, seriously. Read it again, and find one that doesn't make sense to you. It's okay if you don't agree with them all. 👍🏿
Now look at the Black Panthers' 10 point plan from 1966:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Point_Program_(Black_Panther_Party)
Seriously, see how many of these points you disagree with. And it's honestly OK if you don't agree with them all!
Notice the lack of Black supremacy or calls for pogroms.

2023-02-17 15:00:59

- reply

If you've been reading along this Black history month, you might agree that these things are good:
* Reduce racism
* Systemically prevent another Tyre Nichols
* End false convictions
* Feed all school kids nutritious breakfast and lunch
* Affordable health care for all
* Access to better education for all
* Lower unemployment
* Get poor Black, white, Latinx, indigenous, and Asian workers to work together to assert their rights
* Safer infra and public transportation for all
* Stop wage theft

2023-02-17 15:00:00

- reply

The Black Panthers wanted to reduce racism and increase collaboration between the races, and the FBI wanted to increase racism and reduce partnership between the races. 🙂🙃

2023-02-17 14:57:57

- reply

Most of what you know about the Black Panthers, is a lie. It is intentional disinformation, created and circulated by the FBI, with the assistance and complicity of newspapers and local police. This disinfo was spread as part of the FBI's counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO).
This is not some unfounded conspiracy, this is documented and now admitted by the FBI.
The Black Panthers were the good guys, and the FBI were the cartoonishly evil Bond villain bad guys. Seriously.

2023-02-17 14:56:47

Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
I still haven't made it to Black history yet. I'm still on white US history.
Q: Why is it OK for Black folk to like the Black Panthers, but white folk can't like the klan? Black supremacy is just as bad as white supremacy! Why the double standard?
A: Black folk know white US history, so they know that the Black Panthers were not Black supremacists.
(At this point, half of the Black folk reading this just involuntarily said "COINTELPRO!" out loud).
#BlackMastodon