Mannie T'Chawi

We’re smart. We’re not irrationally suspicious. We’re cynical because we don’t take the appearances & the hoodwinking for it is due to our experience. Some of our conspiracies are wacky, some of the true ones are wacky. It’s safe & smart to be wary. More should be like us.

Something i unironically really appreciate about Black culture is that y'all are SUSPICIOUS (positive)

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Mannie T'Chawi

The Black community honestly does this really well. We have all kinds of political differences among us & still manage to be pretty cool with each other as a whole.

it would be so cool if every single one of you could find ways to be more normal toward people you disagree with

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Mannie T'Chawi

Reply to

Saeed Jones

Being on this app, which I mostly like, has been a masterclass in learning about the ways white liberals and progressives consistently disrespect black people “for our own good.” You insist you know what’s better for us and how we should live while shirking responsibility for your bullshit.

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Mannie T'Chawi

I'll repeat what I wrote in my book. People going after others should ask themselves: Am I going after the appropriate entity or the *available target*? A LOT of latter goes on. But cruelty laterally/downward does nothing to the entity that created a situation &ensures creation of a truly awful vibe

I think a lot of people get into a bad space here because the people with power they actually want to yell at would never in a million years be on Bluesky so we end up yelling at people who aren’t that bad and it makes everyone pissy and weird

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Mannie T'Chawi

I strongly think one of the reasons musk took over and turned twitter into this shell that people can barely use is to prevent it being instrumental in this way. I think it's a testament to his incompetence that he hasn't managed to all thr way wreck it.

I know a lot of white Americans keep calling Twitter the Nazi bar and lament people still on the app, but Twitter has been integral to the current Kenyan protests. the individualist approach of leaving and judging everyone who remains doesn't do anything.

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Mannie T'Chawi

Twitter is still highly useful for underrepresented communities whose stories need to be heard and acted upon. It is still the platform of uprisings. You can scoff but many of us have grown communities on Twitter that we don’t want to give up. And no not influencers

yeah nothing comes close. Instagram has stuff but it can't compete with the quickness of Twitter

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Mannie T'Chawi

As a black person there is no place I can flee to. I understand this clearly which is why i don't listen to a lot of y'all. Why should i have to move to the refrigerator part of the county to face racism in a down coat? Other marginalized groups should understand if I am not free neither are you

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Mannie T'Chawi

Twitter is doing a lot for international Black struggles right now that bluesky has zero capacity for. Add Haiti to @wagatwe.com 's mention of Kenya & Sudan as Black countries with serious struggles that are now being seriously aided by twitter in ways bluesky absolutely can't.

I've also watched Sudanese people literally save their own and their families' lives on Twitter. we shouldn't tell people to leave life-saving connections when they're in a war zone and call them Nazis for not doing so.

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Mannie T'Chawi

Check this from Rolling Stone. At this point, I enjoy rap as an art form a lot, but am not heavily invested in pop culture, but I'm handing Kendrick the victory on this. He dethroned the abuser Drake successfully, & his music is inspiring Kenyan popular resistance. @wagatwe.com

How Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ Helped Young Kenyans Lead a Successful Protest in Their Countrywww.rollingstone.com Young Kenyans protested a proposed tax hike in their country by using a hashtag and a rap song that sampled Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us.'

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Mannie T'Chawi

In my latest story for HuffPost, I wrote about media reparations and how the American media industry has harmed Black people

The case for media reparationswww.whatimreading.net In my latest story for HuffPost, I wrote about media reparations and how the American media industry has harmed Black people.

“I’ve told the trees everything - EP” by Dermot Kennedy. The lyricism moved me so deeply it inspired me to write some of my best poetry yet… music.apple.com/us/album/ive...

whats ur favorite album of 2024. one pick no waffling no rationalization

I've told the trees everything - EP by Dermot Kennedy on Apple Musicmusic.apple.com Album · 2024 · 4 Songs

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Mannie T'Chawi

And, in many cases, no amount of proof will be enough

I have come to the conclusion that in the United States, you have to prove that you are worthy of being helped.

The Inside Out characters in my head…

The Inside Out characters in my head

Kiswahili = The Language Waswahili = The People Swahili = The Culture

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Mannie T'Chawi

All forms of oppression intersect. Mask bans suppress protest, sicken and disable communities, and will most harm vulnerable groups: Black, trans, etc. Chevron ruling means more expensive healthcare. Bills and disability can unhouse you, which means jail to do slave labor. Resist. Do it in an n95.

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Mannie T'Chawi

Over at the Bad Place, I made a tradition of posting Douglass' "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth of July," and I intend to carry on that tradition here. Since most versions you read in classes or in textbooks have parts omitted, the link below has the full text of the speech.

(1852) Frederick Douglass, "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July" •www.blackpast.org On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to address the citizens of his hometown, Rochester, New York. Whatever the expectations of his audience on that 76th anniversary of the signing of the D...

“I, too, am America.”

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Mannie T'Chawi

Most *white* Americans. There is no country on earth that imprisons more of its population than the US. Prisoners disproportionately Black. The US leads the world in child executions. Not a typo. Disproportionately Black. Life expectancy for US Black folk lower than for Uighur Chinese. Not a typo

Pretty much. What it mostly boils down to is that most Americans really don’t have the faintest idea what living under modern authoritarian regimes actually looks like, and how it’s often at the same time way more boring and way more scary than they’d imagined.

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Mannie T'Chawi

Kendrick’s Set List #ThePopOut open.spotify.com/playlist/6BK...

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Mannie T'Chawi

History do repeats itself, sometimes it don't need a reason.

Kendrick’s Set List #ThePopOut open.spotify.com/playlist/6BK...

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Mannie T'Chawi

HAPPY JUNETEENTH!!!

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Mannie T'Chawi

Thread!

It’s Juneteenth, so I wanted to share a photograph that is meaningful to me because it speaks to the enduring struggle for freedom and liberation. This photograph shows Sidney Poitier (far right) & Harry Belafonte (2nd from right) standing with several members of SNCC.

“They never let us have our Fathers…” youtu.be/l_OCXJXuNG4?...

FATHERS (Official Music Video) Mannie T'Chawi & Shane Palkoyoutu.be If you resonate with this video, please leave a comment or a like. Thanks! Stream the track: https://open.spotify.com/track/7GgCb1rodKZ5va6zETLT1I?si=f9e0647...

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Mannie T'Chawi

You know bluesky has made it when there’s a whole ecosphere of “follow back accounts”

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Mannie T'Chawi

I'm looking for authors and author-wannabes of Middle Eastern heritage. By Middle Eastern I mean huge swathes of territory including Palestine, Egypt, Iraq--not even just one continent, right? And in re: heritage I'm talking both homebodies and diasporans. It's for a Middle Grade deal.

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Mannie T'Chawi

also the Western world just generally doesn't care about what's happening to Africans. and the rare times they pay attention, they get it wrong and/or wilfully misrepresent the situation

NYT has an extensive write up of what is happening in Sudan, which I am providing a gift link for and which I hope you will read. I think the primary reason news stories re: Sudan are rare is that — as the piece notes — it’s hard for journalists to get in. BUT www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/w...

A War on the Nile Pushes Sudan Toward the Abysswww.nytimes.com A year of fighting has turned the once proud capital, Khartoum, into a charred battleground. Millions have fled. Now a famine threatens in one of Africa’s biggest countries.