Blackfolk

From BluWiki

Blackfolk was created because I needed a central place to be able to find black men/women on Livejournal. At the time you had to love hip-hop to find the black men and embrace your sisterhood to find the black women. I didn't want any boundaries. Now, years later, the community still has the same basic format.

Blackfolk is not about free speech. I won't repeat that. It is about blackfolk living and breathing and the relevancy of it all. It is a space for Black people to hear each other. That's the bottom line and you must respect that. -blackfolk creator toodani in the toodani userinfo

History/Overview

The LiveJournal community blackfolk was created on January 25, 2002 by Birmingham native toodani. In a nutshell, blackfolk is a place where people hang out and talk about everything that is on the minds of the posters. It just so happens that about 95% of the posting population happens to be black. Like with any general conversation comminuty, topics on blackfolk are broad, running the gamut from tipping, white privilege, hair, and a strange fixation on Beyonce.

What non-black readers of blackfolk tend to find offensive (and surprising) is that the vast majority of the blackfolk community is self-segregating, with no inherent desire to interact with whites or strive towards racial harmony. A large percentage of the posters have either attended or currently matriculate at historically black colleges. Many are vocal about their refusal (or outright refusal) to date or marry outside of the black race. Blatant racism is met with harsh jeering, and ignorance about race relations is rarely overlooked. It's a far cry from the more docile, Linkin Park-loving blacks who "...look to bask in the warm rays of the white man's tender love", as LJer cumaeansibyl once put it, that so many whites (particularly liberal whites) find themselves relating to. The equally educated, articulate, and hard-working posters at blackfolk are a hard bunch to swallow for scores of LJers, particularly non-black ones. Flamewars are common, and until the community went to moderated membership, trolls were as common as sunshine.

Despite all, blackfolk remains a surprisingly drama-free community despite the lack of staff, laissez-faire style of moderating and community size. In blackfolk's four-year history, only three people have ever been banned - and two of them were the same person. Though there has been discussion about whether one person can successfully moderate a community of nearly 1,300 people, toodani remains the sole maintainer of the community. This is unlikely to ever change.

Taboo topics, or "This is NOT a democracy"

After annoying repeated posts of ghettopoly, rent-a-negro, blackpeopleloveus and rap snacks, toodani made a list of subjects that were never to be spoken of again in Blackfolk - including, but not limited to Beyonce, polygamy, skin color, and reparations.

Reverse Hoffism: it's calling a white person a nigger. Or something.

Graphics, icons and David Hasselhoff

One of the highlights of blackfolk is when a post (usually a flamewar) tends to bring out the creative side of blackfolk posters. It is through graphics that blackfolk spreads their message to the literacy-challenged, letting even the ones with poor comprehension skills know that the media can actually be biased in its reporting, giving a damn is no easier than pimping, and it's always a good time to shut the fuck up.

Without question, the blackfolk graphics queen is blackperson, creator of the flashing blackfolk icon and Stupid White Folks Bingo. SWF Bingo has become so popular that it spawned a CafePress store, and spawned the equally funny (and more frequently used) Liberal White Folks Bingo, courtesy of i_dreamed_i_was. Later, rattlerbrat created Racist White Folks Bingo, though pulling this card will usually guarantee that the poster will be banned from wherever s/he is posting said card.

Ironically, the blackfolk mascot is David Hasselhoff, for reasons that no one can seem to name. Pictures of Hasselhoff are usually posted to break the tension in a thread, to signify a free post, or to highlight the stupidity of a poster (who is usually white). The go-to graphic tends to be the infamous Hypnocrotch, although Reverse Hoffism is becoming a fast favorite. Another much-loved graphic was the Rick James/Dave Chappelle couch-kicking graphic, but it was unoffically retired around the time that Chappelle went MIA.

Blackfolk terminology

redroutin' (verb) - to act like an Uncle Tom; to have an odd affection for and a constant need to defend white people. Named after LJ user redroute36. Courtesy of KStone20059

Ex: Stop redroutin already, you ain't gonna get that damn job!

brokeback - (adj.) - gay, though rarely used to refer to a homosexual person. Despite the belief that cartoonist Aaron McGruder invented the term, the blackfolk community had been using it long before the comic strip was published.

Ex: Man, those nuthugging jeans John Legend is always wearing makes him look pretty brokeback.

Flamewars & heads-on brawling (or: rattlerbrat versus the world)

Any community geared towards people of color is bound to have its fair share of trolls, drama, and stupid questions. It is generally agreed that the first blackfolk drama was in March of 2002, when a poster named kiypt asked, why [sic] is it that black people can get away with things white people cant [sic]? (It should be mentioned that kiypt claimed to be a black poster.) Though the responses were generally mild compared to modern-day blackfolking, this post would set the precedent for many flamewars to come: bad spelling, excessive whining, and poorly thought-out essays on race based on little more than theory.

After several years and dozens of flame wars, toodani finally (and reluctantly) disabled anonymous comments and set the community on moderated membership. The community has taken it upon themselves to be as proactive as possible in controlling the troll situation.

During the flame wars, community morale is at an all-time high. Because of these flame wars, community themes like Militant Monday have become wildly popular as well as late night blackfolkchat on AIM, with the motto: what happens in chat, stays in chat.

Know your role: white folk in blackfolk

(now with pamphlets and a fully written guide)

Famous trolls

(this may wind up under the "flamewar" section)

Blackfolk Awards

Despite its four-year existence, blackfolk didn't have an awards ceremony until August of 2005. It proved to be a much-needed diversion from the news (and heavily slanted news editing) of Hurricane Katrina. Created and emceed by i_dreamed_i_was, the categories included Best Graphic, Technical Achievement Award, and the highly coveted "Whoop That Trick!" title.

Negroes jumped at the chance of having a shiny jpeg of their very own, and it didn't take long before accusations of award blocking and vote tampering began to surface, along with nominee scandals, bitterness from those who were left off the ballot, and shameless whoring. When the smoke cleared and the awards were handed out, four blackfolk members won multiple awards - blackperson (2), rattlerbrat (2), tressiemc (2), and recumbentgoat (3), who was shot in the leg in a jealous rage by thewayoftheid.

The 2006 awards took a nasty turn when cumaeansibyl, in a Blackfolk first, invoked the one-drop rule against 2005 Token Whitey Award winner i_dreamed_i_was, rendering her ineligible for any future wins. Despite her blackness, IDIW still came in second place, with the winner being lostsonofodin.