You're nobody til somebody hates on you

Congratulate me; I’ve MADE IT!!!!  I am officially a member of the Blogosphere, the Twitterati, the Social Media Movers and Shakers.  And to what, you may ask, can I attribute my rise to fame?  Twilight fans and hateration.

A few months ago, I wrote an innocuous post about how Black folks don’t like the Twilight movies.  In case you don’t click on the link, I will describe my post as brimming with my trademark sarcastic wit.  The blog entry in question was also based on my reading of all 4 books in the Twilight series, watching the first movie, and trolling the legions of gay men,  middle-aged housewives, and screaming teenagers pledging their internet love to Edward and Jacob.  First, I just couldn’t see why throngs of grown-ass women were all twisted over it, other than the sexual frustration and lack of romance in their lives.  Second, I didn’t see a lot of color in my research, unless you count the Native American werewolves.  Third, even with my lifelong geekdom and overall interest in the vampire genre, even I couldn’t get with all the vanilla in Stephenie Meyer’s work.  And if I, the nerdiest of all Black girls, couldn’t see the draw, I looked for a cultural angle to my distaste and wrote about it.

Enter “Black Chicks Love Twilight.“ This month, I’m their biggest hater target (even though I got most of my site traffic from them this month, but no comments on my post about how hateful I am…thanks girls!) because of my “stupidity”.  I love it!  The beauty of user-generated content is that average people are free to say what they want, when they want, about whomever they want.  Unlike a lot of people, I’m happy to be an internet target, mostly because I understand that idle insults are par for the course; if thousands and millions of people come across a small part of you every day, someone is bound to misunderstand you.  You can either take issue or let it roll.

This is not the first time I’ve been maligned electronically.  Last year I wrote one of those “Complaint Box” pieces for the New York Times where you complain about inane things and they’ll print it.  I was glad the editors like my writing and kept it moving.  Also, my biggest pet peeve is seeing guys’ underwear because their pants are below the equator.  Anyway, hundreds of people commented on my little essay, which means I struck a chord with Times readers.  Journalistic success!  A bunch of the comments were overwhelmingly negative and lashed out at me personally.  The “me” they had in mind was a snobby (sometimes), old (not yet), White (uh, NOT) woman from the suburbs (yo, I’m from Queens – ya heard?) who didn’t understand “urban” culture.  Again, I thought it was fantastic because the readers parsed my identity from a few words with no photo, and no context for who I really am other than the fact that I read the New York Times.  I can’t really find fault with that because my haters don’t really know me, just an image based on what I say.  That I can perpetrate as a stodgy member of the majority makes me feel pretty good about my literary skills.

I’m glad the girl from Black Chicks Love Twilight went after me.  She clearly understands what this social media business is all about:  namely, that she can express her feelings any way she chooses.  I’m also glad she points out to her readers that it’s OK for Black girls to like certain things without being accused of “acting White”.  She probably doesn’t realize that I heard that phrase for longer than she’s been alive, otherwise she’d be asking my advice instead of criticizing. And speaking of advice, if she’s reading this I do want her to check spelling and grammar before publishing her pages:  if Black Chicks are doing anything in public, we need to come correct!

*picks Angela Davis Afro and throws up Black Power fist*