Do not add "bruh" or "fam" to your post title just to sound black.

January 29, 2015 8:38 AM

Almost five years ago Metafilter was introduced to Black People Twitter, but Metafilter has no chill. Since then Black People Twitter has become hot af. Compilations of black people being hilarious on twitter that were posted to reddit and a Black People Twitter subreddit was created, and has since grown to over 165,000 subscribers.

From r/BlackPeopleTwitter you can learn that ball is life, explore the intricacies of relationships, have a cathartic chuckle at America's often complicated history with race, reinterpret images of Obama, hear about mixtapes, and make fun of Drake and Kanye.

For more information.

posted by ND¢ (45 comments total)

Do not add "bruh" or "fam" to your post title just to sound black

Can we say "finna?" I love finna.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:45 AM on January 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

OMG that 'and' link. StuffDrakeDoes is a find.
posted by Mchelly at 8:56 AM on January 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

Day ight donuts
posted by leotrotsky at 8:57 AM on January 29, 2015 [9 favorites]

I thought "Bruh" made you sound like a white frat boy meathead.
posted by Che boludo! at 9:01 AM on January 29, 2015 [12 favorites]

Why Drake look like the proudest girlfriend ever?
posted by ND¢ at 9:02 AM on January 29, 2015 [19 favorites]

A kid in my daughter's 7th grade class somehow managed to get a copy of his mixtape into the school's trophy case.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:06 AM on January 29, 2015 [10 favorites]

anything here explain Based God?
posted by mullacc at 9:07 AM on January 29, 2015

Damn.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:09 AM on January 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

Meanwhile, for some goddamn awesome and funny writing from Black Twitter, I'd start with this list (especially @karnythia) and add @rgay, @theshrillest, and @IjeomaOluo.
posted by kmz at 9:11 AM on January 29, 2015 [8 favorites]

These are pure gold.
posted by colie at 9:23 AM on January 29, 2015

My favorite subreddit. Many of those posts have brought me to tears.

I thought "Bruh" made you sound like a white frat boy meathead.

That's "bro," bruh.
posted by girlmightlive at 9:27 AM on January 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

"Can we say "finna?" I love finna."

Not "funna"? That's the pronunciation where I'm from. (The most plausible explanation I've seen is that it comes from "fixing to" combined with "gonna.")
posted by klangklangston at 9:30 AM on January 29, 2015

Why Drake look like the proudest girlfriend ever?

that makes drake real sad
posted by nadawi at 9:33 AM on January 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

I thought "Bruh" made you sound like a white frat boy meathead.


Me too. 'Bruh', to me, is a Texan saying 'bro'.
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:33 AM on January 29, 2015

I think y'all are confusing "bruh" and "brah".
posted by kmz at 9:36 AM on January 29, 2015 [10 favorites]

also - i think around the time of chescaleigh's shit white girls say to black girls i made a concentrated effort to expand my social media/podcast/gossip reading circles - out went most of the white famous dudes and in came varying parts of black twitter. my twitter feed is now constantly way funnier and interesting and just plain better. i'd trade ricky gervais for @BougieLa every day of the week and twice on sundays.
posted by nadawi at 9:37 AM on January 29, 2015 [6 favorites]

Thank you kmz, that clears things up!
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:38 AM on January 29, 2015

to me, brah is more california. i agree that bruh is more texas. some slang is a little interesting if you're discussing "is this primarily black slang or southern slang" because some of it is both (also applies to finna).
posted by nadawi at 9:39 AM on January 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

Um, can someone PLEASE explain to me what "On Fleek" means? I saw it tweeted by Burger King and I'm still confused.
posted by todayandtomorrow at 9:50 AM on January 29, 2015

Che boludo!: I thought "Bruh" made you sound like a white frat boy meathead.

Given that a lot white frat boy meathead lingo is re-purposed from black slang, it's a fine line.

nadawi: to me, brah is more california.

I've heard it a lot in Louisiana. Or maybe that's more "braaaaah".
posted by brundlefly at 9:51 AM on January 29, 2015

The most plausible explanation I've seen is that it comes from "fixing to" combined with "gonna."

I think it actually comes from dropping certain sounds in the "middle" of words that some of us Southerners do --e.g., Louis'ana, ea'in' (for eatin'), figh'in (for fightin') -- so that "fixing to" becomes "fixin' to" becomes "fi'in to" becomes "fin to" which becomes "finna".

I also heard (and used!) "fixina" and "fissin' to" and "fissinna to" back in the old neighborhood when I was growing up.
posted by lord_wolf at 9:54 AM on January 29, 2015 [5 favorites]

Um, can someone PLEASE explain to me what "On Fleek" means

I would translate it as "on point".
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:54 AM on January 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

I always got the impression that the r/BlackPeopleTwitter subreddit was supposed to be mocking the way black people use Twitter in a "we are white people who are uncomfortable with how racist we are but we aren't going to let something like that stop us from actually being racist" kind of way. I would be very happy to hear confirmation from MeFites that I am wrong and that it is actually a celebration of black Twitter culture (including from people who are a part of it) because I honestly can't tell.
posted by capricorn at 9:54 AM on January 29, 2015 [19 favorites]

dinkin' flicka
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 9:54 AM on January 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

on fleek means on point, smooth, awesome, etc. it goes back quite a ways, 10 years or so, but it went viral seemingly through this vine video.
posted by nadawi at 9:55 AM on January 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

Oh, and don't forget to pray for Muhammad.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:58 AM on January 29, 2015 [11 favorites]

I would be very happy to hear confirmation from MeFites that I am wrong and that it is actually a celebration of black Twitter culture (including from people who are a part of it) because I honestly can't tell.

Well, this is how the sub is described on the sidebar:

Screenshots of black people being hilarious on social media, it don't need to just be twitter but obviously that is best.

Black culture has a unique way of examining the everyday and we are here to showcase that. You know this shit is funny so don't be a cunt and accuse people here of being racists.

We're all black here so be cool and if I see one more gad dam post about black fathers skipping town y'all gonna catch these hands ya buncha racists."

posted by girlmightlive at 10:01 AM on January 29, 2015 [8 favorites]

Thank you! hah, right there on the sidebar. I guess as reddit would say, "derp".
posted by capricorn at 10:05 AM on January 29, 2015

so that "fixing to" becomes "fixin' to" becomes "fi'in to" becomes "fin to" which becomes "finna".

Yeah, in the upper South, especially towards the Appalachians, I hear "fi'in to" a lot, often with a glottal stop where the x is elided.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 10:19 AM on January 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Brah is Hawaiian Pidgin.
posted by rtha at 10:37 AM on January 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

Man, if loving Drake jokes is wrong, I don't care about ever being right.
posted by padraigin at 10:44 AM on January 29, 2015 [4 favorites]

capricorn: "I always got the impression that the r/BlackPeopleTwitter subreddit was supposed to be mocking the way black people use Twitter in a "we are white people who are uncomfortable with how racist we are but we aren't going to let something like that stop us from actually being racist" kind of way. I would be very happy to hear confirmation from MeFites that I am wrong and that it is actually a celebration of black Twitter culture (including from people who are a part of it) because I honestly can't tell."

As a member of the black subreddits (even the super secret one that only we know about) the consensus on our boards is that r/blackpeopletwitter is like r/hhh (hiphopheads). That is, it is full of white folk being "ironic" and getting their black-folk safari on. Black twitter is hilarious (sometimes, sometimes it can be really mean). r/blackpeopletwitter is not somewhere that I, as a black person would go. It's that whole Dave Chappelle "laughing with me or at me" conundrum.
posted by anansi at 11:06 AM on January 29, 2015 [42 favorites]

i am SO glad to hear that about hhh (well, not glad it happens, but glad to see that opinion spelled out)! i found it trying to get better conversations about hip hop than mefi delivers. i'm a white girl, but even to me it seemed...like a performance? i don't know how to say it, it just seemed off. i will gladly unsubscribe and keep looking for a better place to read hip hop discussions.
posted by nadawi at 11:15 AM on January 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

July Jr.
posted by fuse theorem at 11:32 AM on January 29, 2015

r/blackpeopletwitter is like r/hhh (hiphopheads).That is, it is full of white folk being "ironic" and getting their black-folk safari on.

The best thing to ever happen in r/hiphopheads: Me and da bae.

To a certain extent I can't really argue with the "black-folk safari" aspect of r/blackpeopletwitter. It is like a thirty-something white guy eavesdropping on a conversation with some black high schools kids. But listening into that conversation would be boring if the only draw were exoticism or the novelty of "omg real life black people!" What attracts people to r/hiphopheads is probably very similar to what attracts me to r/blackpeopletwitter: that safari-ism aspect of "this is a subculture that I can't really be a part of, but can glimpse through a small window" mixed with a completely unironic appreciation of the output of that subculture. And I think the sidebar excerpt above reflects that dichotomy. "You know this shit is funny so don't be a cunt and accuse people here of being racists . . . if I see one more gad dam post about black fathers skipping town y'all gonna catch these hands ya buncha racists." There is a mix of voyeurism, cultural tourism, and honest enjoyment of the level of comedy mixed together in subscribing to r/blackpeopletwitter. And I would imagine the precise levels of each of those ingredients is different for every r/blackpeopletwitter subscriber.
posted by ND¢ at 12:10 PM on January 29, 2015 [4 favorites]

Like most things on reddit there is also about 30% fake troll accounts in this case pretending to be black too. Not really the same as on black twitter where posting pics and otherwise being a real person is much more valued. Which is why, as in most cases, Twitter > Everything > Reddit.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:18 PM on January 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Also once you follow enough black people on twitter it just becomes twitter.
Also this is the Magna Carta of all twitter.

#alltwittersmatter
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:21 PM on January 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Me and da bae.

Yes! Exactly. I can't stand /r/hhh, and have avoided music that I ended up liking just since it got so hyped there. I've mentioned it before, but the true home of hip-hop on reddit is hiphopcirclejerk.

I've been surprised seeing bpt blow up recently. I'm a bit wary of it, because reddit is the place where edgy joaks like 'r/blackfathers' and "once you go black ... you're a single mom" get posted like EVERY FUCKING DAY, so its nice seeing something like that called out.

I'm not going to question the motivation of the people posting, but the popularity / voyeuristic part of it is going to be almost exclusively not black, and there are so many racist undertones with every other prominent part of the site I have a really hard time believing there isn't an element of that there.

That being said, some of the caps I've seen are pretty funny.

(and yeah, white straight male thirtysomething techworker disclaimer)
posted by lkc at 12:23 PM on January 29, 2015 [4 favorites]

And there is something so municipal about calling it "black people twitter" that pretty much ensures it was not, in fact, made by black people. The sidebar text really hammers it home. /r/hhh did a demographic survey and found it was like 89% white, 10% asian, 1% other. I don't see why this would be any different.
posted by lkc at 12:26 PM on January 29, 2015 [5 favorites]

Not that there aren't fake trolly accounts on twitter too. Whenever there's a controversy regarding race some 100 follower account called SexxyCholiteMamEE with a stripper avatar shows up in the mentions on the news story spouting racist drivel supposedly from a black perspective "I am a real black ppl but we are lazy blah blah blah". But its a lot easier to spot them and ignore them because only #tcot's mistake them for real human beings.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:40 PM on January 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

These are the times I wish everybody in here was in a room together, and let the discussion commence. Man would that be a hoot.
posted by cashman at 12:54 PM on January 29, 2015 [8 favorites]

I think it actually comes from dropping certain sounds in the "middle" of words that some of us Southerners do --e.g., Louis'ana, ea'in' (for eatin'), figh'in (for fightin') -- so that "fixing to" becomes "fixin' to" becomes "fi'in to" becomes "fin to" which becomes "finna"."

Yeah, that's interesting to me because, growing up in a black neighborhood in Michigan, so much of our lexicon comes through the big diaspora of Southerners to auto factories — pretty much every small city in Southeast Michigan gets a "-tucky" suffix (e.g. Ypsitucky for Ypsilanti). So while "funna" is part of of my dialect, "finna" sounds unmistakably Southern despite likely coming from the same place.

(It's making me think of "gaffle," which according to Languagehat readers likely comes from Swedish/Low German from spearing with a fork — but in my neighborhood, it was always pronounced "gaffo," e.g. "Muhfucker got gaffoed." It's also weird to see the primary citations for "gaffle" being West Coast rap, since it was a common term in mid-Michigan black vernacular in the early '90s, before I'd expect much of the West Coast rappers to have made a big impact on our slang.)

Anyway, it's nice to kind of wade back into some Black Twitter stuff, since a couple of my friends who were into it are the 100 tweets an hour folks and I had to dial back on trying to feel caught up.
posted by klangklangston at 1:14 PM on January 29, 2015 [4 favorites]

I got to gaffle ya is how I heard it, so I always associated it with a cracker/cop kinda thing. Cube's reaction is more like a "huh? Gaffle?" (at the end of the song). I can't think of anything else west-coasty that used it as slang from that era, but I could be wrong.
posted by lkc at 2:45 PM on January 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

r/blackpeopletwitter is like r/hhh (hiphopheads).That is, it is full of white folk being "ironic" and getting their black-folk safari on.

Yep, i really wish i could find it, but there was a recent hilariousness where the mods of r/blackpeopletwitter showed up in shitredditsays to try and defend themselves/the sub after a really shitty post there got called out... and just horribly embarrassed themselves trying to defend really tiresome racist caricatures and jokes.

At it's heart, it's aligned with the same camp as the really overtly shitty racist "joke" subreddits.
posted by emptythought at 4:04 PM on January 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

OHHLA (and Genius, which has taken vast amounts of lyrical content from OHHLA) is really underrated as a set of linguistic texts--I'd love to see someone analyzing that data to track the spread of e.g. 'Gafflin'.'

(First time I heard it might've been on Cube's buddy JD's 'Kill at Will' throwaway.)
posted by box at 6:53 PM on January 29, 2015 [1 favorite]