My older influences, from my parents to the drunk uncle-esque figures who dropped random jewels on me, would always talk about our generation as if we were somehow alien to them with our actions and ideas. They never understood exactly why and how our childhood experiences differed, but they would always call me out when I did things a different way. I promised myself I would never be that person, never be that OG to judge without an informed understanding; yet as I grow older I find myself unable to continue accepting the status quo.
People may not remember this, but there was a time when people actually held conversations and disagreed, without being disagreeable (Word to JFK). There was a time when disagreeing or not liking a particular piece music, simply meant you didn’t like it; however these days you’re considered a hater. When a person said something a bit out of line, they would be confronted about it, but today, people hide being the invisible walls of social networks saying whatever comes to their little heads about anyone; with little to no restraint.
And somehow, that’s cool. People retweet comments made about people they have never met, and get away with this slander because we made it acceptable. Celebrities and social figures alike are often the targets of these attacks. These passive aggressive adults spend hours tweeting or blogging negatively about these public figures and there are no whistle blowers…
Until…
One of those celebrities sees one of those tweets, out of the thousands they receive daily, and calls someone out. It is all fun and games throwing stones at the moon, until the moon throws one back.
Last week, Amanda Seales (Amanda Diva) poked fun at Wale in a tweet that was rather harmless, but read, “This n**** Wale just moonwalked onto the stage. I’m always amazed at how much women like him lol He be rappin tho…” Wale, who happened to read the tweet confronted her about it. The story gets cloudy after that with both sides claiming things that either did or did not happen.
Seales, an extremely talented and infamous figure in Hip-Hop culture, says, “In hip hop women r always expected to “be cool” abt completely out of line behavior from our male counterparts.” Her statement was true, its beyond tough to be an opinionated woman in Hip-Hop, but there are other issues in which this circumstance speaks volumes. Regardless of the subsequent actions of Wale, this whole kafuffle began when we she thought to herself, “he’ll never read this.” The passive aggressive jab seemed funny and humorous, until he showed up right in front of her.
A bit sensitive on Wale’s part? One could make that argument, but the real question is, would she have said it to his face? Negating the sexist connotations stemming from this situation and just looking at the twitter versus real life debate; the difference between the two has become skewed.
Using this situation is a bit of a stretch, but the accountability issue is real and often unnoticed.
I see people all over my timeline that are the loudest, most opinionated and self-righteous individuals on twitter, but in real life, they are just passive-aggressive introverts. They hide behind social networks to make a name for themselves, as opposed to doing it in real life. Sadly, some could make an argument that an online presence is everything, but I hope, we, as a generation, have not reached that point. Anything I say on Twitter, is real and I’ll stand by it. Times are changing; the passive aggressive kids have an arena to be superstars, but those of us with common sense and an understanding of real-life consequences must, at times, act as whistleblowers (without coming to blows, of course).
