Accomplished Two TransGriot Twitter Milestones!

Yesterday evening I hit two Twitter milestones on the same day in terms of sending my 20,000th tweet and reaching 10,000 followers!

And unlike some folks, I didn't have to buy them, I did it the old fashioned way.  I earned every one of them

I've only been on Twitter since January 2009, and initially resisted joining it because as a writer, I like having more than 140 characters to comment on the issues of the day.  But I discovered it helps in promoting my TransGriot blog posts that I would like people to read, and also keeps me in practice in terms of thinking in soundbites for future media interviews.

While I'm not on Twitter every day, when I do sign in to my Twitter feed, I can end up spending a few hours of my day commenting before shutting it down and getting back to writing.   .

Over the seven years I've been on Twitter,  I've  also composed enough tweets when I am on to where they surprisingly to me started getting media attention when I do so.

But it really shouldn't have been a surprise when it first started happening.  OutSmart magazine, our local Houston area LGBT magazine, has nominated me twice for Favorite Tweeter, an award I won in 2014 and was a finalist for last year.

And I'm pleased to have in my Twitter followers some of my fave media people, journalists, bloggers politicians  actors, and all around cool people that like seeing me comment on the issues of the day.

Well, on to the next milestones. Since we have 39 days left until Election Day, I'll definitely have more to say in 140 characters or less on the election and other pertinent issues of the day.

 

#BlackPrivilege Twitter Hashtag Going Viral

It started as a Black Twitter smackdown to a racist Tumblr page, but has raged on Twitter since Friday night and gone viral.   It was at one point a trending Twitter hashtag

It's the #BlackPrivilege Twitter hashtag, and it has struck a nerve on many levels with Black Tweeps including Toure of MSNBC's 'The Cycle'.

You know I had to jump in on this and was happy to see some of my comments have been retweeted.  We also had some peeps try to derail the feed as many Black Tweeps predicted would happen and claim the racism is a figment of our imaginations or we're 'perpetuating it' by talking about it.

The #BlackPrivilege hashtag is now going global with respondents from other parts of the African Diaspora such as Canada and Great Britain starting to check in.

It'll be interesting to see how long the momentum continues with this and if it even gets any mainstream media coverage.

Somehow I doubt that it will. 

My 1500th Twitter Follower

I haven't been tracking things on Twtter like I meticulously do on the blog, but things are happening for me in that world as well.   Was excited to note that I passed the 1500 mark in terms of Twitter followers this week.

Yay me!.  It's humbling that you think I have something important enough to say that you sign up to follow my Twitter feed  

It's deeply appreciated and humbling at the same time.   I also find it interesting it's occurring at the same time I'm hitting milestones on the blog as well.

Once again I have to thank you loyal TransGriot readers and everybody else who spends your precious websurfing time following what I write and sending or tweeting it to your friends and colleagues.
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Thanks Tweeps!

Wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU to all the tweeps who had my back in my unexpected Internet wrestling match with the Food Humorless Blog.

The ironic thing was I didn't realize how much of a storm it created until I got that threatening e-mail from the webmaster of the blog.

All I did was simply call them out for disrespecting Sonia Williams, and it became a major Twitter event.

What happened was I slammed the site for putting up a disrespectful thread straight up calling Ms. Williams a transvestite. The comment threads were even worse repositories of transphobia and racism characterizations of the beauty of Black women.

I was given a heads up on it by one of my readers, left my comments in the comment thread on the blog, wrote the piece on TransGriot slamming it, then took a nap.

I check my e-mail a few hours later to see the nastygram from The Pophangover webmaster.

I'm on Twitter, but I didn't check it for several hours until most of the controversy had simmered down.

But, once again, thanks for demonstrating the power of online activism, even to the TransGriot.

It's nice to know that when I take on peeps who have stepped beyond the valley of civic decency, many of you are watching my electronic back.