With the rise of social media, it’s apparent that Black representation is somewhat more along in the hands of Blacks (instead of previously and negatively controlled by non-Blacks) than ever before. Our images and stories have been altered and misconstrued for centuries and we now have more of a chance to reveal and express ourselves via social media. It brings me absolute joy when I am scrolling through Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook and I see people who look like me embracing their hair, complexion, body, culture, and history, all-the-while empowering one another. Positive representation matters so much that it can save lives and even the world itself. From helpful natural hair YouTube videos to Black Instagram pages sharing ourstory predating slavery, you can almost find it all. There is, however, a flaw surfacing that we may not have noticed.

Social media is pretty amazing because its customize-able, so one person’s news feed may differ tremendously from mine to the point where it doesn’t even seem like the same app that we’re using. I customized mine to the point where I mostly follow uplifting, knowledgeable, and beauty profiles that are Afrocentric. Because who would want to follow a page that doesn’t represent people that look like self? For too long, many black women (including myself) didn’t see themselves as beautiful because we (or people who look like us) weren’t the ones on the beauty magazines and ads. For too long, Black men weren’t portrayed at all in the media unless they were someone to laugh at or to fear; there is no in-between, they’re either portrayed as a goofball or a thug. So social media has been utilized as a sort of gateway to tell the world our stories, to teach and learn our history, to network and connect with people like us, and to establish and manage our own images and businesses.

What I’ve noticed is that many of the Afrocentric pages that I’ve followed through the years (including new ones as well) changed from posting upliftment, knowledge, and unity to posting negativity, bashing, and separation. The recent negativity that I’ve witnessed is when a pro-Black page posts many screenshots of internet “trolls” (people on the internet who provoke arguments) downing Black people while the people in the comments give it full attention. Usually, these negative posts receive more feedback than the ones posting events, businesses, art, history, and etc. These posts fuel our anger as well as creates a form of amnesia within us because we all of a sudden forget that we are fighting something much bigger than a mindless post.

The bashing comes in when many pro-Black pages would look down upon Black folks who don’t fully comprehend their “history”, even when they attempt to learn by asking questions. The so called pro-Black movement then begins to appear as a cult to those who have been bashed because of their current beliefs on their history, religion, politics, and more. Instead of explaining posts or sharing links and information, many pages complain about how the so called “coons” should Google it instead. I remember a post going around saying “Only Conscious Black Lives Matter”. What was supposed to promote unity then went sour and began promoting a different type of separation within our own community.

Separation within the Black community is already apparent and more factors are being added each and every day (religion, LGBT, disability, complexion, body shape, social class, etc). The biggest factor I have been noticing is colorism. Colorism is discrimination based off skin tone in your own racial community. The whole light skin versus dark skin matter is it all in a nutshell. We allow this matter to separate us even more now because more and more people are beginning to accept colorism within our own community as a form of racism. Those with more melanin, of course, have been and are still being heavily discriminated against more than anything else. Light-skinned blacks are inevitably still black, and they also experience heavy discrimination but not nearly as inhumane as those with darker skin tones. This should be acknowledged and in return we should uplift one another instead of widening the separation gap. What used to be fighting against white supremacy and this twisted system, graduated to fighting our own because of our differences.

Stay focused and think to yourself, what is it that you’re really upset about? The answer to that question is not your brother or your sister, so dig deeper. White supremacy kills us enough, so why contribute to those numbers? If anything, utilize social media to learn about your ancestors and ourstory so that we all as a collective may protect and uplift one another and combine all of our ancestors’ tactics with our own as well to create something bigger and more effective.

*Learn from and teach to everyone that you may come across. Let’s light every match of consciousness until we all become an everlasting flame that the toughest of winds couldn’t extinguish.