Tweeting Is More Dangerous For Black People

As I get older, I’ve made a certain level of peace with double standards. They exist, they’re not going anywhere, and sometimes it’s better to work within their confines rather than break yourself on their boundaries.

But age and wisdom haven’t yet sapped my ability to become murderously angry when I see those double standards applied.

Such was the case last week when a kid named Janero Marchand got himself all tangled up on the World Wide Web. The popular gossip blog Bossip (think Gawker for black people) ran a rumor that he was dating pop star Rihanna. Janero’s a law student at Georgetown (though the initial Bossip story got that wrong). For the uninitiated, law student + pop star = Above the Law post, so I was compelled to write about him in my capacity as an editor for Above the Law.

But before I posted, I tried to figure out if the Bossip rumor was true. I think that is something they teach in journalism school, though admittedly I’ve never been. It didn’t take long before I found Janero’s Twitter account. It was publicly accessible. On Twitter, Marchand was vehemently denying the rumors. I decided to include the denials in my story, and by way of sourcing I re-published some of his tweets.

Unfortunately, Marchand’s hastily written denials were written in “urban slang.” Some readers used these tweets to make wild assumptions about Janero’s education, intellect, and job prospects. Of course, some readers used the opportunity to ask: “I wonder which applicant lost their chance at [Georgetown] to this poser because they weren’t a minority?”

Sigh.

After the jump, let’s examine why Janero Marchand shouldn’t have posted grammatically incorrect tweets, but “Jimmy O’Murphy” probably could have gotten away with it.

Here was one of Janero’s tweets:

How do you get your shyt taken off a blog? My shorty just called me whilin out on some made up story on a blog that is false.

You don’t need a degree in funk to understand the gist of this tweet. Stuff. Off a blog. Some type of friend, perhaps female. Disturbed by false accusations.

From that tweet, you don’t really know anything about this man’s educational history. You don’t know his LSAT or SAT score. You just don’t know anything.

But the tweets, combined with Janero’s looks (that’s him in the picture to the right), had everybody screaming that somehow Janero didn’t deserve to be in law school. Or a member of the Bar. Or allowed in polite company of intellectuals.

If you have ever been on Twitter, you know that people tweet stupid, nonsensical, grammatically atrocious things all of the time. I understand when older people are dismayed by the lack of intellectualism displayed on Twitter (and Facebook). It’s usually best to let these people have their say and to give them a cup of tapioca pudding before their 4:00 pm dinner time.

Younger people should know better. Judging a person’s intellect based on a 140 character display is a great way to jump to an idiotic conclusion.

But young African-Americans need to be particularly careful about tweets and Facebook status updates. Because a couple of slang ridden tweets just confirms what some people already suspect: that you’re a thug who is only going to see a courtroom while sitting in a defendant’s chair.

White people can get in some slang induced tweets without risking the presumption of intellectual weakness. Black people cannot. People prejudge, and white people are going to get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to matters of the mind. Blacks… I don’t know… I guess we get the benefit of the doubt in the sack.

Young African-American professionals have to fight against negative stereotypes about their ability to be articulate. You can’t give people an inch to doubt your ability, and Twitter is where articulate discourse goes to die.

For his part, Janero Marchand seems to have learned this important lesson. He addressed his tweets in an email to me. I published his response:

In closing, with regards to my poor grammar usage on twitter. Looking back I myself was appalled at how abhorrent my grammar was on twitter. I am ashamed that people will remember me most for writing that. I apologize for that, but during that time period I had twenty-five missed calls, and thirty text messages all alerting me about being plastered on a popular blog, and asking did I leave my current girlfriend for Rihanna, so I panicked without thinking. Contrary to popular belief, in person, I am very educated, articulate, and enunciation is something I pride myself in.

He also blocked public access to his twitter feed.

If you want to be a buppie, you have to talk the talk.