My Seven Days of Exile from Facebook

Let me just start out by saying that Facebook is extra petty. By the time you guys get to see this, I will be back on Facebook because Facebook is mainly where I put my blogs for people to see. With that said, whatever algorithm they use, they need to do better. Not long ago, I got restricted from the site for seven days (but they changed it to 3 days after “reviewing” their decision) for literally saying that I do NOT HATE WHITE PEOPLE. Reading the context would be great but somehow, the real racists get to stay on Facebook and thrive with their racism.

I have literally seen violence against children, women, animals, etc on Facebook, reported the post, and they say it doesn’t go against their rules. What kind of mess is this? They will delete your live for having music in it but find it just fine to leave abuse posts up. People have gotten killed and raped on Facebook live but me saying that I DON’T hate White people got me restricted.

The Warning

Not too long ago, we were talking about the show 90 Day Fiance and we were discussing the fact that this old lady (could have been Jenny or one of the other old bitties on the show) had married a young guy and her child(ren) wasn’t happy about it. I posed the question to a member of the group “What if your old ass mom got with a young man, would you be good with that?” They flagged it as “bullying” or “hate speech”. I’m like “Really?” First of all, I wasn’t talking about the member, I was speaking in a hypothetical manner. I bet that even if I said that if my “Old ass mom” got with a young dude, I wouldn’t like it either”, I would have gotten a warning.

They literally have nothing to do with their time and now, thanks to them kicking me off for SEVEN days now, neither do I. I mean, I read more, watch Impractical Jokers, write blogs (that no one will really be able to read until I can get back on Facebook), and play my games.

Three (Supposed to be Seven) Day Restriction

This was another instance of NOT looking at context. I spoke of this in my other blog I Love My White Friends But This Has to be Said. I was literally telling them that, if I let what I knew about my history impact my love for my White friends, I would hate White people but I don’t. They “reviewed” their decision but whoever it is doesn’t know how to read. At this pivotal time in history, my voice needs to be heard on Facebook.

Now, while you guys think I am not important of a voice to be “heard” on Facebook, I actually am. I actually educate my friends on a daily basis. I have a LOT of multicultural friends. My friends are what I call a Rainbow Coalition because we are VERY honest and candid with one another when discussing race issues. Some of them are former coworkers. I have learned SO much from them and they have learned a lot from me. This interchange of ideas without judgment with the desire to learn is NECESSARY at this time in our history.

I work with White people and they ask me questions. Today, a coworker (who is also a Facebook friend) asked me about what we do on Juneteenth so I told her. She is Jewish so we talk a LOT about these things. I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness and we talk about the Holocaust as well because people sometimes forget that Jehovah’s Witnesses were tortured, killed, and jailed because of their love for their brothers and sisters and their refusal to kill. They were the Purple Triangles. A lot of people don’t know that part of history. They just know that they don’t like them knocking on their doors (well, now they wish they were knocking on their doors because everything they had been talking about happening IS happening now). So, yes, it is important that I am there to add to the narrative to help educate people on our history.

People, somehow are just learning about these issues when we, as black people, have been staring them in our faces our whole lives. I am 40 years old but I can tell you about Emmett Till. I can tell you about Black Wall Street. Why? Because I am black and I had two sixth grade teachers at Fort Foote Elementary School that refused to let us fall through the cracks when it came to learning our history.

So, in the sixth grade, with my White best friend, Adrienne, I learned about coming to America from Africa and what happened to my ancestors after that. We had to watch Eyes on the Prize. If you TRULY want to know about Civil Rights, I STRONGLY suggest watching that documentary. There are many parts to it but that was where I first saw a picture of Emmett Till in his open casket. That is engraved in my brain forever. I will never forget it.

I also will never forget the stories of people being killed because some White woman lied and said they were raped by a Black person. I will never forget Black Wall Street and the fact that greed, jealousy, and lies led to it. I thank my teachers often for just ripping the Bandaid off because NONE of that was placed in any history book I had.

We’re out here fighting for LGBTQ+ classes but we need to talk about actual AMERICAN history. ALL of it. Yes, there can be an African American History class that can be an elective just like sex ed or whatever, but it needs to be taught at one point before exiting high school. Maybe have them read something over the summer or watch a movie over the summer and write their thoughts down so as not to deal with any repercussions (if there is rage involved because things like this enrage me and, even in college, I was enraged by the books I read for my African American Psychology classes but I am going to make a blog about that as well) that might result from the anger that it might bring.

My best friend, Adrienne apologized to me for it. She didn’t do it though and I loved her as a person. In elementary school, I didn’t care about race. I was not raised to think about race (I didn’t see color but people get offended by that phrase for some reason now). She was my friend and, although I was from a Black area, the NAACP had a rule in place that us bused to different schools. So we passed about four elementary schools to go to Fort Foote. I thank them for that rule. They changed it some years later but I believe that it served its purpose because I met Adrienne, Mr. Williams, and Mrs. Grate (they were Black teachers and they didn’t play about our history).

You see how all this information just flowed out of me via this blog? Facebook missed out because they wanna be petty.

My Seven Day Restriction

My seven day restriction was annoying but I will say that it was warranted. We have all these deaths and it’s really pissing us off but we’re STILL taking the high road. Anyhow, there are Black dudes out here defending cops shooting a fleeing suspect that is no longer a threat. No matter how many times it was explained that a taser doesn’t have the range of a gun and that this man was NO LONGER a threat, they still state that being shot in the back was warranted.

As a Black man, how could you say that? Everyone wasn’t right in the situation BUT it didn’t have to escalate to that point. And, for a Black man to sit there and feel that it was a justified shooting blew my mind. So, yeah, I said they were coons on a friend’s post. Facebook some stalkers, man. But it’s whatever. I have another account but it ain’t even worth it. I don’t even care. This is my time to reflect on my life and my history. It’s time for me to reflect on everything. There are a lot of blogs that are coming due to this reflection.

I took the time off my job and then we had more folks dying just like that. And then a White friend’s friend said that BLM had all these Black folks hang themselves to be a martyr. I wanted to throw everything and my friend straight up blocked her. Because we WENT IN. And her married name is Hernandez. Like how? But that’s a whole different blog.

Summary Time…

In then end, I had to fight my daughter to even use this computer so she’s in her room asleep because she’s mad but yeah these are just SOME of my thoughts right now. But Facebook is extra petty, for real. I don’t like them. I will probably only just use them to post my blogs. My voice isn’t important to them if they silence me every chance they get.

As usual, thanks for reading my blog and please share. I have a lot of content coming up including thinking about my daughter’s future, a book I read about psychopaths in our everyday lives, and why I threw my African American Psychology textbooks when I had to do three semesters on the subject. Four more days to go. Thanks Facebook. Ole trashbags!