It was only a matter of time before a documentary was made about Black Twitter. After all, it sparks interest when you have a digital community that’s relevant to mainstream internet culture. The interest has been cultivated in Hulu’s “Black Twitter: A People’s History” documentary.
The three-part docuseries, set for a May 9, 2024, release date, is an oral history of Black Twitter and focuses on the influential social media users who made the platform what it is today. Names like comedian Amanda Seales, sports journalist Jemele Hill, “Bad Feminist” author Roxane Grey, and other prominent Twitter users are featured, offering insight into how memes, tweets, and online personalities created what many now call a pop culture juggernaut.
Naturally, a documentary about Black Twitter is going to spark Black Twitter. And boy, did they have some interesting reactions. Below, we get into everything you need to know about Hulu’s “Black Twitter” docuseries, plus share the most iconic responses from Black Twitter about the documentary’s release.
“Black Twitter: A People’s History” is based on a 2021 Wired article.
In 2021, Wired published a three-part feature on Black Twitter. Three years later, that feature has turned into a Hulu documentary. Directed by former “Insecure” showrunner Prentice Penny, the docuseries focuses on “the rise, movements, voices, and memes that made Black Twitter an influential and dominant force in nearly every aspect of American political and cultural life,” according to the press release.
The feature follows some of Black Twitter’s most iconic movements, from hashtags like #BlackGirlMagic to social movements like #OscarsSoWhite and #BlackLivesMatter. The documentary also captures the entertainment influence of Black Twitter, like how a viral 148-Twitter thread (re: “Zola”) turned into an A24 blockbuster, or how Shonda Rhimes’ “Scandal” propelled into mainstream television thanks to all the hilarious memes and live tweets, per Refinery29.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Black Twitter” aims to showcase the cultural dominance of the online community, more specifically, how thousands of Twitter users have built a digital community that defines the American political and cultural zeitgeist.
“We don’t get a lot of ways in this country to control a narrative or dictate much,” Penny said, via THR. “But culture is something we do get to dictate a lot of, and now you look to us to do that, reluctantly or not. That’s what happens on Black Twitter – it becomes a playground that we control in America. It’s not like passing down wealth, but it’s power in a way that we can participate in just by proxy of being part of the family, part of the culture.”
Black Twitter is not happy about the documentary.
One of the most important aspects of Black Twitter is that it’s like an inside joke, similar to African American Vernacular English. It was explicitly created by and for Black people and thus is sacred. So, broadcasting it on Hulu creates contention. Many Twitter users took to X (or whatever it’s called) to vent their frustrations about not gatekeeping Black Twitter.
One user said, “This feels cringe in like an exploitative way. Like I feel like white people are the target audience because literally the ones that already get it, get it.”
Another user pointed out something similar: “We already know what’s going on, on top of being the ones that actually push and engage with things.”
Some Twitter users, including Kyla Jenee Lacey, weren’t upset about the film itself but were more frustrated about whose voices would be included in the documentary.
“But are the non-famous Black Twitter ppl involved, the ones who actually move the app?” she tweeted.
While most criticism is valid — gatekeeping Black culture is a continuous debate in the community—many users are jumping the gun and condemning the documentary before it airs.
Penny took to Twitter to calm the masses and reassure everyone that the documentary was made in good faith.
“I’d like to think after 20 years of holding the culture down, y’all would trust I got #blacktwitterhulu best interest in mind,” he wrote. “But lowkey, I also love black Twitter, mad hesitant and petty about it, too! LOL!”
The hesitance will remain until Hulu’s Black Twitter docuseries airs on May 9, 2024, and understandably so. Mainstream television and news have misrepresented the Black community time and time again, so there’s no expectation that a Black-made documentary will be anything different. We hope “Black Twitter” is as great as the promo says it is. And if it’s not, at least we’ll have the memes to laugh at.
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