mekkaokereke

mekkaokereke, 10 months ago to random

🤔 Do bicycles create empathy? Or do people that care about other people, tend to care about bikes?

Why is there such a big overlap between "bike infrastructure radicalized people," and "people that care about people that are different than themselves?"

Why is there such a low overlap between "people with trash hateful takes" and "people that want more bike infrastructure?"

mekkaokereke, 10 months ago to random

Sharing in case this helps someone.

The last time someone in our household got Covid, we were able to keep it from spreading to anyone else. ♥️🙏🏿 This time we were not so lucky. My Covid high score streak is finally broken! Rona got me y'all!

Completely unscientific observations of how this thing looks to have beat our mitigations:

Day 0: Contagious. No symptoms. Negative tests.

Day 1: Contagious. Slight symptoms. Negative test.

Day 2: Contagious. More severe symptoms. Positive tests.

mekkaokereke, 9 months ago to random

Fantastic accomplishment!♥️👍🏿

https://19thnews.org/2023/07/chanda-prescod-weinstein-physicist-tenure-rare-feat/

And when she tried to join the Fediverse, she was greeted with a barrage of hate, sexism, racism, and anti-semitism that should have never been allowed to happen.

So now no one on Fediverse gets to interact with her directly about her work on here. Our loss. 😢

Which is why we'll make it so that this type of terrible welcome is unlikely to happen again. Allowing it to happen to her was a choice. We will make better ones.

#BlackMastodon

mekkaokereke, 1 year ago to random

All of the posts on Mastodon about how the Blue Sky team was silly for releasing a social media network in 2023 without blocking and moderation, even in private beta, and that the Blue Sky team should have known what would happen...

...are being written on Mastodon: a social media platform that in 2023, still doesn't take into account that Black users face a disproportionate amount of very specific types of abuse, and is missing key features that would make the Black population safer. 🙂🙃

mekkaokereke, 7 months ago to random

The mayor of NYC is going to South America on a "fact finding mission," to understand why migrants are here.

What will happen when he discovers that one of the biggest drivers is climate change? Will he then come back and be all in on the Green New Deal? Or will absolutely nothing change, and he'll still ask people to come back into the office, commuting unnecessarily, just to prop up commercial real estate prices?

Climate changes. Crops fail. People go hungry. People start walking North.

mekkaokereke, 1 month ago to random

Honest question for white people that don't consider themselves racist:

White nationalists have been vocal about their attacks on DEI. These are literally the same people that talk about Charlottesville, Jan 6th, and ethnic cleansing.

They've laid out exactly how they plan to destroy DEI.

1. Make false claims that DEI is about giving unqualified Black people an unfair advantage

2. Work with racist politicians to use this as a pretext to make all DEI programs illegal.

1/n

mekkaokereke, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to aliens

If the US government really had alien bodies, then the US president would know about it.

If the US president knew about it, then Trump would know about it.

If Trump knew about it, he would have told everyone, bragged about it, kept boxes of documents about it at Mar-A-Lago, etc. There would be a ketchup stained original photograph of an alien autopsy on the floor of his bathroom.

Since we haven't heard him brag about having seen a photo of an alien, we know that he hasn't seen one.

#aliens

mekkaokereke, 11 months ago to random

🤯 This year in social media is wild. The latest chapter is no exception. Fascinating data and anecdotes.

Data:

• Over 430K Fediverse accounts created in the past week. And it's accelerating.

https://mastodon.social/@mastodonusercount/110576430285028932

Anecdotes:
Major communities may be moving soon.

https://kbin.social/m/RedditMigration/t/59559/Removed-as-moderator-of-r-Celebrities-after-14-years

Here's the Fediverse version of "celebrities" with exactly 1 subscriber so far... the person who claimed to be the former moderator of the celebrities sub-reddit.
https://kbin.social/m/celebrities

mekkaokereke, 9 months ago to random

The criticism of Ice Cube coming from many white folk, vs Black folk, is different in important ways.

When Biden stresses "Bipartisanship" and says that he will work with people from both parties to get things done for the American people, he's praised. If I criticize his centrism, y'all yell at me.🤷🏿‍♂️

When Ice Cube says we don't know who's going to win the election: if it's Dems I'll work with them, if it's GOP I'll work with them, to get things done for Black people...y'all call him a fool.🤡

mekkaokereke, 3 months ago to random

My hot take on the Vision Pro is the same as my hot take on every AR/VR/Mixed Reality headset produced in the past checks notes 20 years: "If most women can't use your product for 4 hours straight without throwing up, don't try to tell me that it's the future of anything." I said what I said.

Women can use a smartphone indefinitely without nausea. They can use a laptop indefinitely. A gaming console and TV indefinitely. But XR headsets cause motion sickness in most women in under an hour. 🤷🏿‍♂️

mekkaokereke, 1 month ago to random

People on Twitter are debating whether a person using uncommon words like "delve" are trying to sound smarter than they are, or worse, are ChatGPT bots, because "normal" people don't talk like that.

You don't have to get upset, or embroiled in the debate. Not worth the time or attention. But I'll share some important context as your friendly neighborhood Nigerian 🙋🏿‍♂️

Many Nigerians have bigger English language vocabularies and better command of grammar than the typical American or English person

mekkaokereke, 8 months ago to random

♥️♥️♥️Shoutout to the staff of the hotel I stayed at for expertly de-escalating a Karen situation!

♥️♥️♥️And shoutout to the white hotel guests that stuck around to make sure that hotel security heard exactly what she was trying to do. My favorite comment: "Wow! A Karen situation in real life! I've only ever seen these online! This is surreal! What is she thinking?"

End result, yours truly did not get kicked out of the hotel for no reason, and feels slightly better about the state of the world.

mekkaokereke, 8 months ago to random

OK, let's get into it. Let's talk about anti-Blackness on this here Fediverse, "civility traps", and "why nazis wear suits."

First: there are some trans folk that love Black people, care about our safety, and want to see the Fediverse be more welcoming to Black users.♥️ These kind folk volunteer considerable time, money, effort, and social capital, to make the Fediverse more welcoming for Black folk. We love them for this.

But there are some trans folk that are super fashy, and hate Black folk.

mekkaokereke, 10 months ago to random

I don't want to talk about Aldean's "Small town" lyrics or video.

I do want to point out (again) that the homicide rate in GOP "small town" counties, is higher than that in Dem "big town" counties. 🤡

https://www.cjcj.org/reports-publications/publications/crime-trends-and-violence-worse-in-californias-republican-voting-counties-than-democratic-voting-counties

A white person in a red county has about as much chance of being shot as a Black person in a blue county.🤡

(I don't know how much you know about crime in the USA, but if you have as much risk of being a victim of anything as Black people? That's not good).

mekkaokereke, 1 year ago to random

Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !

I'm still not talking about Black history. I'm still talking about white US history.

Q: Why do Black kids not do well in school? Is it because their dads are uninvolved and uncaring parents? Bill Cosby and Herschel Walker told me that, and they are good and wise men that we should listen to! It's Black dads' fault! Boo Black men!

A: No. Black kids only do poorly in school in extremely racist countries.

#BlackMastodon

mekkaokereke, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

~1919: global pandemic
~2019: global pandemic

~1920: Dr Thomas Tuttle's life is threatened for mask mandates
~2020: Dr Anthony Fauci's life is threatened for mask mandates

~1922: roaring 20s
~2022: we are so back!

~1923: Beer Putsch - attempted coup by fashy Germans
~2021: Jan 6 - attempted coup by fashy Americans

~1920s work on Autobahn begins. Fash hate the infra projects
~2020s Biden's infrastructure bill starts. Fash hate the infra projects

~1924: Hitler indicted
~2023: Trump indicted

mekkaokereke, 12 days ago to random

If you got upset at me for pointing out that more people died of Covid under Biden than Trump, in large part because Biden rolled back common sense restrictions that were in place under Trump...

Then you'll hate me pointing out that Trump introduced a 25% tariff on Chinese EVs, and Biden is upping that to 100% tariff.

https://insideevs.com/news/719283/chinese-ev-tariffs-biden-quadruple/

We can't allow the US to get off of fossil fuels... unless US billionaires win! 🤡

Fear the BYD Dolphin! (an EV car for $12K)
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/T3nfyO_UHjk

mekkaokereke, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

As we hear reports that it will take 10 years (🤯) to replace the 1.6 mile Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore, remember that China built the Danyang-Kunshan bridge and Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in 4 years each.

Danyang-Kunshan Bridge is 102 miles long, and 100 ft above the water.

Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is 16 miles and 623 ft tall, earthquake and typhoon proof, and can withstand a direct strike from a 300,000 ton cargo ship. That last point is unfortunately topical.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U7iQqogVmr8

mekkaokereke, 1 year ago to random

Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !

You know the drill by now. I don't like talking about Black history. Americans know Black history. I want to talk about white American history. In other words, racism, and the erasure of both positive achievements of, and injustices suffered by, non-white people. That's what people don't know.

Try this: Ask your white US friends what the statue of liberty celebrates.

Now ask your Black friends. Or French folk of any color.

#BlackMastodon

mekkaokereke, 10 months ago to random

It's 2023, and there's a US election in 2024 that will determine the future of climate change, war in Ukraine, the global economy, reproductive rights, and global fascism.

And folks still want to talk about Cambridge Analytica in 2015, instead of stuff like this:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/democrats-scramble-reach-voters-florida-cancels-mail-ballot-requests-rcna91294

The reason you can't make any progress on:

• Climate change
• Reproductive rights
• Trans rights

Is because too many Black folk are denied the right to vote. Focus on that instead of your pet issue.

mekkaokereke, 6 months ago to random

The people that Bernie Madoff stole from, got most of their money back. ~90% at this point. 👍🏿

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-total-distribution-over-4-billion-victims-madoff-ponzi-scheme#

Because Madoff stole from mostly rich, mostly white people, ultra high net worth individuals, financial institutions. US society makes sure that rich folk are made whole, have loans forgiven (Eg PPP), etc.

But the people that SBF stole from are unlikely to ever get their money back. Because they were disproportionately Black, low net worth individuals. AKA, normal people.

mekkaokereke, 9 months ago to random

sigh we're still talking about this I guess...

Jamie Foxx didn't say something anti-semitic. He said something people thought was anti-semitic.

Because they weren't familiar with his phrase, and he wasn't familiar with the anti-semitic dog-whistle.

He apologized for being misunderstood, not for being anti-semitic.

Yes, it is very good that he clarified.

#BlackMastodon #JamieFoxx

mekkaokereke, 10 months ago to random

This is an important PSA for folks looking to make any place more inclusive. Do you want to be liked by everyone? Or do you want to make progress?

I don't know anyone that has both been successful in transforming a non-inclusive place, and hasn't been accused of sounding hostile.

It takes a huge amount of energy to dance on eggshells, and I don't have time to do it. So I don't. I'm a big boy. I crack sidewalks when I walk. So eggshells would have no chance anyway. 🤷🏿‍♂️

https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/110676207295654527

mekkaokereke, 7 months ago to random

9/11 was a terrorist attack that killed thousands of US citizens. But Iraqi children didn't commit 9/11. Using white phosphorus against kids is a war crime. Intentionally denying kids water is a war crime. Indefinitely locking up "enemy combatants" without charge is a human rights violation.

👩🏼🇺🇲 "Terrorism is bad. I lost family members on 9/11. But I don't want my government committing war crimes on my behalf. We should not use WP on kids in Fallujah. We should restore food and water."

mekkaokereke, 3 months ago to random

Valuable lessons were learned, but not the ones that the mother thought would be learned.🤷🏿‍♂️

• She learned that millions of Black people haven't been "making it all up" about police mistreatment
• She learned why US Black folk almost never call the police, for any reason
• Her son learned that his own mom is not safe. Her lack of understanding of US racism makes her dangerous
• She's probably going to learn that this does not meet the definition of police misconduct

https://apnews.com/article/black-teen-lawsuit-excessive-force-vermont-disabilities-7b638ed26c299c7f07033968274e8f37