mekkaokereke

mekkaokereke, 13 days ago

And the mid 90s was a quarter century ago! Open Source leadership is better now.

That's not to say that bigotry or lack of inclusion don't happen in open source today.

That's to say that the most relevant open source projects today, are very different than the ones from the mid 90s. 🤷🏿‍♂️

2/N.

mekkaokereke, 13 days ago

Hateful people are usually much louder then the rest of us, so it can seem like there are many times more of them than there really are. And they can do a lot of lasting damage. I don't want to understate their harm.

But...

By number, there are a lot more good people than hateful people.

mekkaokereke, 13 days ago

Underrepresented people that were driven out of working on open source in the mid-90s, didn't get the chance to contribute to these projects. This artificially puffs up the perceived "brilliance" of these early hateful contributors.

Underrepresented folk are not being forced out of current open source projects at nearly the same rate.

It's better now, but not perfect. We should hold current open source project leaders, who lead relevant and important projects, accountable.

mekkaokereke, 14 days ago

This coach just destroyed Boise State's ability to recruit 90% of the top 100 players in the nation.

Good luck trying to win football games with the only recruits not even smart enough to play a professional sport where they can get paid.

You'll only get super rich kids. 🤷🏿‍♂️

2/N

mekkaokereke, 14 days ago

People act like Arch Manning is taking some kind of a noble stand, because he's playing college football without pursuing any NIL deals*.🤦🏿‍♂️

Arch Manning is from a billionaire family! His uncle's Peyton and Eli have career earnings of $400 million and 253 million respectively.🤡

(*Apparently even Arch Manning has some NIL deals now too...)

3/N

mekkaokereke, 14 days ago

Rich kid Arch Manning still needs some poor kids to throw the ball to.

Kids like baby Shannon Sharpe and baby Sterling Sharpe.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-YHJZFQIFQ4

"The only thing I ever wanted, was to live in a house with running water..."

• Sterling Sharpe

How evil do you have to be, to expect Shannon Sharpe and Sterling Sharpe to play football for you for free, while you earn millions, and to deny them even the right to go and get a job for themselves?

Why did y'all ever think this was okay?

4/4

mekkaokereke, 14 days ago

@jonathanpeterson

Little known fact... Before the scam of college sports "amateurism," the Ivy League schools had the best football teams, by far.🤯

Because they were the richest schools, and could afford to pay their players the most!🤡

Which means in this post-NIL, pre-collective bargaining era, we are one rich Harvard grad away from Harvard winning the NCAA basketball tournament easily!

The best legal way to balance spending across teams, and "control" salaries, is collective bargaining.👍🏿

mekkaokereke, 14 days ago

@jonathanpeterson

Eg The NBA can set rules like:

• No team can pay more than $X per year in total salary!
• Players are not allowed to move freely between teams!

They can do this without violating anti-trust law because NBA players have a union (the National Basketball Players' Association, NBPA). The NBPA negotiates with the NBA on behalf of its members, and agrees to these rules. The union also does things like make sure that 50% of league revenue goes to players.👍🏿

This is all good stuff!

mekkaokereke, 14 days ago

@jonathanpeterson

Maybe? But it depends on how well they're marketed.

Eg, Caitlin Clark is less *conventionally attractive than Cameron Brink, Hailey Van Lith. And Caitlin Clark doesn't lean into her looks, or wear as revealing outfits, as Hailey or Cameron. But she makes much more in NIL money.🙂🙃

The world has evolved past "Sharipova is more marketable than Serena." Women can market themselves how they want.

(*These are all unrealistically fit, attractive women. "Conventional" is key word)

Hailey Van Lith
Cameron Brink

mekkaokereke, 15 days ago

Then the avatar faced backlash within the country for not looking Ukrainian.

And internationally, the avatar faced backlash for being yet another example of Black fishing.

The use of and normalization of AI avatars to make official government statements, also makes folks deeply uncomfortable in general.

Just a ton of issues and topics tied up in this.

The real Rosali, saying why she agreed to be scanned
https://www.instagram.com/rosali_kovbasa/p/C6d6THPtAVM/

2/N

mekkaokereke, 15 days ago

Was she wrong for agreeing to be scanned?

Was she wrong for agreeing to be scanned for zero compensation?

Was the government of Ukraine wrong for asking a non-white Ukrainian to be scanned? Would it be better if they asked a blonde haired, blue eyed woman?

Would it make a difference if the Avatar's scripts were written by Black Ukrainians?

Was the government of Ukraine wrong for even using a digital avatar at all?

3/3

mekkaokereke, 16 days ago

@timo21

Say something about voter suppression by "White voters who tell Black voters to shut up and vote for Biden because 'Trump is worse!'" suppression method?

Why do you think the percentage of Black men who vote Dem is decreasing? People formulate theories around this rather than actually listen to Black folk that don't want to vote for Biden. Because if you listen to these Black men, they'll tell you: Ignoring life & death issues for Black folk, while yelling "Trump is worse!"

mekkaokereke, 16 days ago (edited 16 days ago)

@timo21

Here's the irony:

At least one person will respond to my post above, not by reflecting on how yelling "Trump is worse!" at Black people online suppresses the Black vote, but by completely unironically, formulating an angry response to me, a whole Black man, telling me how "Trump is in fact, worse!" and how I deserve to suffer if I can't see that.

Fish can't see water.

mekkaokereke, 16 days ago

@fixiemama

Again, here are some comparisons that I think are fair:

• More people died of Covid under the Biden CDC than the Trump CDC
• Covid isolation mandates were more effective under Trump (5 days), and almost negligently ineffective under Biden (based on vibes and feels).
• After Covid, the economy took a nose dive under Trump, in large part due to Covid restrictions. Biden chose to fix the economy, in large part by rolling back many of those Covid restrictions.

mekkaokereke, 16 days ago

@fixiemama

Again, the CDC under Trump in Jan 2021, did more to stop the spread than the CDC under Biden.

Biden literally rolled back preventative measures, sometimes in the middle of a Covid spike.

https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112402806394110535

If Trump had won in 2020, and then his CDC had rolled these Covid restrictions back, ended isolation periods, and watched the cumulative death toll cross a million, and he had said, "See! I fixed the economy!" I think that people's reaction would be different.

mekkaokereke, 16 days ago

@Jackiemauro

I posted extensively on Twitter how in the early days of the vaccine, the most vulnerable people were elderly, fixed income, Black folk without transportation. And the folk that had the worst vaccine access were elderly, fixed income, Black folk, without transportation🙂🙃

Fauci and the CDC lied that Black folk were just vaccine hesitant when the truth was that by Dec, Asian Americans were the only group that wanted the vaccine more than Black folk. Black folk couldn't get access

mekkaokereke, 16 days ago

@estelle

I can't believe it's 2024 and I'm still saying this but:

Most covid infections are spread by people that never had any symptoms.🤷🏿‍♂️

That's what asymptomatic means. You got Covid. You never had any symptoms. If not for a test, you would never know that you had it.

Eg woman gets sick, has cough and fever. Tests for Covid. She's positive. Tests husband and 2 kids. Everyone is asymptomatic but positive! She drives the kids to school anyway because CDC says "No symptoms? Live your life!"

mekkaokereke, 16 days ago

@mcnado @aintist

The POTUS is simultaneously the most powerful man in the world, or a powerless weak baby, helpless, naked, and pink, depending on whether or not he is being asked to do something that would save the lives of poor Black people.

"SCOTUS had indicated that..." So preemptively give up?

SCOTUS said nothing about isolation periods.

mekkaokereke, 16 days ago

@mcnado @aintist

Agreed, but none of that is the CDC's mandate or responsibility. You don't change CDC guidance based on the cruelty and brutality of the US economic system.

That's as silly as saying "I can't diagnose you with cancer, because you can't pay for it! So I'm going to write 'no cancer,' and just ignore the tumor!" The science is the science. The economics are the economics.

https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112402997225212580

mekkaokereke, 16 days ago

@mjf_pro

Cool article, and I respect it. But personally, I don't do any of those things.🤷🏿‍♂️

I just say, "I understand." And listen.

Anything else feels like I'm trying to persuade someone who has clearly thought about this deeply, and often, in my experience, has suffered a pain or loss that I'm not ready to hear.

Eg, I can't follow someone saying, "This is my niece. She was 6." with anything persuasive.