It has been a couple of weeks that my government unbanned Twitter and I have been loving every moment of it. Before now, we make use of VPNs to access Twitter and those of you in Nigeria will agree that it's very frustrating to be turning on your VPN anytime you want to access Twitter, and not to mention it doesn't feel the same way as using it normally.
I have been quite active on Twitter these days, just going through my feed at regular intervals and looking at the trends table to know what's trending (this was one of the things that felt off when using VPN).
Earlier today, I visited twitter after going through readcash and nairaland. I was scrolling through my feed and I noticed everyone was talking about someone named Tariq and also a certain hashtag was trending; #SecureTheTribe.
At this point I was curious so I clicked on the hashtag and I discovered there was a discussion going on in a Twitter space and over 20k people are participating in it. The topic of the discussion was: "How does immigration benefit black Americans?"
Before I go on, have y'all heard about twitter space? It was launched in December 2020 but it wasn't opened to everyone and I heard about it in 2021 when someone suggested we used it for meetups, but I couldn't find the feature on my Twitter, until now.
Twitter spaces are basically live audio chats that are streamed through Twitter, it's just like having a zoom meeting but it's only restricted to audio. Someone just has to create a Twitter space and give it a topic, then anyone interested can join that space and give their opinions on the topic.
When I saw it was a Twitter space discussion, I quickly clicked on it and I joined the space but I wasn't getting any audio until I saw a little alert that said I should download the Twitter app. I have been using the web version of Twitter because it's more convenient for me, I just leave it open on a tab while readcash and nairaland are on other tabs, I can easily cycle through them.
I quickly went off to download the Twitter app, and then I joined the space through the app and I was able to get audio. It was an exciting experience seeing all those people in the space airing their views, and it was orderly because not everyone gets to talk at the same time, you have to request it and the host will permit you.
While still exploring the space, a name stuck out like a sore thumb and I immediately recognize it as the name that was on everyone's lips that morning; Tariq, and he is one of the co-hosts of the space. Tariq is a black American living in the US and he is pissed off that Africans are immigrating into the US and taking all the jobs, which he believes is supposed to be reserved for him and other black Americans 😆
Listening to Tariq rant on the Twitter space immediately gives me the impression that he is a very entitled person, jealous, and really selfish. He is pissed off that Africans are doing well in America, getting jobs which he isn't even qualified for. This is someone that is a high school dropout but he is angry that a Nigerian is a top neurosurgeon in the US, what exactly is the basis of his frustration?
A lot of people were in the space which are mostly Africans and black Americans, and they were trying to school Tariq on where he is getting it wrong, but he isn't having any of it, instead, he mutes anyone that isn't talking inline with his opinion.
I was laughing hard that morning just listening to all the rants and banters, and I also learned a few things from a couple of intelligent individuals who were stating facts about America. The good thing about Twitter spaces is that you can be listening to it while doing other things with your phone, it's just like listening to a radio.
After a couple of rants which lasted for some hours, the discussion finally ended with Tariq saying he needs to go sleep. I later discovered that the discussion has been going on for over 15 hours! These people have a lot of time on their hands, and Tariq is there complaining about Africans taking jobs in America, meanwhile, he has been on Twitter for over 15 hours arguing 😂
For those that want to experience twitter space, download the Twitter app and click on the button that I pointed to in the image above, it will take you to the Twitter spaces tab.
From here you can join any of the popular spaces or you can create yours with the button I pointed to. You can see from the above picture that there is a Twitter space that's live at the top and the host is Tariq Nasheed, yeah he is back and I will join now to listen to the crazy things he has to say this time 😂.
Thanks for reading 💖💖💖
Thursday January 27, 2021
Tariq was and is still delusional in my opinion. What does he even mean by foundational black American. Doesn't he realise that he's the son of slaves from Africa who were forcefully migrated or does he think he's forefathers were one of the aboriginals or were part of Christopher Columbus' convoy?