Dear BK Readers,
I know it’s been awhile since I’ve shared a Letter on BK Reader. But what better time to return than at the new year and on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s official holiday?
Happy MLK Day!
So on this very special day, I have decided to announce that it is with little sadness and no regret that BK Reader will be leaving Twitter.
The truth is, Twitter (now, "X") – a social media platform popular for its controversial dialogue, rancorous debates and gossipy exposés– has never really been an important platform for us.
The platform works best for those seeking entertaining, salacious and, far too often, controversial and misinformed disputes. And although news, naturally, can produce that type of forum, we’ve never been a platform particularly interested in sparking controversy for the sake of controversy, clicks or views.
At the heart of BK Reader’s mission is to model equity in local news coverage; to spark civic participation at the community board level; to provide representation for those populations historically underrepresented; and to make sure everyone can access the information they need to improve their lives.
History is being made in our borough every single day by our residents. BK Reader's hope is to serve as an archive of the truth; to counter any potential for a future Brooklyn portrayed as a one-sided misrepresentation of the facts.
So, again, Twitter has never really been our preferred platform for our audience engagement, as truth and fact on Twitter have always seemed to be up for debate.
However, under its new leadership, with Elon Musk at the helm, we’ve seen a further decline in Twitter’s quality of dialogue to a point where it is no longer a platform we want to support.
The breaking point was today. This morning, on MLK Day, I opened the platform to find the first post in the feed proclaiming “DEI Must DIE,” and it was in the comments section of a post that Musk himself put up regarding a NY Post article that insinuates the reason the Alaska Airlines door blew out mid-flight on January 5 was due to its practice of diverse hiring.
The article draws a direct line between the Federal Aviation Administration’s “DEI” policy for hiring without discrimination, which includes the disabled and those with intellectual disabilities, to the Alaska Airlines debacle. Without a shred of evidence to lead him to any such conclusion, Elon Musk weighs in stating that DEI policies were putting people’s lives at risk.
“Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety?,” tech billionaire Elon Musk wrote on X. “That is actually happening.”
Irresponsible journalism at its finest: What’s the evidence that the airline placed a person with a physical or mental disability in the role of building that particular part of the airplane? What’s the evidence that a Black or Brown person could not build an airplane with absolute proficiency? And what’s the evidence that it wasn’t a white male that made the mistake?
But more importantly, why are we, as Americans, talking about this very serious topic in the sort of low-brow context that lacks any sort of intellect, basis or depth? Is this really where we are as Americans today?
Yet, this is the story that the NY Post decided to run with on January 14, and also the post that Musk decided to re-post on Twitter the next day.
On the day we honor Martin Luther King, Jr., a champion of social justice; a man whose dream that one day we’d all see each other through a lens of equality; that we would one day value each other as equal human beings, regardless of skin color, race or ethnicity, this is what we get from Elon Musk-- the man who grew up in Apartheid South Africa.
This is what the owner of Twitter uses his platform for-- a campaign to get rid of diversity hires in America by calling it a matter of life and death.
Yeah, no. We’re done.
That’s not what we’re doing over here in 2024 nor any forseeable year in the future. BK Reader will no longer lend its content to the Twittersphere. And Elon Musk can take several seats.
If you’d like to follow us on other social media platforms, feel free to join us here on Facebook, Instagram, Threads or LinkedIn. Also, stay tuned for our new platforms launching soon on YouTube and TikTok!
Happy MLK Day, Brooklyn!
Sincerely,
C. Zawadi Morris, Founder, Publisher and Editor, BK Reader
