@shanepaulneil
Shane Paul Neil
@shanepaulneil · 4:36

What Does it Mean to Be a Black Early Adopter

article image placeholderBlack Tech
But really, what's going to talk about what it means to be in technology or being on social media, either as a developer, especially as a white developer who I give all credit to, who's actively looking to find diverse voices and bring them into the program, as well as being on the other side of it, where you're coming into these spaces and those moments of feeling like the chocolate chip in a bowl of milk and what that is for you

@Phil @inwunderland @Izzy would love to hear your thoughts.

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@shanepaulneil
Shane Paul Neil
@shanepaulneil · 0:46

Correction

Hey, guys. Quick yet very important correction. I'm looking at the message I got from Phil. Let me know as Swell team and asking if I was interested in joining running, and he actually did not do so in the name of diversity. He was basically I'm looking at his message now it's really just like, hey, you have interesting content. I think you like it here. And we are looking for interesting writers, thought leaders, et cetera
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@Chi_Anonymous
Chi Anonï
@Chi_Anonymous · 4:51

Imma make another one. Lol

I especially feel like I should kind of sit back and learn more and listen more because I'm leaving an app where I was very outspoken about things, and this app was a music app, and it's humble beginnings and still is where black people were there. But the only ones that were getting featured were the people who had Eurocentric appearances were licensed, which is essentially the same who were marketable. And the app was essentially just come as you are. Do your thing. Have fun
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@Chi_Anonymous
Chi Anonï
@Chi_Anonymous · 2:59

I hope this doesn’t offend. I truly mean well. Lol

Talking about black things at times can be a hot button issue when it's on right? Black. Twitter just simply existing is an issue for a lot of people. It's just how do we navigate these logic? That's not my thing. And it's kind of like, I don't know, even my accent coming out like, it's just, can I talk? Can I exist? Can I really just do me and be accepted?
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@shanepaulneil
Shane Paul Neil
@shanepaulneil · 4:10
And a lot of times you see them on YouTube, it's not the creatives who reposted them or did whatever, but yeah, those are always concerns. I think when you engage these platforms, I think Black Twitter spade Twitter. I think Black Twitter made Twitter for a long time. It was just us holding it up, and now it is what it is. But I don't know what we as folks who are on Twitter at Shane Paul on Twitter
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@shanepaulneil
Shane Paul Neil
@shanepaulneil · 0:08
Also, for whatever it's worth, I'm a community College dropout who just happens to talk a lot of s***. So there's that
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@Chi_Anonymous
Chi Anonï
@Chi_Anonymous · 2:55
I say talk, like talk. I say can't, like, can't it's like this dichotomy. I have a two parent household. It's weird because I know on paper I read differently. I transcribe differently, however, to speak and to hear my addiction in the way I circulate in the way I take my breath, it comes across completely different, and Blackfoot has been holding it down since the other
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@FryedOreo
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 4:56

So refreshing to have this sort of convo here. @shanepaulneil and @Chi_Anon

And I feel like I have to weigh in on something as the token black friend or the token black person of the platform. But that hasn't happened that much. It just happened on a few occasions is all with that all being said. I just strongly recommend just stay here and be consistent and also spread the word. And you can build your diversity as you see fit without necessarily the app doing it for you
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@Phil
phil spade
@Phil · 4:59

@Wuandurful @shanepaulneil @Chi_Anonymous

That's my way where I grew up and very white place where I grew up and I'm white and I see things through white eyes and hearing shy anonymous how you come into a social media app or anything in the world is just I just learned a lot from what you're thinking when you come in and how you navigate that world and having been in technology and having worked with it teams, I know how heavily male dominated those are, and I know how challenging that can be for women, so that's a whole different swell that I would love to hear more about and bring some other women to that conversation as well
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:52

Creating a culture not checking boxes 🌱

There's more than that on here. I don't even know. I have never done a demographic study, but absolutely do that. I want to share a little story, a sort of a story that can help connect how I relate to this in terms of being called out for something that you're really not interested in being a part of
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@AverageJoe
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 4:55
So in my experience, everyone on this platform has been reasonable has been sensible. And there's been a handful of people that have come along, and it just wasn't going to work out. And you knew it from Jump Street, right? But it's not because they were who they were in the sense of their ethnicity. It was because they were a Jackass. And most people here are not that way. So offense is offense
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@Chi_Anonymous
Chi Anonï
@Chi_Anonymous · 3:44

@AverageJoe

What I wanted to emphasize is I am new to this app, and like most people navigating a new app, they look for people who sound like them, who look like them, who talk about the subject matter they enjoy, who identify with them, who show compassion to them. And that is what I did. I listened more than I spoke. I literally have been on the app for a week, but didn't say anything until I believe Thursday
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@AverageJoe
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 4:59

@Chi_Anonymous

So, yeah, I mean, in the end, that's all this place can offer a space for you to put your voice out there, to see who receives it, how they receive it. And if they don't receive it, well, to go back and forth and talk it out, maybe find middle ground. Maybe not. But hopefully you get past this and feel comfortable enough to join in. When I first got here, I'm a blue collar working slob
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@shanepaulneil
Shane Paul Neil
@shanepaulneil · 4:22

@Chi_Anonymous @AverageJoe

So coming here, there's a lot of that element going on, and there are folks who script their swells from what I understand and all these different things going on, as opposed to other audio apps where folks are actually conversing in real time. So it's a different dynamic here. So I understand the idea of coming into this space with an accident or addiction or any number of things and feeling like this may not be the space for you necessarily. I get that completely
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@Chi_Anonymous
Chi Anonï
@Chi_Anonymous · 2:30

@shanepaulneil @AverageJoe

So it's nothing for me to speak the way I'm speaking or to close it because I can't think of another word right now. It's early for me. It's nothing to do. That is pretty much like breathing at this point. But I'm saying, should we have to do that? There should be a space pretty much for everybody. And I understand I could just put Spanish out there, since I'm using that as an example and see who bites
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@AverageJoe
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 4:49

@shanepaulneil

Yeah, Shane, everything you said obviously makes sense. And I get it. You know, that's the honest experience not just on platforms for you, but in real life. Right. But I guess what I was trying to say is this isn't the atmosphere like that. If anything, from what I've observed on this platform, the kind of white people who would pile on because they heard something they didn't like don't exist here. Don't have a home here
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@shanepaulneil
Shane Paul Neil
@shanepaulneil · 2:21
Hey, Joe, I hear you completely, and I don't disagree with you. I think where there might be some divergence is you're speaking directly to your experience on Switch. Well, and that brings up a very important point. You have experience on Swell. You've been on here at the platform. How long you've been on? She and I have been on a week or so. You're delving into past experiences and past interactions that she and I don't have
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@Phil
phil spade
@Phil · 2:59

Code switching

And I was wondering if you could just expand on that code switching, especially relating it in your experience, how you could switch, because the more I thought about it, I was like, I kind of do that with my old friends. And I have a group of friends from back home where I grew up, and I just talk with them a completely different way, whether that be in text, whether that be in especially verbally
@FryedOreo
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 4:59

Whoa! @DBPardes , @AverageJoe , @Chi_Anonymous, and @shanepaulneil

I'm just comfortable with it. But I think where she is coming from is that she's so used to a different collective of social apps and places where she can feel like she could be herself more so than others. And I guess Swell just happens to be one of those places. Even me too. For an example, it's easy to say just be yourself and just say whatever you want
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@AverageJoe
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 4:57
So when I say I meet somebody and I'm careful if we all get along and everything, this is who I am. These are the subjects I want to talk about. These are the things that interest me, the language I use on here, not all the time, but sometimes that's what you're going to hear come out of my mouth in person. So we've bypassed that entire gauging, the room, taking the temperature phase, and we're just here it is
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@Alasdair
Alasdair Munn
@Alasdair · 3:55
So the more voices we can hear, I think the better. The other part of this is when we're talking about early adoption. I've always been under the impression that people will adopt according to where they are in their lives and what access they have. Sometimes that means that some people don't have access, but often it also means we assume people aren't going to early adopt because of some perceived difference
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@DBPardes
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:59

@Alasdair @AverageJoe @shanepaulneil a place at this talking table

And I wonder from that perspective what you have to say about this conversation and average Joe, it's interesting. You brought up the whole code switching thing and the guy in the room that you felt with a bunch of white folk. He changed his tone
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@shanepaulneil
Shane Paul Neil
@shanepaulneil · 3:06

@Phil

Hey, Phil, I spent the last couple days trying to figure out some way to eloquently discuss the idea of code switching, but it's such a broad topic, and there's a lot of research out there by people far smarter than I. The only thing I can say is I was raised by my mother, who grew up in Jim Crow, Louisiana, and I grew up in the South Bronx
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@Phil
phil spade
@Phil · 2:10

@shanepaulneil Thank you

Thank you so much for taking me through your experience with codeswitching. I greatly appreciate it. And, you know, as this was talked about last week over the weekend, I actually did a deep dive into code switching in the black community. First of all, I am familiar with the concept, and I think that the term code switching kind of threw me off. I always thought of code switching as just Spanish to English, and that's it that's on me, that's just being naive
@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:52

Thanks for creating this space @shanepaulneil.

Hey Shane, I just want to say thank you for starting and holding the space for this conversation. I am familiar with a lot of what you've written on medium, so it was really interesting to be able to to not only have read your work, but then to be in the process of hearing this conversation unfold and all of the different perspectives. And I could just hear people questioning and learning and also really sharing in a very honest and vulnerable way, which is just so refreshing
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