Hulu’s New ‘Black Twitter’ Docuseries Spotlights Tweets For The Culture That Truly Defined An Era

Source: Hulu

A new documentary series on Hulu highlights the impact of Black Twitter on popular culture through the eyes of some of its most notable users.

On Thursday, the highly anticipated documentary series Black Twitter: A People’s History premiered on Hulu. The series is an in-depth look at the community of Black users and their seismic impact on what is now X, formerly Twitter before its acquisition by tech billionaire Elon Musk from founders Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone. The series’ impetus came from a WIRED oral history article written by Jason Parham, which covered the multitude of videos, memes and tweets that truly defined the era.

The three episodes feature various personalities from the Black Twitter community along with cultural critics Roxane Gay and Jamilah Lemieux, writer Ira Madison III, and former Twitter executives such as God-is Rivera, the platform’s former global president of Culture and Community and TJ Adeshola, Twitter’s former chair of Global Content Partnerships. They convey the spirit of what being involved with Black Twitter was like and how those involved helped to inform when it came to topics such as police brutality as well as help spark the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is covered in the second and third episodes. “We repurposed Twitter the way we repurposed chitlins,” says writer Baratunde Thurston.

Prentice Penny, who directs the series, manages to intersperse tons of those funny moments (encapsulated in clips and hashtags in between users recounting how Twitter helped them cope and rage during the uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri, and the murder of George Floyd. They also talk about the company’s constant failings of its users as well as Musk’s dogged determination to ultimately own the platform, providing a searing look at how his machinations like allowing white supremacists like Nick Fuentes back on have helped to erode a space that was prized by Black people online and shift its energy to other places, especially TikTok.

Below is a full list of contributors featured in Hulu’s new Black Twitter documentary:

TJ Adeshola (former head of Global Content Partnerships, Twitter)
Kamau Bell (comedian; director, “We Need to Talk About Cosby”)
Dr. André Brock (communications professor; author, “Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures”)
Rembert Browne (journalist; former director of Product and Community, Twitter)
Dr. Meredith Clark (journalism professor; creator, “Archiving Black Twitter”)
Kid Fury (TV writer and host, “The Read”)
Roxane Gay (author; cultural critic, The New York Times)
Jemele Hill (author, journalist)
Sam Jay (comedian, writer)
Brad Jenkins (former associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, 2011-2015)
Brandon “Jinx” Jenkins (journalist, host, creative director)
Luvvie Ajayi Jones (New York Times bestselling author)
Shamika Klassen (researcher, scholar, “Black Twitter Is Gold”)
Van Lathan (cultural critic; host, “Higher Learning”)
Jamilah Lemieux (cultural critic, writer)
Wesley Lowery (journalist; author, “American Whitelash”)
Ira Madison III (TV writer; host, “Keep It!”)
Judnick Mayard (TV writer, producer)
Jason Parham (senior writer, WIRED)
April Reign (creative consultant; creator, #OscarsSoWhite)
God-is Rivera (former global director of Culture and Community, X)
Amanda Seales (comedian, activist, host “Small Doses” podcast)
Denver Sean (senior editor, LoveBScott.com)
Baratunde Thurston (comedian; host, “How To Citizen with Baratunde”)
Ashley Weatherspoon (producer; writer, DearYoungQueen.com)
Raquel Willis (author, activist, media strategist)
J Wortham (journalist, The New York Times Magazine)