Uprising

by Diamond

  What are the odds of going back and forth for over six months with Facebook, only to have our content and brand labeled “unsafe to the community”; then I post the situation on social media for all to see; the CEO of that company is being questioned three days later on Capitol Hill; and the members of Congress questioning that CEO see our posts and ask questions about our situation? Just chance? No. The credit for all of this goes to God.

  They thought they could tell us anything, and we would just go away. God said, “Not so.” Facebook was exposed to the whole world for its unfair and biased practices. The number of interview requests we got from this was crazy. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube may have censored us, but we were still able to tell our truth—even more so.

  Just imagine if I hadn’t followed my instincts; imagine if I had waited to publish my post; imagine if we had gotten Facebook’s email a week later. However, everything had already been designed, and it was up to us to follow through with it.

  Then, on April 11, 2018, we found out that more senators, like Joe Barton from Texas and Fred Upton from Michigan, questioned Zuckerberg about us. Tennessee senator Marsha Blackburn asked Zuckerberg whether they manipulated algorithms to censor speech. After he gave his answer, she said, “Let me tell you something right now: Diamond and Silk is not terrorism!”

  Even Senator Tim Scott spoke out about the discriminatory censoring practices that Facebook used against our First Amendment rights.

  Yes, he sure did. I remember when I first saw the video of Senator Tim Scott defending us. After all the ridicule by a number of black men, it brought tears to my eyes to see this one black man, who is a senator, take up for our voices.

  Next came Missouri congressman Billy Long and his team. They held up a giant poster board with our pictures on it. It was one of our popular, funny poses.

  Yes. You can actually see the grins on the faces of Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of his team. It was hard for them to keep their composure.

  Congressman Long asked Zuckerberg if he recognized us.

  Zuckerberg looked and said, “I do.”

  He then asked, “Who are they?”

  Zuckerberg replied, “I believe… is that Diamond and Silk?”

  Congressman Billy Long said, “That is Diamond and Silk, two biological sisters, from North Carolina.”

  Y’all, we felt liberated. Out of two billion Facebook users, Mark Zuckerberg knew who Diamond and Silk were. My fellow Republicans were using their voices to speak for our censored voices. They were standing up for Diamond and Silk.

  Even the iconic comedian Roseanne Bar tweeted, on April 11, 2018, “Diamond and Silk are comedians. Stop censoring them.” When we saw that tweet, we started giggling with joy. It was unbelievable.

  At the end of that April 11, 2018, hearing, Zuckerberg’s new excuse was that his team had made an enforcement error, and that they’d already gotten in touch with us to reverse it.

  That was a flat-out lie. No one from Facebook contacted us about fixing the problem until Thursday, April 12, 2018, via Twitter. Until that day, which was the day after Zuckerberg was grilled by the senators at the hearing, all that Facebook did was stonewall us and give us the runaround—for over six months.

  All of a sudden, on April 12, 2018, the day after Zuckerberg testified, we began to feel the restrictions being removed. People were saying that they hadn’t seen us in a while. When we dropped a video, it would garner thousands upon thousands of views. Facebook had gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar, and they removed all restrictions. They even removed the restriction label from the top of our page. Well, that was short-lived. After a week the restrictions were back but the restriction label was not. People began to complain about being unfollowed from our page; our analytical graph had a sharp uptick and then it took a turn for the worse. Straight down.

  Now, let me back up just a bit: On April 10, we had received an email saying that Iowa congressman Steve King’s office was trying to get in contact with us. They were having a congressional hearing about social media censorship, and he wanted to know if we would like to come and testify. After being told by the biggest platform in the world that we were unsafe to the community, there was no way that we were going to say no to that!

  We appreciate the fact that Congressman Steve King not only heard our thoughts on censorship, but he also wanted to know our thoughts on illegal immigration. After we told him our concerns, he assisted us in writing a bill in 2019 called the Diamond and Silk Act, H.R.3218. The main purpose of the bill was to prohibit certain federal funds from being made available to sanctuary jurisdictions and for other purposes.

  We cringe when we hear some on the Left call Congressman Steve King a racist with no evidence. Yet we have evidence of Joe Biden referring to black people as the n-word, and the Left is silent about that.

  So to be able to go on Capitol Hill and tell our story about how Facebook censored our right to free speech was satisfying to my soul. We didn’t have to gather up a lot of evidence because we already had all of the evidence organized in a folder.

  A few days later, we were confirmed as witnesses for the hearing, scheduled for April 26. We put the date on our calendar, and we showed up ready to go. There wasn’t a scared bone in our bodies. In fact, we were motivated about telling our side of the story.

  Y’all, we were dressed to impress; our security team was in place; we felt like two bold and empowered lawyers. We really didn’t know what to expect, but we were ready to face our accusers. I believe that if we had to conquer the world that day, we would have done it.

  We sure would have. After going through security, they took us to a holding room to brief us on what to expect. Then it was time to go into the room where the hearing was about to take place. We walked in and sat on the front row. A lot of Republican senators walked up to us and greeted us. Senator Marsha Blackburn even walked up to us and thanked us for being there.

  So the hearing began, and New York congressman Jerry Nadler started talking about us like we weren’t there in the room. He was so nasty—he made us feel like our complaint didn’t matter and we had no reason to be there, like what we had to say was not worth being heard. People ask if we’ve experienced racism. On that day, we experienced it with him. As black Americans, he made us feel like we didn’t belong there and like we didn’t know our place. What he failed to realize is that we weren’t brought over on a ship, we didn’t cross any borders, we were born on American soil. As a congressman, it was his job to listen to us as American citizens instead of turning a deaf ear to our concerns.

  That’s right. If he didn’t have a problem listening to illegal aliens, then he shouldn’t have a problem listening to us as American citizens.

  Y’all, I started twitching in my seat when he said, “The central thesis of this hearing doesn’t hold up under even the most basic scrutiny. The idea that social media companies are filtering out conservative voices is a hoax, a tired narrative of imagined victimhood as the rest of the country grapples with a feckless president and an out-of-control administration! The majority designed this hearing to perpetuate this hoax.”

  I looked over at Silk and said, “I know this MOFO didn’t just say that.”

  I tried to calm Diamond down by letting her know that the cameras were focused directly on us. Talking under my breath, without moving my lips, I said, “No, no, no, the cameras are on us.” Hahaha, Diamond tried to calm down.

  Yes, I tried, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t believe the way we were being characterized like we were second-class citizens instead of Americans.

  Finally, it was time for us to tell our side: how Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg had censored our First Amendment rights.

  The Left was saying that censorship was a hoax, but we had plenty of evidence that it wasn’t a hoax. We had photos, graphs, emails, chats, posts, and so much more. We showed the biased tactics that were being used against our platform.

  We sure did. Then it was time for a round of questions.
We were honest and truthful with our answers. Then things took a turn like never before in Congress. There was no more of me acting African American; I had to go ahead and act black.

  Sheila Jackson didn’t understand that the number 12 comes after 11. We were on Laura Ingraham’s show on April 11, and Laura asked us if Facebook had contacted us to reverse or resolve our issues. We answered honestly that they had not contacted us, even though earlier that day Mark Zuckerberg claimed that they did.

  On April 12, the day after we said that on Laura Ingraham’s show, Facebook contacted us via Twitter.

  Sheila Jackson repeatedly asked us if we were lying on Laura Ingraham’s show, like she just couldn’t understand that at the time of our declaration we hadn’t heard from Facebook. We clearly explained that we were completely honest on Laura Ingraham’s show: we hadn’t been contacted by Facebook to resolve our issues.

  She couldn’t seem to get that. She kept re-asking the same question—a tactic they use to entrap you—as if we were being intentionally unclear. Truth is, she appeared to be acting intentionally simpleminded. When we tried to tell her that we were honest on April 11 because Facebook hadn’t contacted us until April 12, she actually asked, “Have you gotten any communication from Facebook?”

  I replied, “On April the 12th, via Twitter.”

  As if it were critical to her point, she asked, “What mode was that?”

  I repeated, “Via Twitter.”

  Her response makes me question if she has the capacity to be in office at all. She completely ignored the dates we were trying to convey and responded with, “All right. So you got information. So your testimony that you did not, is not—is not truthful.”

  We were astonished because she was acting like a dirty prosecutor. Even though we were telling the truth, all she was hearing were her own lies.

  Hank Johnson was concerned about how much money we were making, not how much Facebook had stopped us from making. He was so condescending with his line of questioning, he even had the nerve to say that he had always heard that diamonds were a girl’s best friend.

  That’s when I had to let him know that they’re hard, and if I have to be hard and firm, I will. I refused to let him dismiss us like we didn’t have merit.

  It would have been funny if he had said he heard that Diamond capsized Guam. Hahaha.

  Hakeem Jeffries insisted that Federal Election Commission documents showed payment from the Trump campaign to Diamond and Silk in the amount of $1,274.94. This was one of the fake news’ false narratives; we were never paid by the Trump campaign. We explained this was a reimbursement for plane tickets that we had paid for.

  Now, keep in mind, when Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook had made an “enforcement error” concerning our platform, members of Congress thought that was perfectly acceptable. However, the idea that the Trump team may have made a similar error was deemed an unbelievable explanation.

  We were saddened that these black Democrat leaders were trying to make us feel less than. They couldn’t have cared less about our concerns and issues. They wanted a spectacle, and we gave them a spectacle that left them all speechless.

  Yes, we sure did. We shut it all the way down. Those Democrats probably still don’t know what hit them. We didn’t bite our tongues or take a back seat. We spoke our minds, and we spoke our truth—something they were not used to anyone doing.

  Afterwards, we were told that there had never been a hearing like that before. They couldn’t recall anyone ever taking it to those Democrats like that.

  Media was waiting for us to exit the front door, so our security rerouted us to leave a different way. We later found out that media had camped out until after 5:00 p.m. waiting for us to exit.

  When we got in the car, I apologized to my sister for not being able to keep my composure. She wasn’t mad or sorry. She told me I did a fabulous job.

  Yes, I sure did.

  After this, the media began writing hit piece after hit piece. The more they wrote, the more people came to see who we were. Their negative hit pieces turned into many followers for us.

  People who didn’t even like us agreed that no one has the right to censor our voices. There were black people upset with the black Democrat senators and how they tried to railroad us. One gentleman said, “We get out in the streets and march for equality, yet you criticize Diamond and Silk for making money.” He couldn’t understand their concept.

  Then Rickey Smiley wrote one of the vilest and most disgusting articles about us. He called us so many names that other black people were disturbed by it. They told him that what he wrote was not acceptable. His mother is a black woman, and that was no way to describe black women.

  We politely Facebooked and tweeted him. Our exact words were: “Rickey Smiley, looks like you didn’t get the memo. We see that fake news is real. You got 24 hours to retract that, correct that and update that with the facts. Don’t ‘F’ with us!”

  People started counting down the hours and the minutes. It didn’t take that long, and Rickey Smiley removed the entire article. Then he blocked us, hahaha. We don’t know why; it’s not like we were following him anyway.

  The Left still wants to say that what Facebook did to us was a hoax, but how can this all be a hoax when Facebook apologized to us twice? Though Mark Zuckerberg said it was an error, it happened to us for over six months, and it’s still happening to us now.

  We brought light to the censorship issue. We told the world what was happening and why it was happening. Some didn’t believe us then, but I bet they believe us now.

  We still get complaints daily. Sometimes the option to share a post is gone; people can’t comment; if people get a notification, they will click on it only to be taken to an error page or the video won’t play. We could gain five followers and lose three followers within the next minute. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube throttled our reach, and they made it hard for people to see our content.

  No worries. If you can’t beat them, join them.

  And that’s exactly what we did. Two years later, on April 26, the same date that we had testified on the Hill, we launched our own social media platform, www.ChatDit.com. This will give us the ability to reach our followers without being censored.

  Chapter 15 Who the Hell Said You Can’t?

  If you allow God to direct your path, your impossible will turn into endless possibilities. Our steps were ordered and ordained by God.

  Remember when we told you that some say our ancestors are turning over in their graves because we choose to support a billionaire businessman? Well, we say that if our ancestors are turning over in their graves, it’s because they see how black people are being duped into repeating the same mistakes from the past. Black people are the descendants of black slaves who were whipped and beaten. Though black Americans living today have never experienced slavery, they walk around still feeling the sentiments of being beaten like a slave. As descendants of the slaves who built this country, black people should have access to the American dream before an illegal alien.

  Our ancestors weep from the grave when they see some black people disregarding human life and liberty the same way the slave masters did. They grieve when they see some black people not taking pride in themselves and falling prey to the liberal ideology, the same persuasions and tactics used to keep our ancestors enslaved.

  You will never become extraordinary if you don’t learn to do things out of the ordinary. After all, who the hell said you can’t? We literally took nothing and made something on our own, just by using what we were blessed with—our God-given minds. The only thing that we had was the truth, and that’s what we spoke: the nasty, low-down, dirty truth. Let us be clear: we’re truth-tellers, not robotic talking heads. I don’t have a problem with sticking the knife in you, twisting it, and bringing you down with the truth.

  And when Diamond starts cutting the lies with the truth, I’m the one who softens the blows with a loving spirit and a golden nugget to give you something to think ab
out.

  For Diamond, she couldn’t care less about your feelings because her motto is, “The truth may make you feel queasy or uneasy, but the truth and nothing but the naked, nasty, low-down truth will set you free.”

  While some have characterized us as angry women, tried to put us in a box as talking heads, painted us as unintelligent, stereotyped us as caricatures, and belittled us as a minstrel show, we’re the total opposite. We’re smart, perceptive, funny, passionate, educational, sassy, and classy; but if you cross us, things can get a little nasty!

  Now, what you can’t do is think you’re going to say something derogatory about us and we’re not going to get you straight from the gate. We don’t have a problem with giving you the facts, and we will not hold anything back. We don’t have a problem giving you the truth with the proof. We know exactly who we are; that’s why no one could name us.

  They say the truth hurts, so our words may be painful to swallow. At times, it may cut you like a two-edged sword, but it’s our truth, and it’s our truth to tell. This is what we love about President Donald Trump. His brutal honesty is raw but real. This is what’s been missing in the political arena.

  There is enough success to go around the table, and we absolutely love seeing people win. A success for my sister is a success for me. When she wins, so do I. When she hurts, I feel the pain. We are each other’s courage and shoulders to lean on. We’re similar in many ways, yet we are still very unique. We share the same goals, lifestyles, and spotlights, but I’m still Silk, and she’s still Diamond.

  The definition of Diamond is a precious stone consisting of a clear crystalline form of pure carbon, the hardest naturally occurring substance. She’s precious because her words hold great value, and hard because her solidarity with the truth is rock solid. My sister has always had my back, even when she may not have agreed with some of my decisions. She’s never left my side. Though she’s very blunt and opinionated, she’s firm and knows how to articulate her words so that you will know she means business.