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michaelharriot's profile
Michael Harriot
Michael Harriot
Michael Harriot
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@michaelharriot

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Michael HarriotVerified account

@michaelharriot

Sr. Writer at http://TheRoot.com , writer at Amber Ruffin Show, author of upcoming book “Black AF History,” board-certified wypipologist, last real Negus alive.

The Southside of Wakanda
kinja.com/michaelharriot
Joined December 2009

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    Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

    Everyone is using this bird site to shine a light on work stolen from black creators but if you want to hear something crazy, here's a story that I've known about for years but paid no attention to. A (non-history) thread:

    11:11 PM - 9 Jul 2020
    • 5,504 Retweets
    • 16,760 Likes
    • Keyton Thanks_Aunt_Bobo!!! 🪐 Ahmira 아미라 💫 THE CHUNKIEST RAINBOW 🏳️‍🌈 🔥Hot🔥Hot🔥Gen🔥 LeAnkle Chilled #BLM 👑King Prokrastination!👑 Klio⁷
    283 replies 5,504 retweets 16,760 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        My best friend had two brothers, the youngest, Kelvin, was much younger than us. He was young and had too much energy, so they tried their best to ignore him but he was always around. But, because he was always around, I'd have long conversations with Kelvin.

        7 replies 83 retweets 1,646 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        I would also play video games with him because his brothers were very competitive and hated losing. And Kevin would literally study the code of the games, find all the quirks and use it to his advantage. And he was unapologetic about it, too.

        5 replies 68 retweets 1,677 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Now I would never tell my friends this, but I knew Kelvin was the smartest than them. He was quiet while his brothers were loud AF. Plus, he spent all his time building shit from scratch and could take electronics apart, fix them, improve them, the kid was smart AF.

        1 reply 65 retweets 1,715 likes
        Show this thread
      5. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Anyway, both of the older brothers enlisted in the military and I went to college, leaving Kelvin in our little SC hometown. But when I would come home from college, even if his brothers weren't home, I'd stop by and holla at him. He was a teenager and he had another problem:

        2 replies 60 retweets 1,560 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        This lil' nigga got handsome. Now this was the mid-90's and the lil dude had the Allen Iverson braids, bought a little car, fixed the shit up himself, put some rims on it and created a sound system from scratch. But he started telling me this batshit story.

        2 replies 59 retweets 1,651 likes
        Show this thread
      7. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Every time I saw him, he would SWEAR that the people who made the Sega Genesis video game had ripped him off. I didn't want to doubt the little dude but umm.... I doubted the little dude. But he kept telling me that he had created a video game and they stole it from him.

        2 replies 112 retweets 1,841 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Again, dude was pretty smart with the electronics and was very diligent but he was just a kid. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone say "Hey, I had that idea." Shit, I sweatergawd that I invented the iPod. Seriously. One day I was drinking a 40 and told my friends:

        5 replies 65 retweets 1,640 likes
        Show this thread
      9. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        "They should make a walkman that's just a hard drive that can save mp3s." Next thing you know, Steve Jobs had somehow stolen my idea. Everyone had one of these stories. But here's the thing: I'm from what some people would call "the hood."

        2 replies 65 retweets 1,658 likes
        Show this thread
      10. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Now, I ain't no gangsta or nothing. But when you're known as the nerd who left the hood and went to college, you could cure cancer, build a microtransmitter and plug the hole in the Ozone layer, but if someone asks those niggas in the hood about you, they will always say:

        2 replies 65 retweets 1,603 likes
        Show this thread
      11. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        "I think Mikey's like a lawyer or something. " So, of course, Kelvin thought I could help him bring the whole Sega company to its knees. And he didn't drink or smoke, so he never forgot.

        4 replies 65 retweets 1,846 likes
        Show this thread
      12. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        So every year or so, Kelvin would contact me and ask when we were gonna get together and sue Sega about that game they stole from him. I'd always give him a bullshit answer and we'd start talking about some other shit. I even gave him the number of my lawyer friends a few times

        1 reply 66 retweets 1,525 likes
        Show this thread
      13. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        But he never let that shit go. For 20-something years, he would bug me about that shit. Now, he knew enough about the law to keep bugging Sega or write a letter every few years so he could restart the statute of limitations on his delusional idea.

        4 replies 65 retweets 1,656 likes
        Show this thread
      14. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        I ran into him a year ago and he was trying to explain to me how to disassemble a smart tv and turn it into a server that could get any channel but I had a bottle of whiskey and a cigar and my homeboys was cooking on the grill, so... You know.

        12 replies 65 retweets 1,813 likes
        Show this thread
      15. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Well, anyway, he called me again a few days ago because, like I said earlier, everyone is talking about how people steal the work of black creatives. I saw that I missed his call and I knew what he wanted but before I could call him back, his brother texted me.

        1 reply 65 retweets 1,581 likes
        Show this thread
      16. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        He was like: I'mma send you all the documents and see what you can do. And I was like "Documents? This nigga had documents?" But he did have documents. I didn't even look at them because, I've heard this story for literally 20-plus years. But late last night I opened the email.

        1 reply 80 retweets 1,797 likes
        Show this thread
      17. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Y'all. Y'all. Y'all... They stole this nigga shit. ALL of it. EVERY SINGLE PIECE.

        12 replies 242 retweets 3,143 likes
        Show this thread
      18. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        First of all, I didn't know (OK, maybe he told me, but I probably didn't pay attention) that he TOLD SEGA ABOUT HIS IDEA. So here is the story: In '93, 13-year-old Kelvin writes a letter on notebook paper to SEGA telling them his idea for a football video game called "Primetime"

        5 replies 208 retweets 2,446 likes
        Show this thread
      19. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Now this kid knows that Sega's processors have now advanced enough that they can have stuff no other game has like weather, substitutions, injuries, different stadiums, and even turf or grasspic.twitter.com/diOQeArHo9

        28 replies 161 retweets 2,264 likes
        Show this thread
      20. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Then he goes on to explain the game design, including the code for actions etc. But the shit that floored me was this page:pic.twitter.com/Z7ALFAfoal

        19 replies 173 retweets 2,274 likes
        Show this thread
      21. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Well, TWO YEARS later, Sega comes out with a game that is coincidentally called NFL Primetime. Here is the first screenpic.twitter.com/nUqUsuE38K

        48 replies 210 retweets 2,589 likes
        Show this thread
      22. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        The game with the SAME NAME ran for 7 years on 3 different platforms—the Sega Genesis, the first PlayStation and the PlayStation 2. Again, it started in '95, two years after Kelvin said he came up with his idea and told someone at Sega about it.pic.twitter.com/w4twfG6McL

        8 replies 161 retweets 2,184 likes
        Show this thread
      23. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        There are other pages of details that I don't understand because I don't play video games. And, to be fair, SEGA probably gets a million of these ideas. They probably didn't even read Kelvin's letter. But I kept reading and saw this:pic.twitter.com/yltnvYusWX

        37 replies 236 retweets 2,825 likes
        Show this thread
      24. Michael Harriot‏Verified account @michaelharriot 9 Jul 2020

        Now, I'm not a lawyer, I'm just a yahoo with a Twitter account but I've seen enough episodes of Law & Order to know they stole my lil' homie's shit. Anyway, if anyone here practices intellectual property law, DM me. I might have a case for you.

        186 replies 553 retweets 6,720 likes
        Show this thread
      25. End of conversation

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