Social Media and Social Justice: How trolling racists makes America great
Social media may be a lot of things, but recently social is being used in a different, more impactful way other than just capturing selfies and outfit shots.
Social media is now being used in an unexpected but beneficial way of discussing injustice. Just look up the hashtag #livingwhileblack and you're timeline will be flooded with stories and even videos of moments Black people have experienced racism. That is how we first saw the 2 men in Philadelphia be arrested at Starbucks a month ago. That is how we observed the ridiculousness of the AirBnb tenants interrogated by police who were called by a nosy neighbor because the young Black women in question didn't smile and wave at her. (I feel like there is a full blogpost to be written about that.)
But social media is not only capturing these moments, it's also capturing bigots in the act of bigotry as well. Racists of all shapes and sizes have been empowered and unleashed to spew their hatred and bigoted ways upon the rest of the well meaning populous. It only makes sense for us to capture them and troll them online for the world to see how absolutely foolish racism actually is.
The latest features Dr. Jennifer Schulte, formerly of Stanford University and currently of Environmental Resource Management in Walnut Creek, Ca. If Dr. Jenn looks familiar to you, it's probably because she is the woman who called the police on a Black family in a public park who happened to be grilling some lunch. Schulte was then approached, not by the family she previously berated, but by another white woman who recorded her (and her award winning teary eyed performance for the police officer who arrived on the scene.)
If that still doesn't ring a bell but the face is still familiar, its probably because you have seen one of the many memes now springing up with Dr. Jenn's face and phone.
The meme, now entitled #BBQBecky, is beyond viral, invading our newsfeeds and group chats and making us cackle at the causcasity. Dr. Jenn has literally now become the representative face of White people calling the police upon people of color who are guilty of nothing but living.
Speaking of a very public, almost painful social media dragging, and what about Aaron Schlossberg, a well known lawyer in Manhattan, who instead of just picking up his lunch and keeping his racism to himself, berated the staff of the Fresh Kitchen for speaking Spanish?
Yeah, you read that correctly. Apparently Schlossberg felt personally offended that people who weren't even speaking to him dared to be speaking another language near him. In New York. In these United States.
Ironically, and hilariously discovered by the Twitter detective agency, the Schlossberg law firm site
Social Media had a field day with Schlossberg. So much so, in fact, that his offices had to take down its Facebook. Twitter lit up like a Christmas tree, propelling Aaron into internet infamy with literally thousands of comments and retweets. Even Google got in on the fun, changing the Schlossberg law firm into a Spanish Restaurant for a time.
Offline, there are currently multiple calls for Schlossberg disbarment.
If these last few incidents have proven anything, it is that racism isn't secluded to the ignorant. Yes, even the very educated can be racist. But this is no surprise to people of color, who have dealt with white supremacy for centuries. If not longer.
But these incidents also teach us the power of social media. Isolated incidents in Oakland and Manhattan have now spread throughout the nation, if not the globe, rapidly. These perpetrators of hate not only had their faces, but their names and professions shared with the world. If they are bold enough to blatantly and brazenly be hateful to people, why not propel them to the racist stardom that brazen and blatant hatred deserves?
And that is what social media does. With each hashtag, meme, and post, we are creating a culture that not only rejects hatred anywhere it shows its ugly face, but we are actively making it into a joke, showing the ultimate stupidity bigotry is steeped in. The more ridiculous these meltdowns of hate are, the less attractive they become. Maybe taking down racism en mass isn't the way we should be going about it. Maybe we should redirect our energies to calling it out one by one. As Amanda Seales calls it, it's like "racist whack-a-mole."
Let's face it, Schlossberg and Schulte's behavior captured and made viral will have a real world consequences. And these two are not the only ones, they jus happen to be the latest. A simple Google search yields abundant results of people who have suffered or are currently suffering the effects of their own racism.
Nobody wants to be the face of a bigoted meltdown. Nobody wants to lose their credibility, reputations, or jobs over poor decisions displayed publicly. Racists are being 'called to the mat' to atone for their hate filled ways in the court of popular opinion and being found wanting.
That is what our collective voices (and tweets, posts, memes, etc) have made the cost of hate.
Now, bigots must decide if they are willing to pay it.
Social media is now being used in an unexpected but beneficial way of discussing injustice. Just look up the hashtag #livingwhileblack and you're timeline will be flooded with stories and even videos of moments Black people have experienced racism. That is how we first saw the 2 men in Philadelphia be arrested at Starbucks a month ago. That is how we observed the ridiculousness of the AirBnb tenants interrogated by police who were called by a nosy neighbor because the young Black women in question didn't smile and wave at her. (I feel like there is a full blogpost to be written about that.)
But social media is not only capturing these moments, it's also capturing bigots in the act of bigotry as well. Racists of all shapes and sizes have been empowered and unleashed to spew their hatred and bigoted ways upon the rest of the well meaning populous. It only makes sense for us to capture them and troll them online for the world to see how absolutely foolish racism actually is.
The latest features Dr. Jennifer Schulte, formerly of Stanford University and currently of Environmental Resource Management in Walnut Creek, Ca. If Dr. Jenn looks familiar to you, it's probably because she is the woman who called the police on a Black family in a public park who happened to be grilling some lunch. Schulte was then approached, not by the family she previously berated, but by another white woman who recorded her (and her award winning teary eyed performance for the police officer who arrived on the scene.)If that still doesn't ring a bell but the face is still familiar, its probably because you have seen one of the many memes now springing up with Dr. Jenn's face and phone.
 |
| "Hello, officer? There is a Black man in the White House." |
Speaking of a very public, almost painful social media dragging, and what about Aaron Schlossberg, a well known lawyer in Manhattan, who instead of just picking up his lunch and keeping his racism to himself, berated the staff of the Fresh Kitchen for speaking Spanish?
Yeah, you read that correctly. Apparently Schlossberg felt personally offended that people who weren't even speaking to him dared to be speaking another language near him. In New York. In these United States.
Who this this bigot in Midtown Manhattan? What's his name?— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) May 16, 2018
Please share this.
Here he is harassing & insulting two women for speaking Spanish...TO EACH OTHER in the middle of Manhattan.
Trump has empowered ugly white people like this to say whatever they feel like saying. pic.twitter.com/WbHlet6H7c
Ironically, and hilariously discovered by the Twitter detective agency, the Schlossberg law firm site
Social Media had a field day with Schlossberg. So much so, in fact, that his offices had to take down its Facebook. Twitter lit up like a Christmas tree, propelling Aaron into internet infamy with literally thousands of comments and retweets. Even Google got in on the fun, changing the Schlossberg law firm into a Spanish Restaurant for a time.
Offline, there are currently multiple calls for Schlossberg disbarment.
If these last few incidents have proven anything, it is that racism isn't secluded to the ignorant. Yes, even the very educated can be racist. But this is no surprise to people of color, who have dealt with white supremacy for centuries. If not longer.
But these incidents also teach us the power of social media. Isolated incidents in Oakland and Manhattan have now spread throughout the nation, if not the globe, rapidly. These perpetrators of hate not only had their faces, but their names and professions shared with the world. If they are bold enough to blatantly and brazenly be hateful to people, why not propel them to the racist stardom that brazen and blatant hatred deserves?
And that is what social media does. With each hashtag, meme, and post, we are creating a culture that not only rejects hatred anywhere it shows its ugly face, but we are actively making it into a joke, showing the ultimate stupidity bigotry is steeped in. The more ridiculous these meltdowns of hate are, the less attractive they become. Maybe taking down racism en mass isn't the way we should be going about it. Maybe we should redirect our energies to calling it out one by one. As Amanda Seales calls it, it's like "racist whack-a-mole."
Let's face it, Schlossberg and Schulte's behavior captured and made viral will have a real world consequences. And these two are not the only ones, they jus happen to be the latest. A simple Google search yields abundant results of people who have suffered or are currently suffering the effects of their own racism.
Nobody wants to be the face of a bigoted meltdown. Nobody wants to lose their credibility, reputations, or jobs over poor decisions displayed publicly. Racists are being 'called to the mat' to atone for their hate filled ways in the court of popular opinion and being found wanting.
That is what our collective voices (and tweets, posts, memes, etc) have made the cost of hate.
Now, bigots must decide if they are willing to pay it.
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