Hating Leslie Jones
Bigots and bullies are using technology to attempt to punish the talented actress for standing up to them.
By being an unapologetic black woman, Leslie Jones has earned the ire of people within the “alt-right” movement. When the remake of Ghostbusters came out, Jones was bombarded with racist memes and graphics, body-shaming tweets, and other grotesque commentary to the point that she had to turn to Twitter‘s CEO, Jack Dorsey, for help. Eventually, many of the people involved were banned, including Breitbart personality Milo Yiannopoulos.
Now Jones has once again been targeted by people within the alt-right’s sphere of (lack of) thought — this time her website was hacked. Nude images and pictures of her license and passport were posted on it, as well as a picture of Harambe. Yiannopoulos supported the hacking, as did many of his fans. They claimed it was “karma” for her fighting back against their previous vitriol. I guess they just expected her to take whatever they threw at her the first time, or maybe they wanted her to react with the same kind of hate that they spewed at her. When she reacted in a civil way and used proper means to end the harassment, it upset their feelings. Because their “feels” were hurt, they had to react in the most heinous way that they could think of — up the humiliation game.
This is what they do to women all the time, but it’s worse for black women. For some reason, it is considered more acceptable by this group of “people” to attack black women. I guess because it combines two of the favorite hobbies of the alt-right: misogyny and racism. All that Jones has really done is not let them treat her with a lack of respect and told attackers of other black women that she won’t let these racists denigrate them. Unlike what Yiannopoulos fangirl Ariana Rowlands said, Leslie Jones didn’t incite violence or play the victim when she chose not to let them bully her. She acted like we teach all kids to act in the face of bullies: brave. If people are acting out because they don’t like that she didn’t fold in the face of their hatred, then that shows what kind of horrible people they are, not her.
When Breitbart twiddles its thumbs over the responsibility for this vile behavior, Yiannopoulos mocks it on Snapchat (and pretends like he wasn’t trying to be banned from Twitter prior to the original attack on Jones), and fans and followers of both make excuses for it, they are just showing the world what has been obvious for a long time: they’re afraid of women and minorities, and they’re especially afraid of women who are minorities. And when people who aren’t racists and who aren’t sexists continue to follow these outlets of ignorance, they’re basically saying that they are okay with that fear and that hatred. People need to stand up and let these companies and personalities know that we will not continue to tolerate this kind of antisocial behavior that dehumanizes black women. White people in particular need to do this because our privilege protects us from some of the backlash that can result from challenging the status quo.
Leslie Jones didn’t deserve the first attack and she didn’t deserve this one, so let’s make sure that she doesn’t get attacked a third time by these trolls and criminals. Start speaking up and stopping this kind of hate whether you see it online or off, whether it’s toward a celebrity or someone who isn’t famous. Don’t just let people be treated like shit. Don’t pretend like it’s no big deal when someone gets doxed or hacked. Don’t just turn a blind eye to someone being sent racist propaganda. Be a decent human being and say that we’re not going to accept this kind of toxic bullshit being perpetrated against any other human being anymore. Don’t just expect the world to eventually be a better place for everyone, demand that society change its hateful ways now.
