Sharon's Anti-Racism Newsletter

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Block. Report. Delete. Repeat.

www.antiracismnewsletter.com

Block. Report. Delete. Repeat.

More thoughts on a hateful internet troll

Sharon Hurley Hall
Oct 20, 2021
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Block. Report. Delete. Repeat.

www.antiracismnewsletter.com
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Hello friends,

This isn’t the article I’d planned to write this week, but there we are. If you’ve been following me on LinkedIn, you’ll know that last week I posted about a troll. This wasn’t just any troll, spewing the usual set of ill-informed and specious arguments.

No, this troll went one better. He (because it’s almost always a he) signed up for my newsletter, waited for the welcome email, and then replied to it with a GIF of the N-word.

Think how much work that must have taken, just to tell me something I already know: that some white people, especially men, HATE Black women talking about racism and anti-racism. News flash, am I right?

I was annoyed, but I have to admit seeing the N-word GIF didn’t bite like the first time I heard the N-word (at the age of seven, in case you’re new around here).

Or like the time I heard it in French (and slept in the car rather than stay another minute under that person’s roof).

Or like the time I heard it in German (and used one of the few German words I knew to discomfit the offenders by letting them know I had understood them.)

I was younger then. Maybe I’m too battle-hardened now, lol.

More seriously, though, I know that I am not the only one to have this kind of experience. Every activist and committed ally experiences the same thing.

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