The outrage generator
You know my feelings about social media: it can mean everything and also tell us nothing. Here’s an interesting find from a twitter thread. Context: the announcement that Halle Bailey (who is a woman of color) has been cast as Ariel in The Little Mermaid. I am 120% sure there are racist feelings surrounding this, but strategically placed bots on twitter will make it easy for news outlets to report it as an issue.
The original tweet has been removed (I believe by twitter) but it points to a change.org petition. Here was the text from the original tweet:
first of all I'm not a racist i love halle, but i won't let Disney ruin our childhood memories so i started a petition to get justice for ariel and our childhood memories, i prefer Someone who looks similar to the real one
This is dystopian as fuck. Let me be clear: I don’t want to minimize the racism and bile that comes with statements and petitions like this. But the possibility that some nefarious originator doesn’t even care about the issue but just wants to see how far this goes is downright f*cked up.
Then again, thousands of people have actually signed the petition. (unless those are bots too?). The tweet didn’t make them racist, they were always racist. But orchestrated chaos campaigns like these make their racism seem normalized, and allows for others to become radicalized online. It gives a platform that makes the racists feel legitimate and supported.
The internet is nothing and everything. [Should I make tee shirts?]