The past seven days have been intense and incredible in Atlanta. Hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of protesters have been out in the streets every day, sparked by the deaths of #PhilandoCastile and #AltonSterling in Minnesota and Baton Rouge. Plenty of activity close to home has also sustained protesters, including the discovery of a black man found hanged in Piedmont Park (which is officially being called a suicide) and the police shooting of Deravis Caine Rogers (the officer involved was fired, however has not been indicted).
So, as #ATLisReady has been filling up with reports from the ground — and protesters’ calls for justice — Twitter’s racists have also showed up to rain on the parade. Racists, and, unfortunately, Andrew Young.
Young, who is rightfully known for his incredible civil rights work, was recently called out by the NAACP for his comment that protesters were, “unlovable little brats.”
In a post from Twitter account @ThinkingYoung — that does indeed appear to belong to Andrew Young — he says:
Blocking traffic is a good way to protest, but illegal. Arrests are to be expected. You gotta be willing to go to jail.
The tweet removed by Tuesday and Andrew Young apologized on Wednesday.
Twitter’s racists added their own special flavor of bile, calling on protesters to be arrested, bombed (including one TV producer from CBS46 who was just fired for such comments on Facebook), and pulling out every offensive stereotype they could, without any shame.
Please remember, any white people reading this: these are the same racist cousins everyone cringes at, but no one call’s out at family get-togethers, or that racist friend that you believe will never change their ways.
First up, Twitter user @recon4thID thanks Young for his comments:
I give Ambassador Young credit, he calls it like he sees it, pulls no punches…He has integrity, dignity, and honor https://t.co/IzDUl632vV
— Frank (@recon4thID) July 13, 2016
And calls Black Lives Matters folks terrorists:
No.
I will not stand with BLM terrorists and racists.
— Frank (@recon4thID) July 13, 2016
There is this delightful comment, comparing protesters to animals, from a racist that uses the twitter handle @SallyKohnFans:
https://twitter.com/SallyKohnFans/status/752669629474959360
When called out on their egregious racism, @SallyKohnFans wants to make sure we all know they don’t care.
https://twitter.com/SallyKohnFans/status/752671084642643968
Great. Glad we cleared that up.
(By the way, bonus points to @recon4thID and @SallyKohnFans for re-tweeting some straight up anti-Semetic content).
Here’s an A+ racist comment, calling Black Lives Matter demonstrators “thugs and fools,” from @EJSBOSTON1:
nope all thugs and fools. Get a platform and own it !
— es (@EJSBOSTON1) July 12, 2016
@EJSBOSTON1 also posted comments suggesting that the protesters are on welfare (this seemed to be a theme this particular twitter user likes to harp on):
then what back to welfare?
— es (@EJSBOSTON1) July 12, 2016
Thanks Twitter racists. Yelling your racist views into the social media void is always a great way to remind everyone that we have a very long way to go in the fight against bigotry.