Racism, Blog Comment Sections, & Online Trolls
I’m noticing something interesting whenever I do my online rounds in cyberspace. In several blog posts that mostly cover contemporary racism, I notice at least one person who gets highly charged at the topic. Yes, we’ve seen the usual garden variety of conservative and liberal racists. The comments range anywhere from black crime rates to “we’re all human”. You know the ones.
However, I see a few people get worked up and mention the subject that would make white people faint. Slavery! The kicker is that the topic never, not even once, mentions slavery, nor does it even reference the time period where it was overt and brutal. Still, I see some comments float about how we need to get over slavery, know that Africans sold slaves and that white people had or have it worse than slaves. Yet, no one, including the other comments, have brought it up.
So, I’m sitting here thinking, “Why tell us to get over slavery when it was never an issue to begin with?” Don’t get me wrong. Slavery was, and still is, a major topic in this country, but accusing bloggers of bringing up a topic that hasn’t got shit to do with slavery may be a sign of their racist guilt showing itself.
Racist trolls seem to enjoy getting reality wrong. One of their many faults, besides being born, is their apparent severe lack of reading comprehension skills. For instance, you could be discussing how to water your rose garden, and one of them could accuse you of being racist against whites. You could write an article about the dangers of cupcakes, and you have one dunce telling you that black people have committed more crimes against whites than the other way around.
But let’s not fall into the trap that those people are supremely stupid and that they can’t help themselves. I’m sure that if they are smart enough to use a computer, they’re smart enough to read and understand. Yet, white racism has never been about logic. It’s all about maintaining the status quo of whiteness, and trolling is one way it gets done.
So, you have these racists come in and throwing the subject of slavery around. Your topic deals with racism in some way, shape or form, but slavery is not part of the article. What gives?
Many blog posts and articles that have dealt with the subjects of race and racism have mostly dealt with said issues that are going on in modern times. Even though we live in the 2010′s, racism is still as common as shoes. And we see it everywhere, including behind the scenes.
Those who write about the issues that reflect on racism do not blame slavery. It’s no different than remarking that talking about racism is the same as blaming the white man. Slavery, in the Americas, did happen, and it was one the most horrific moments ever to happen to Africans at the hands of Europeans and White Americans. And even though that period in human history is gone, oppression and racism against blacks have continued even up to this vary day.
I can not speak for all African Americans, let alone black people worldwide. But I highly doubt that all of us spend our precious time bitching and moaning about slavery 24-7. Believe it or not, other things make us mad, and not all of it happened before our grandparents were born. Besides, why tell us to get over something that wasn’t even on our minds to begin with? Makes you go hmmm….
