8 Step Guide to Get Over Online Racism – Shemonti Style.
Being on the receiving end of hate online or otherwise is never nice. People pick on the stuff that you are most insecure and sensitive about to make themselves feel more superior – whereas the situation is more than likely that the haters are just lonely souls who have nothing better to do with their time.
Therefore I have compiled a list of steps for you – the victims – to take when on the receiving end of such abuse. In no particular order:
- Firstly, do not take such comments seriously. The ones who are sending it obviously don’t take your feelings into account, or they think that what they are saying is just for fun. So by taking it these comments seriously, no matter how hurtful they are you are giving these trolls a lot more importance to them than they deserve. Therefore best thing to do is ignore these comments the best you can. Admittedly words hurt more than people give them credit for, but at the end of the day, these people don’t matter and neither do their words. People who are cowardly enough to be racist online are obviously unaware of the harm they are causing, and don’t understand basic social construct – so the best way to handle them is to treat them like the joke that they are.
- Flag these comments up. The best way to shut these trolls us is to take away their words. If you flag them up repeatedly enough, the website usually take action and suspend abusive users. There is nothing more satisfying than shutting these trolls up and taking away their source of entertainment. Social media platforms – namely Instagram – have taken action against trolls where users can filter out certain hateful words, which will then not appear on their comment section. I personally think it’s a great way to hound out all the trolls and spammers away from your comment section – so you’re seeing what you want to see. It will really teach people to be constructive and not rude.
- If it’s all becoming too much, just stay away from social media for a little while. I am big fan of avoiding a problem until it eventually goes away. Therefore I think a good thing to do is just stay away from these comments and messages for a while. Nobody should have to bare racist comments towards them so I really think staying from such comments, getting some space and clearing your head will do you lots of good. During this break you will be able to have the chance to get away from this negativity and come back with a clearer idea on what you need to do to fight these comments.
- Talk to someone. I think it’s a great idea to get away from the internet and find someone to vent your thoughts to; to share your feelings about the abuse that’s happening. Including another person in this situation can give you a second pair of eyes on how to deal with your situation, it will make you feel less alone and less isolated. Talking to someone will also give you the support you need from any of the harsh and racist comments you may have received online, because no one should stand by and be discriminated against.
- Report abuse to the website. The website you are getting the abuse from needs to know what is happening! It is probably impossible to keep an eye on everything so you have to get their attention, send several emails if you have to! If you let the admin know there is a high chance that they will do everything to prevent such abuse occurring to you again. Also, if you see someone else getting abused, you should also bring that to the admin’s attention, the more attention such abuse get the more like the admin will notice them. There is no reason why you should sit back and continually bare through this abuse – if by any chance the abuser account is blocked, they will learn a good lesson. Although this is not a permanent solution, it’s a good way to start getting rid of racists from the internet.
- Stand Up For Yourself Although I have stated before you should not let these comments rile you up, I still believe you should defend yourself when need be. There is no reason why you should just sit there and swallow all of the racist comments thrown at you, this isn’t the 70s anymore. If you are ever on the receiving end of racist comments, defend yourself, call them out on their rubbish.
- Let this person’s abuse be known by other users. Name and Shame Share the crap out of these racist comments. Everyone needs to know who these racist ones are so that we can call them out on it. Naming and shaming is great because as mentioned before, the more attention brought to a bad user means the website admin have more of a chance to hound them out, and hopefully getting rid of their account. But naming and shaming is also useful due to the fact that it brings out the racists to other users as well. Online racism is something that often overlooked, so by bringing to the attention to everyone else will show everyone what a serious situation this is.
- Believe that you are awesome, and get yourself a cup of tea because no matter what those racist trolls say, you are bigger and better than them. You have to know that at least you have a life and don’t need to make others feel bad to make yourself feel worse. Therefore do what’s right by you and don’t give the racists any more worth.
I hope these help anyone struggling with racist trolls on the internet! I wanted to give my two cents on how people should deal with racism online, and to never be scared to go on the internet because of a handful of idiots.
See you soon!