Hate Mail of the Weak

A glance at this week's insecure racists projecting their hate at me and other people of color

How do you respond to horrid bigotry, especially when it’s in response to condemning documented racism? Let’s Address This in a new issue of “Hate Mail of the Weak.”

I periodically share this more personal side of my advocacy for human rights because it is important to me that you, my gracious supporters, see what I see. Apologies in advance for the vulgar language in the screen shots below.

It started when I posted these two tweets. I was frustrated at the recent decision by the South Carolina Department of Education to remove AP African American Studies as an elective. Yes, they really did.

I followed up with another tweet pointing out the contemporary double standard of removing AP African American studies but keeping AP European History.

Both tweets gained popularity, ultimately gaining over 7500 retweets and 20,000 likes. That drew the attention of racists, who unleashed grotesque bigotry in response to my tweets. The first one, classic Islamophobia.

Next, Islamophobia with a side of geographical ignorance and anti-immigrant bigotry.

Indeed, not only is my birth country of Pakistan in South Asia, not the Middle East, this is a good opportunity to remind everyone that the largest Muslim majority country in the world is Indonesia—which is in neither South Asia nor in the Middle East.

The next bit of hate was remarkably comprehensive. It infused Islamophobia, anti-Arab hate, anti-immigrant hate, anti-Black hate, and apparently anti-Hindu hate with the reference to the “Quickie Mart” and its Hindu owner Apu, from The Simpsons—and with a pretty clear call to violence and fighting. (Note, none of these were actually banned by Twitter).

And finally, dehumanizing racism.

There is so much to unpack here.

First, let me reemphasize my appreciation to each of you for supporting my work and advocacy. Whether you subscribe for free or at $5/mo, your support to keep building is critical because, as you can see, these social media platforms are going full blown Nazi.

Second, I emphasize again I want each of you to see how the most common response to condemning racism, is more racism. This is done to maintain the status quo of racism and demonize anyone working to change that status quo. This is why it isn’t enough to be not racist, but we must be actively anti-racist to counter this hate and vitriol.

Third and finally, that means we respond by speaking up loudly. We cannot sit silent, but must continue to speak out. As I’ve written before we do this when we tell our stories and share our stories. We do this by investing our time and resources to elevate people doing the work and building that more just and compassionate future. You have my promise to always speak up and uphold justice above all else, period. Let us continue to demand that more humane and just future for this generation and the next.

Are you in?