In the online world, the sentiment “agree to disagree” doesn’t seem to exist.
And sometimes, disagreeing with popular opinion draws threats of rape or death. Among black female bloggers, recent events involving technology expert Adria Richards and political analyst Zerlina Maxwell have sparked a huge discussion about whether black women face disproportionate -- and racialized -- backlash when they voice their opinions.
R: Zerlina Maxwell, Credit: Fox News; L: Adria Richards, Credit: allaboutgeorge via Flickr
The response to Richards' decision to call out three men on their sexism at the PyCon Conference has been well documented. She was terminated from her position at SendGrid, and as documented in the comments in the post written by BlogHer’s Virginia DeBolt, the legitimacy of her claims and her "motives" have been questioned.
And apparently, if you choose to share your opinion as a woman, you receive will online threats of death and sexual violence -- including the n-word, the c-word, and graphic, racialized photos that are NSFW. Not only that, but other women won't necessarily denounce those threats, as Deanna Zandt pointed out in Forbes.com:
The last thing I want to specifically address are the number of white women attempting to be constructive in helping Adria see the err [sic] of her ways, pointing out behavior that could have better kept her in line with cultural expectations of her. While almost certainly these commenters have no idea that what their doing is perpetuating a long history of white women, and specifically, white feminists, telling women of color what to do with their sexist experiences, well, that’s exactly what they’re doing.
Frankly, I'm disgusted by the reaction -- or lack thereof -- to Richards' calling out what she perceived as inappropriate behavior at a conference in which 20% of the attendees were women, especially since women are in the minority in the tech industry.
What was even more disturbing (if possible to be more disturbing than being threatened with rape, sexual mutilation, and death) was why the threats were coming: For some, it was because because SHE got a man fired. A man who had a wife and kids and whose position was considered more valuable than hers. That the man had made sexualized comments in an inappropriate forum was not the issue.
The man who was fired made these comments at the Ycombinator forum:
Adria has an audience and is a successful person of the media. Just check out her web page linked in her twitter account, her hard work and social activism speaks for itself. With that great power and reach comes responsibility. As a result of the picture she took I was let go from my job today. Which sucks because I have 3 kids and I really liked that job.
Richards’ experience is not an isolated one. Just like the tech world, politics can be an old boys' club. Just a few weeks ago, political analyst Zerlina Maxwell -- a rape survivor -- appeared on FOX News, questioning suggestions that women arm themselves to prevent to rape. Instead, she promoted conversations with men about how not to sexually assault women.
Maxwell received a response similar to Richards': racialized threats concerning sexual assault and murder. While online commenters were aghast at the response to her comments, others took umbrage at the idea that men need to be educated on respecting women’s sexuality. From Judgybitch:
The death and rape threats Zerlina received after making her statements are disgusting, and no matter how stupid or ill-conceived her ideas are, she doesn’t deserve to be gang-raped for them! Let’s point out that her ideas are based on some completely hateful stereotypes about men, and that her suggestions run exactly counter to what we want, but we’ll draw the line at rape threats.
There are so many problematic issues with these two stories. In one sense, they’re just two more in a long line of stories told by women of all ethnicities who have publicly shared views that question misogynistic behaviur, especially in male-dominated industries –- tech pioneer Kathy Sierra, who went offline in 2007, comes immediately to mind.
And then there is the complex mix of race and gender. Both Richards and Maxwell experienced not only racialized language in reaction to their statements, but also many references to their own career successes. Within the comments on Ycombinator forum, Richards was described as being "hyper-agressive" and "hypersensitive," words that describes common racial tropes pertaining to black women. Other comments, like this one left on Richards' first public comments since her firing, allude to her having an "agenda," calling to mind more stereotypes about successful black women:
Having watched some of her YouTube videos, it seems as if she harbors a disdain for males, and has some sort of agenda against them. I view this melodramatics as an attempt to stir the pot, validate her own biases, and "rally" people around her cause. In my opinion, she was just looking to cause trouble, rather than settle the matter amicably.
A commenter on Red Light Politics also expressed concern that the online response to Richards' actions was about silencing "uppity Black women."
They don’t like her tone. Her vocal antics are improper. She didn’t deserve to be fired but ... It always boils down to it: the misbehaved Black woman should have known better. Even ostensibly feminist blogs are giving space to such opinions.
This is what happens when WoC do not play by the rules of patriarchal White Supremacy: the racist version of “slut had it coming”. If only she had not been so outspoken, if only she didn’t expose stuff she doesn’t like ...if only she had been docile.
Because Maxwell and Richards are perceived by many as having been conferred a level of privilege (by white men), there are some people who expect them to keep quiet and look the other way when it comes to sexism. From The Root:
Commenters railed against Richards as self-aggrandizing at best, and at worst -- well, let's just say that when it comes to attacking a successful woman of color in a white male-dominated field, it's easiest to grab the lowest hanging fruit. She suffered rape and death threats. Her experience was more than appalling to watch unfold online and frustratingly ironic... Being on the other side of someone's "ism" is never easy. As a woman of color, especially, combating the "angry black woman" stereotype is a constant internal battle of gut checks that would leave even the strongest constitution queasy.
We tend to dismiss the online -- and, more importantly, anonymous -- ravings as the expressions of people who are clearly unbalanced, but Colorlines argues that these messages will deter women of color from getting involved in the tech industry:
Individual social media-related firings always make news, but the bigger story here is how Richards became the target of a very particular kind of harassment. Social media trolls repeatedly called Richards the n-word and threatened to rape her. Some scoured the Internet for her personal information and put it on blast (“doxxing”)... Tech insiders fear these attacks will have an overall chilling effect on already-marginalized women and people of color working and living in these environments.
While acknowledging that in theory, online commenters got what they wanted, as Richards is now in hiding, and apparently some of her supporters have also faced online harassment, the Colorlines post provided suggestions to aspiring tech workers about how to avoid pitfalls. One suggestion was very telling, in relation to the number of women who felt that Richards was somehow responsible for her misfortune:
Allies: Get involved, too. To repeat the now popular refrain, you don’t need to be a woman to call out sexist behavior, and you don’t need to be a person of color to fight for racial justice. That applies to tech events as well. Says Milstein: “People of conscience and other people who care enough about the kinds of discourse we’re having at conferences to report [inappropriate behavior], can also say something.”
So while some people suggest that the election of a black president signals a post-racial society, black women often still face disproportionate outrage for speaking up about politics or business. And it's interesting how criticisms of vocal African American women still involve racialized sexual stereotypes and suggestions of ungratefulness.
What do you think? Do you think that we should simply ignore online comments, despite their targets being forced to go into hiding? Leave your comments below.
Laina Dawes
Contributing Editor - Race, Ethnicity & Culture
Blog: Writing is Fighting: www.lainad.typepad.com
My Book, What Are You Doing Here? A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal