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Although Im desperate to stop online abuse and support the No Room For Racism initiative, I didnt take part in boycotting social media from 3.00 pm on Friday, April 30 until 11.59 pm on Monday, May 3 and hope my analogy will explain why.Lets imagine Twitter is a secondary school and one child racially abuses another. The child that was abused tells the teacher and their guardians of the incident, but the school take no action as nobody was there to corroborate the claims.You contact the school, but they give an excuse to defend their conduct so nothing changes. Everything is fine for a while until another child racially abuses a different pupil, but this time the outcome is different as multiple witne ses back up the allegation.The child is suspended but returns to school days later without it being brought up again. Guardians are made aware of the situation, but the school insists its not a widespread i sue and want to sweep this under the rug.But many other children tell their guardians that theyve also been racially abused at the same school and claim the teacher was told about the incident but didnt get around to dealing with it. So theres a clear problem with racism that is getting worse because of the schools inaction.The concerned guardian then makes others aware of the situation, but the Nick Chubb Jersey majority have no idea there was a problem as their own child denies involvement and denies being abused. Theyre blind to the truth because it doesnt affect them personally, so half the battle is educating them.They also naively believe the school is working as hard as they can to make it better for pupils and point to that one child being punished as proof. But the dozens of other kids being abused without action being taken suggests they arent.The racist abuse isnt stopping, so the guardian feels powerle s to make it a safe space for their child and eventually removes them until the school addre ses the problem.Unfortunately, that child is now mi sing out on socialising with cla smates because of the actions of another and theyre unable to stick up for their friends that get abused at school too. Nobody wins.And while other families hear about the boycott and pull their kids out of school in solidarity, nothing has been improved from sitting at home. The kids that racially abused another pupil are still there and now have fewer people willing to stand up to them.Running away from conflict only saves yourself from witne sing it. It doesnt stop it happening to others. So rather than leaving the me s for somebody else to clean up, banding together to fix the i sue head-on would be much more effective.Being silent is being complicit because youre not doing anything to change anyones behaviour, so its time for a war on racism. You need to get your hands dirty, even if it loses you support for shoving wokene s down their throats.Those that have been racially abused are tired of meaningle s gestures that gain media attention for a few days and solve very little, like the black squares on Instagram. Its time for a war on racism.Boycotting a platform because racists are on it doesnt fix the problem. They can still tweet abuse without tagging an account. But troll accounts end up disappearing when they get bombarded with people challenging them and reporting to authorities.We need to push the racists off the platform and only allow them back when theyve come to terms with their actions and reformed their character. Its the same with fans that shout abuse in stadiums. Being silent or boycotting games doesnt stop the offenders turning up and abusing others.If you call it out and are backed up by others, that person will be removed from the ground, making the space safer for everybody.In my analogy, the abuser was punished when multiple people witne sed and backed up the allegations. The other abuser went unpunished when people were silent.So putting unwavering pre sure on the authorities will force them to act. Boycotting the platform just leaves a me s for others to clean up. And already announcing when the boycott will end tells Twitter they just need to wait it out until Tuesday and youll be back tweeting regardle s of the outcome.Theres no personal judgement on those that are boycotting, but I just feel we should be loud at this time rather than silent.Thanks for listening. Ray-Ray Armstrong Jersey |
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