Normani, for example

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Social media, thank you. Without you, things would fly past us and issues wouldn’t be recognized. 

Recently, a pop princess from girl group, Fifth Harmony, has taken a break from Twitter. Normani Kordei is her name, singing and dancing is her game. A black young woman who is taking the world by storm alongside her best friends. Ms.Kordei has a lot going for her. And so you might ask, “Well, why would a successful young woman take a break from something that helps her promote herself as both an individual and a group member?”

Racial hate comments. Racial hate comments. In today’s day and age, we’ve grown insensitive to hate unless it’s face and face and possibly physical. “It’s just twitter.” and “Words don’t hurt you.” are defenses that people have when they try to justify the hateful comments that they have spewed. And that problem is just half of this issue. 

Half of it is insensitivity to how harmful words and the internet is. And the other half is blatant racism. Normani isn’t staying away because someone called her ugly, she is staying away because of racism. These issues go hand in hand because racism on the internet is very potent and alive. Just like how I typed this, and I tweet, you tweet - racist people do tweet. These are racist people saying racist online. 

“...I’ve been racially cyber bullied with tweets and pictures so horrific and racially charged that i can’t subject myself any longer to the hate.” - Normani Kordei

Like Normani said, she isn’t the first and she isn’t the last. She is just one of many, proof of the harmful environment that can be created and expanded on the internet.

Just recently, Ghostbuster’s star, Leslie Jones, another celebrity was talking about her experience with racial hate comments generated on Twitter. She openly tweeted about her frustration with Twitter not regulated tweets and allowing racist comments to stay on the site. 


These are just two of many black celebrities who experience such harassment. This is a recurring issue and the root of it starts with the blatant racism that people spew. Being racist is bad enough but in this time, people have become comfortable with the fact that you can simultaneously hide and be free. There are new things in this world and whether or not we choose to participate in them, they’re real and they’re thriving now more than ever. 

Racism needs to end. Bullying needs to end. Cyber bullying needs to end. It affects everyone and Normani Kordei is an example of it. 




These are just two of many black celebrities who experience such harassment. This is a recurring issue and the root of it starts with the blatant racism that people spew. Being racist is bad enough but in this time, people have become comfortable with the fact that you can simultaneously hide and be free. There are new things in this world and whether or not we choose to participate in them, they’re real and they’re thriving now more than ever. 

Racism needs to end. Bullying needs to end. Cyber bullying needs to end. It affects everyone and Normani Kordei is an example of it. 

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