Jon Ronson has an adaptation excerpt from his latest book age out public shaming in the digital age. It primarily revolves around Justine Sacco, who you might remember as sending out that racist/unfunny Tweet.
Ronson writes:
The furor over Sacco’s tweet had become not just an ideological crusade against her perceived bigotry but also a form of idle entertainment. Her complete ignorance of her predicament for those 11 hours lent the episode both dramatic irony and a pleasing narrative arc.
[…]
By the time Sacco had touched down, tens of thousands of angry tweets had been sent in response to her joke.
[…]
For the past two years, I’ve been interviewing individuals like Justine Sacco: everyday people pilloried brutally, most often for posting some poorly considered joke on social media. Whenever possible, I have met them in person, to truly grasp the emotional toll at the other end of our screens. The people I met were mostly unemployed, fired for their transgressions, and they seemed broken somehow — deeply confused and traumatized.
At the time, I wrote about why Sacco’s Tweet wasn’t the worst part about the whole affair (and was subsequently quoted in the New York Times, when they wrote about this same issue): I was horrified by the reactions to it – and, mainly, how she was targeted by those with much larger platforms.
There’s an ethical dimension many haven’t considered with platforms and engagements: It’s difficult and tricky areas. I engage publicly on social media with people, quite often – but always with people who have anonymous accounts and aren’t traceable in any way. I don’t even try show up legitimate problematic individuals, unless they are threatening the livelihood and safety of others: if it’s just some loser Gamergater or MRA, I tend to just block, though inform others of the individual.
The point is it’s tricky and it should be tricky. Shaming shouldn’t be as easy as a Retweet, but it is and that’s dangerous. Platform holders like the Buzzfeed editors and Gawker’s Sam Biddle who thrive on public shaming deserve severe ethical scrutiny for their work and conduct.
Indeed, Sacco isn’t the one who should be ashamed; it’s those with major platforms who decided to draw the world’s attention to her, for her innocuous and clearly outrageous Tweet.
There does seem to be a competition of who can be the most righteous to the point that they lose any empathy for another person. Sacco said something insensitive and racist and the best response is to calmly explain why her statement is a problem. But people are tripping over themselves to shout at another person feeling this will prove how morally superior they are.
It wasn’t insensitive and racist. That’s kind of he sad thing about her harassment – people harassed her for something she didn’t even think.
There’s nothing insensitive and/or racist about implying-by way of humor-that white people can’t get AIDS but black people can? And that you get it by traveling to Africa?
Sacco didn’t think her comment through at all. Likewise, you’ve failed to consider it through the lens of someone, who say, lives in Africa. You’re looking at it through your own perspective, which is natural. But your perspective is not the only one possible and maybe, just maybe, you ought to give consideration to how others might view it before you dismiss their opinions.
As I explained in those posts, the relation to racism to dismissal of AIDs as epidemic that requires attention is a close one here in South Africa; regularly local racists and racist pastors have preached that black people are the only ones who get AIDs; kids are taught this in conservative communities. That’s why you won’t ever hear this kind of “joke” publicly in South Africa. I’m not sure how it’s not insensitive or racist because you assert it isn’t.
@Tony
There’s nothing insensitive and/or racist about implying-by way of humor-that white people can’t get AIDS but black people can? And that you get it by traveling to Africa?
It is galactically stupid to think that one can’t get AIDS if one is white, or one gets AIDS by simply traveling to Africa. That’s the joke. One who thinks this is stupid – yet this stereotype persists. Further, the entire point of the article is to show that people who didn’t understand the joke were the wrong ones. They were factually wrong. They didn’t understand something, or worse, did understand it and chose to be horrible people anyway. It’s a persistent phenomenon – why are people so incredibly mean to strangers on the internet?
@Tauriq,
As I explained in those posts, the relation to racism to dismissal of AIDs as epidemic that requires attention is a close one here in South Africa; regularly local racists and racist pastors have preached that black people are the only ones who get AIDs; kids are taught this in conservative communities. That’s why you won’t ever hear this kind of “joke” publicly in South Africa. I’m not sure how it’s not insensitive or racist because you assert it isn’t.
I wouldn’t consider jokes which make fun of racism to be in themselves racist. At least not the type of racism that I would discourage. I have no doubt she knows what you speak of, since her family is from South Africa. Further, I’m not sure what the reaction to her Tweet was in South Africa , but a lot of the over the top reaction was by people in America.
That’s the joke.
This. I don’t understand how people can think that she meant that tweet literally. It could not more obviously have been satire. It is not only mocking of people who think it, but of anyone who even thinks along those lines.
“It was a joke” is the abuser’s most favourite defense.
Sacco’s tweet was stupid, because even if it was a joke it’s not the kind of thing that Twitter lends itself to.
But…
Look, I am hardly one to defend her tweet. But I am going to say that there’s a gigantic difference between a no-name publicist — come on, who had heard of her before this? — and say, Hilary Clinton or Paul Ryan.
The Internet Outrage Machine accepts no nuance, no context, there’s no way to say, “Hm, that was a stupid tweet, here’s why” in a way that creates what I would call teachable moments. All that happens is in this case she lost her job and had to do some kind of public penance. That bears a striking resemblance to the way religious communities operate, and I am not happy that’s the case.
It’s not just Sacco. The guy who told his friend a dumb dongle joke at a conference — one that was NOT public, and if anything the woman who brought the shame on him was essentially eavesdropping — did he really deserve to lose his job? Really? Have none of you EVER made a stupid remark in the hearing of someone else? EVER?
And remember, that Internet Outrage Machine will get turned on you one day, even if you are on the “right side” of an issue. But of course one tweet or remark is obviously definitive of everything about you, right? /sarcasm
Yah, it’s nice to feel that we are all better than that other person. We are not.