Undoubtedly, social media — along with the rest of the Internet — serves a great helping hand in connecting people with like ideas in the hopes of promoting positive change. Sites such as GoFundMe have proven to bring us all a giant step forward in the right direction. However, with these great progressive tools, there are others that shed light on the most disgusting side of humanity.
On Twitter, I came across an account called “White Fort Myers.” Just the name alone is a huge step backward for our little area of the world, but as I began to scroll through the account’s feed, I was in shock of the racist content that was shared.
One of the many disgusting examples of racism that was tweeted was a cartoon picture that was sectioned into four squares. In the first square, is a group of people all with black colored skin with the caption “Africa for the Africans.”
In the second square, is a picture of a group of Asian people all dressed in silk kimonos with white makeup on their faces. Above it, the phrase “Asia for the Asians” is displayed.
In the third square, a group of interracial people are together with the white people looking confused and scratching their heads. Above this is the phrase, “White countries for everyone.” The last square just displays the message, “‘Multiculturalism’ is a program that is FORCED upon EVERY and ONLY white countries. This is genocide; WHITE genocide.”
First of all, the word genocide means a mass killing which makes absolutely no sense pertaining to this racist cartoon. The Holocaust was genocide; sharing a country with people of multiple ethnicities and races is not an example of genocide. It’s not as if a white person spontaneously drops dead every time they encounter someone of a different race.
To say that we are under a white genocide is an ignorant argument that gives me the impression that the creator of this account barely has two brain cells swimming up in that little brain of theirs. I’m honestly surprised that this person was even capable of making a Twitter account. I’m serious, judging by his or her lack of knowledge on the definition of “genocide,” starting an account is the equivalent of rocket science for someone of this IQ level. I highly recommend they invest in a dictionary, but that’s assuming they know how to read.
Maybe they confused the word genocide with “benefit to the community,” and in that case, dear creator of the
@whitefortmyers account, disregard all of my article that you just had someone of higher intelligence read to you.
I wish I could say that this type of account is a rarity or that it lacked supporters, but unfortunately, I would be lying. The account @WhiteFortMyers has 1,154 followers and arguably supporters of its “mission.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center recently came out with a map that depicts the different known hate groups and what region they belong to. Today, there are 852 known hate groups in the United States alone. This is an increase from last year.
Unfortunately, not a single state is exempt, and when looking at the map, it is difficult to even see the state of Florida buried under the 58 icons representing the amount of hate groups in the state.
In fact, Florida comes in third place for having the most hate groups, right after Texas and California.
As much as some may want to turn a blind eye, racism still exists, and it is going on right here in our own town — not just in Ferguson, Missouri, but here in Florida. In Fort Myers.
The SPLC has projected that by the year 2040, white Americans will not be the majority of the United States anymore, and that’s OK, people. The world is still going to keep spinning, and the sun will keep rising in the morning. I’m sure of it.
Racism is not an instinct we are born with. It is a learned trait, and if we are not careful, we could be contributing to the cycle of hate. No one is born hating another person because of the color of their skin or the religion they believe in. We learn hate, and we teach hate. We are to blame.
We must get off our high horses and understand that, at the end of the day, we are all human beings, and it is absurd to allow someone’s genetic background to keep us from treating them as an equal. Something needs to be done, and I think acknowledgement that racism does still, in fact, exist would be a great place to start.