Odd Socks Day is a campaign for Anti Bullying Week. Although, every day in Nanny Kimbo's life is Odd Socks day!
A lot of campaigns that are supported by schools require children to dress up or wear non-uniform. This can be difficult for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds who might not have access to costumes or trendy clothes and this can lead to further bullying. Everyone who has socks will have odd socks. That's science (or something!)
Last year I wrote a bit about my own experiences of being bullied at school. Unfortunately, for many, the bullying doesn't stop when we leave the playground.
With the rise of social media, bullying has become the favourite pass time of adults as well as children. Actual, fully grown, seemingly respected adults!
I was recently the victim of an online hate campaign that landed me in hospital - but this isn't about that. This is about something far more insidious.
The internet is populated by a whole variety of human beings. Most of us just want to share stuff about our day, post pretty pictures, funny memes and occasionally engage in healthy discussions about why the Tories suck so bad and how we should definitely remain in the EU until a better alternative is found.
One of the best things about social media is that those who never had a voice before are now being heard. Unfortunately, this seems to come with a price.
When I started writing this blog, I was trying to give as much information as possible and ended up with a 5000 word essay. No one wants to read that. Not really.
Instead I'm going to cut to the chase - STOP BULLYING BLACK WOMEN ONLINE!
There! Saved you all a lot of reading!
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In 2018, Amnesty International conducted a study called Troll Patrol. Here are the key findings of the study:
Every 30 seconds a woman receives an abusive tweet. Black women are 84% more likely to be targeted. Let that sink in a moment.
Twitter is an absolute cesspit. There are no two ways about that. However, abuse of black women is not limited to Twitter. Not by a long stretch.
Recently Instagram shut down the account of black Actress and influencer Kelechi Okafor. This happened within hours of Kelechi talking about a troll who moonlights as a midwife at King's College Hospital. I'm not going to name the troll here because she's had enough air time as it is.
Kelechi wrote a piece for Grazia here. In her article Kelechi mentions how she gave birth at the hospital this troll works at. This is a terrifying revelation as black women are FIVE TIMES more likely than white women to die in the perinatal period.
Unfortunately, Kelechi was not the only black woman targeted by this troll. Before she was unmasked, this troll had invited Candice Braithwaite, co founder of Make Motherhood Diverse onto her podcast to talk about the findings of the MBRRACE report. Following the podcast, this troll then accused Candice of "weaponising her race".
In 2017, Seyi Akiwowo founded the website Glitch with a view to ending abuse online. Seyi discusses Amnesty International's research findings via Huffington Post.
So, what are we going to do about this? What are we going to do about the bullying of black women online? We're going to stand up and be counted. We're going to elevate the voices of black women. We're going to call out the bullshit behaviour. We are going to unlearn our own racist behaviours via anti-racism workshops. We are going to support black businesses. We are going to do better by black women.
I am going to create a list of excellent black women to be featured on my blog. If you are an excellent black woman or you know an excellent black woman who should be featured too, drop me an email.
Lets stop this shit!
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