Most Twitter Hate Speech Comes From East Coast and South

Something tells me this isn’t about grandma.

I found this to be very interesting (from The Huffington Post):

The most hateful tweeters in the United States tend to live in the eastern half of the country, according to a new map that pinpoints hate speech from Twitter across country.

The map, created by geography students at Humboldt State University in California, looks at more than 150,000 geocoded tweets (tweets that say where the user is located) between June 2012 and April 2013, sorting for those that contained a racist, homophobic or anti-disability word. The researchers then decided whether or not the tweet was using the word in a hateful way.

According to our analysis: A majority of hateful tweets are coming from smaller towns and more rural areas. For example, some of the biggest spots for homophobic tweets are along the border of Oklahoma and Texas, and one of the biggest hubs of racist tweets is in a seemingly empty area of western Indiana. There are a lot more racist tweets coming out of an area in the middle of North Dakota than in the larger city of Fargo, for example. Homophobic tweets have a wider spread across the nation than racist ones, which are coming from the southeastern portion of the country more than anywhere else.

The project is a follow-up to a similar study that mapped racial slurs on Twitter in reaction to President Obama’s reelection in 2012. The students used The DOLLY Project (Digital OnLine Life and You), a huge archive of geolocated tweets, to collect data in both cases. This data can be used to track all kinds of tweets. There is also a map of where the word “grits” is most often tweeted (spoiler alert: it’s the south).

The interactive map lets you zoom as far as the county level on the map to pinpoint which counties across the U.S. wrote the most hateful tweets. You can look at all hateful tweets, tweets by category, or just at specific words. The map does not include sexist terms or terms that are offensive to the mentally disabled. Some of the terms shown are sort of outdated, which is most likely why some terms are less frequent than others.

Pleased to see that very little of this craziness comes out of California, which is not to say we don’t have our crazies. Be sure to click on the map in the original article, the interactive ability to focus on certain words is interesting. Of course the East Coast is much more densely populated so it is not too surprising that the total number of hate tweets coming out of there are much much higher. Here it is.

Spare Us The Rush To Judgment About The Make-up of the Boston Bomber

As law enforcement and the government sorts through all the evidence to find who is responsible for the bombings in Boston, what we don’t need is a rush to judgment and the seemingly inevitable stereotyping that happens when something like this occurs. We especially don’t need hatred and stupidity like this from Fox News contributor, Erik Rush:

Absolutely stupid thing to say. He needs to be fired.

Another thing we don’t need is the type of description put out, and reported on CNN,  in the hours after the bombing that police were looking for a “dark skinned or black man with a hoodie who tried to get into a restricted area and averted his eyes and walked away when he was denied access.”

What kind of description is that? If someone was close enough to the guy to notice he averted his eyes, then they were close enough to give more information. Was he tall or short? Fat or skinny? Facial hair or none? Old or young? These are basic descriptors that they surely would have known if close enough to read his eyes. How terribly irresponsible to simply say a dark skinned or black man with a hoodie. That marks a whole lot of people.

At the moment we don’t know who did this – foreign or domestic, black, white or otherwise, Muslim or Christian, Right Wing or Left Wing. Until we get more info, the last thing we need is to demonize whole groups of people based on nothing but stereotypes and speculation.

We know from our history that bombers have come in many colors and creeds.

No Place For Bigotry On Left Either

Mitch McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao.

As I have said before,we must not make the mistake in believing that liberals cannot be racist.

Progress Kentucky, a Democratic super PAC with its sights on toppling Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), has drawn backlash for a persistent effort to suggest that the senator’s wife’s Chinese roots have led him to embrace anti-American policies.

In a Feb. 14 tweet, the group made a particularly blunt jab suggesting that Elaine Chao, former labor secretary under President George W. Bush and McConnell’s second wife, was encouraging him to support outsourcing jobs to China.

As the full article notes, Progress Kentucky has since apologized for the tweet. But that can’t erase that the thought was in the mind of whomever wrote it. Bigotry and stereotyping is unacceptable whether it is from the Left or the Right.

Obama Speech During Football Game Flushed Out A Lot Of Racists

Some people’s priorities are really screwed up.

This is what I call bi-level stupidity.

When the President addressed the grieving people of Newton on Sunday night and his speech was broadcast to the nation, television stations broke into regular programming to cover it.

This didn’t sit well with the neanderthal segment of the Sunday Night football crowd who couldn’t believe a football game was being interrupted by a tragedy involving 26 people being killed. And worse still, they were incensed that a part-black man was doing the interrupting.

It was just too much for their brains. So some of them took to Twitter and here was the result:

Trust me there was much more where this came from (if you’re in the mood to read more click here).

Amazing how little it takes for some people to show their true colors. And their stupidity.

Nicki Minaj Overreacts To Steven Tyler Comment

In a happier moment.

Nicki Minaj, who already supposedly had a beef with Mariah Carey on American Idol, is now feuding with former judge, Steve Tyler. In a Twitter rant she called him a “racist” for daring to suggest she would not have recognized the talent in a young Bob Dylan and he wouldn’t have made it on the show.

Unless I am missing something, Tyler’s statement is true. A lot of people, black, white and otherwise, wouldn’t have seen the talent in Bob Dylan if he was judged on a show like American Idol that is based on modern rules of attractiveness and vocal gymnastics. There is nothing inherently racist in that statement.

As I have said before, when we throw that word out for any and everything that seems like a slight, then we are doing real damage to its use for situations when it is very real. Minaj clearly overreacted.

Here is the full story.

Ann Coulter’s Free Speech Right Should Not Be So Free

She is very calculating with her words. All about attention and sales.

Ann Coulter is definitely the lowest of the low. She knows exactly what she is doing, which is simply to say the most outrageous things possible to generate attention. Which is worse than actually believing what she is saying. She says it with no regard for who she hurts.

After calling Obama a “retard” the other day, and sparking a firestorm, not only for disrespecting the office of the President, but more importantly for being insensitive to people with mental disabilities, she chose to do it again rather than apologize.

As if calling President Barack Obama a “retard” once wasn’t enough, Ann Coulter decided to double-down on her use of the offensive word in a second Twitter post on Tuesday.

“Obama: ‘Stage 3 Romneysia’ – because cancer references are HILARIOUS,” the conservative authortweeted to her 265,000 followers. ”If he’s ‘the smartest guy in the room’ it must be one retarded room.”

From a piece in The Hollywood Reporter:

She posted her new insult Tuesday just as people across the Internet were reacting with outrage to her post-debate Twitter rant, in which she wrote: “I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard.”

The conservative Twitter-tracking site Twitchy.com blasted Coulter for continuing to use the offensive word. “Evidently the bottom of the barrel wasn’t completely scraped clean after Ann Coulter called President Obama a ‘retard’ yesterday,” said the site. ”And fancy that: She’s still not funny.”

Twitchy posted a page of tweets from outraged people, noting that “it wasn’t just liberals hoping to score points against Coulter who took offense.”

This woman needs to be boycotted from the airwaves and her book publishers and others who support her hate speech and stupidity need to know there are consequences for such hate and lack of care about others. Of course she has the right to free speech. But that doesn’t mean her right should not come with a repercussion. The damage she does is nothing to ignore.

GAP Goofs With Racist T-Shirt Design

Come on GAP. Check these things out next time.

This is further proof of the importance of education. Otherwise, ignorance seeps in and can lead to all kinds of attitudinal issues.

Clothing giant Gap has pulled a controversial T-shirt off its warehouse shelves after outraged consumers lashed out via social media.

The simple, dark-blue T-shirt with “MANIFEST DESTINY” printed on it in stark white letters was part of the “Gap x GQ” collection, a joint effort between Gap and GQ Magazine to showcase America’s best new designers.

Uh, did the GAP or the designer have any clue what the phrase means? Apparently not.

Here is what the designer said once people who do remember their history made a stink:

Unfortunately, the meaning of my ‘Manifest Destiny’ T shirt has been misconstrued and the sentiment behind it grossly misunderstood,” McNairy posted on Twitter on Tuesday, blatantly disregarding his “survival of the fittest” quip. “I first learned of Manifest Destiny in American History in Junior High School. To me it has always meant that one could set goals, work hard, and achieve their dreams. Having the opportunity to design for the Gap was the realization of one of my dreams. This phrase and they way I used it was in no way meant to be offensive or hurtful, and I apologize to those who might have interpreted it in that manner.

But as an article on Yahoo noted for those who don’t know the meaning behind the ugly concept of manifest destiny:

“Manifest Destiny” actually refers to the mid-19th century mindset that white Americans had a divine obligation to claim as much of the continent as possible for themselves, slaughtering and oppressing native people in the process.

The term was coined in 1845 by John O’Sullivan, a newspaper editor at the Democratic Review, who wrote that the United states should annex Texas and claim the Oregon Country because “that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.” It also was used to justify the idea that people with darker skin were “heathen,” “backwards,” and otherwise less than human.

Geez, I wish people had paid more attention in history class. But then again, many of our schools might not have even taught the concept since our system is Eurocentric. Ignorance is how bad concepts and beliefs get carried forward. At least the GAP pulled the shirts once the error of their ways was pointed out to them. Makes you wonder if any minorities were in the room when the shirt was approved in the first place. Diversity is such a good thing.

Stacey Dash Should Not Be Beaten Up For Choosing Mitt Romney

Free to choose.

Stupidity and intolerance from the Left is not more acceptable than that coming from the Right.

From a Yahoo article:

Actress Stacey Dash was attacked with negative tweets after voicing her support of Mitt Romney on Twitter over the weekend. Many comments were racially charged and others suggested the star of the 1990s hit ‘Clueless’ should just “kill herself.”

One man wrote, “This hurts, but you a Romney lover and you slutting yourself for the white man only proves why no black man would marry u.” Another Twitter user said: “She’s an indoor slave, you know that, sis.” Many tweetsexpressed disbelief that a woman of African American heritage would vote for anyone but Obama, and some suggested that her account must have been hacked.

The backlash began on Sunday, after Dash tweeted “Vote for Romney: The only choice for your future,” along with a provocative photo of herself wearing a red Baywatch-style tank suit standing in front of an American flag. “Kill yourself you old hag…” a Twitter users lashed out. “The only choice for your future.” Another wrote, “You’re an unemployed black woman endorsing @MittRomney. You’re voting against yourself thrice. You poor beautiful idiot.”

Come on people. True progress is when people of any ethnicity or color can voice their opinions and even choose to be totally different in a choice than most people expect them to be. Whether one agrees with Dash, who by the way is of mixed African-American and Mexican roots, she should be free to pick her own sides, regardless of her her background or gender.

Here is the full article.

Olympic Athlete #2 Booted For Posting Racist Tweets

The Olympic spirit?

Seems like just yesterday that I wrote about the Greek athlete who was booted from her Olympic team for what was perceived as a racist tweet. Well not having learned from that very public faux pas, another Olympic athlete has been shown the door for doing the same thing.

With the Greek triple jumper, Voula Papachristou, I noted that I think what she said wasn’t all that racist, and I certainly thought her tweet did not merit losing her chance at Olympic glory. I feel differently on this one.

Switzerland’s Michel Morganella was so upset over losing to South Korea in a soccer match at the games, that this happened, according to London’s Evening Standard:

Morganella tweeted that South Koreans “can go burn” and referred to them as a “bunch of mongoloids,” that he wanted to beat up. The 23-year-old is on his way home, and explained his behavior thusly: “After the disappointing result and the reaction from Korea that followed, I made a huge error. I wish to apologize to the people in South Korea and their team, but also to the Swiss delegation and Swiss football in general. I obviously accept the consequences for my actions.” His Twitter account has since been deleted.

Sending him home was the right decision. The difference with him, in my opinion, is that he threatened violence with his reference to burning and beating up the Koreans.

When will people realize that social media can fully bite them in the you know what?!

Olympic Athlete Banned Over Racist Tweet? That Is Nonsense

All that training ruined over a tweet.

This is one of those cases where I personally think this is overreacting.

A Greek athlete was removed from her Olympic team because she posted an unfunny and some think “racist” comment on her Twitter page.

She tweeted:

With so many Africans in Greece … at least the West Nile mosquitos will eat homemade food!!!

The tweet, put in context with her apparent support for some anti-immigrant groups in Greece, may well have been a sign of bigotry, but it is not a good sign when we have reached a place where just posting one’s thoughts, at least when no physical threats or discrimination is involved, should disqualify them from competing in a once in a lifetime competition.

I think that anyone that wanted to boo her for her posting, or choose to disassociate from her or hold back cheering for her, would have sent the message to her and those with thoughts like that, that good people disapprove of such statements and mindsets. Kicking her off the team completely, for that Tweet, seems a bit draconian.

Besides I prefer to know when I am watching or reading an ignorant person. These kinds of punishments will only cause people like her to be secretive about how they really feel. And I suppose it is possible, she simply told a bad, poor taste joke. Either way, she should have been allowed to compete.

Here is a link to the full story.