Berkeley hot dog worker outed by Twitter user @YesYoureRacist
It’s been a busy few days for @YesYoureRacist, a mysterious Twitter user who said he’s been combating racism online since 2012.
Described as a “social media hero” and an “Internet vigilante,” the activist took center stage after exposing an employee of a Top Dog outlet in Berkeley for taking part in the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend. It all started when @YesYoureRacist collected and posted photos on Twitter of protesters, asking his 295,000 followers to identify anyone they could.
Someone recognized employee Cole White. And within hours, he was no longer working at Top Dog.
@YesYoureRacist has done the same to many white-nationalist demonstrators, shaming them publicly by notifying their schools or employers of their participation in such rallies.
According to a linked website, @YesYoureRacist said “I’ve been exposing casual racism on Twitter since 2012. The project has been covered by news outlets such as CNN, the BBC, and Der Spiegel, and I’ve even published an op- ed in the UK Independent. All the while, I’ve been scouring the underbelly of Twitter to expose people who say they’re not racist, and then go on to prove otherwise.”
The user, who is not identified, asks people to support him with monthly donations of at least $5.
“All of this is done during my free time, and trust me — searching through racist tweets all day is pretty souldraining,” the user said.
This weekend, as photos from the march in Charlottesville began circulating online, @YesYoureRacist kicked into high gear.
Participants in the Fri- day night rally, who included KKK members and neo-Nazis, were protesting the removal of Confederate monuments from public spaces when fighting broke out between some of them and counter-protesters. Some of the white supremacists carried Tiki torches and shouted slogans such as: “White lives matter” and “Jews will not replace us.”
Once White was identified on Saturday as a Top Dog worker, the furor spread. People following the White saga quickly took their anger to Top Dog’s Yelp pages and social media accounts, demanding that White be fired. The employee reportedly resigned.
Yelp, in response, issued an “Active Cleanup Alert,” saying “This business is being monitored by Yelp’s Support team for content related to media reports.”
“This business recently made waves in the news, which often means that people come to this page to post their views on the news. While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to these news events, we do work to remove both positive and negative posts that ap- pear to be motivated more by the news coverage itself than the reviewer’s personal consumer experience with the business. As a result, your posts to this page may be removed as part of our cleanup process beginning Sunday, August 13, 2017, but you should feel free to post your thoughts about the recent media coverage for this business on Yelp Talk at any time.”
Then, scores of users’ comments were whited out and rendered unreadable.
But the onslaught was enough to spur action on the part of Top Dog.
The hot dog chain posted a sign on the doors of its Durant Avenue location on Sunday, announcing that, as of Saturday, Aug. 12, Cole no longer worked for the company. “The actions of those in Charlottesville are not supported by top dog. We believe in individual freedom and voluntary association for everyone,” the sign said.
Most customers interviewed at the eatery on Monday were unaware of the furor surrounding the employee’s role in Charlottesville.
“We do have freedom of speech. It’s an important right. But speech has consequences, and you’re not immune from these consequences,” said Deborah Desideri, of San Rafael, who was helping her son move into UC Berkeley for the upcoming semester.
The website Berkeleyside reported that White has participated in local political events as well, referring to photos of an April 15 rally Berkeley rally that turned violent when the far- right organizers and far-left Antifa counter-protesters clashed. White also protested outside the courthouse during the arraignment of Eric Clanton, an anti-fascist demonstrator charged with smashing a bike lock over the head of a Trump supporter at that rally, the website said.
Followers praised @YesYoureRacist for publicly shaming the Top Dog employee.
“This is how we make them learn,” one man wrote. “They have the right to speak their racist garbage, but there’s consequences to their actions.”