USA TODAY International Edition
With racism spewing online, Leslie Jones goes on offensive
It should have been a happy week for Leslie Jones.
Crowned one of the new Ghostbusters, Jones joined Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Kristen Wiig in the reboot, which survived months of vitriol to take the No. 2 spot at the box office last weekend ( almost beating out The Secret Life of Pets, which nudged ahead).
But behind the Hollywood rollout was another ugly storm brewing on social media. On Monday, Jones began retweeting the racist hatred that has been coming her way on Twitter. “You know I’m gonna stop blocking ( people) so y’all can go through my feed yourself and see ( this). You won’t believe the evil,” she wrote. “It’s ( expletive) scary.”
“I just don’t understand,” she wrote in response to a tweet that compared her to an ape.
“Exposing,” she wrote, putting the faceless trolls on blast. “I hope y’all go after them like they going after me.”
“It’s like when you think “ok I’ve proven I’m worthy” then you get hit with a shovel of ( hatred),” Jones wrote. “I’m numb ... I’m not stupid to not know racism exists. And I know it will probably live on way after me. But we have to make people take responsibility ... for the hate they ( spew). We have to stand up to it.”
Ghostbusters director Paul Feig jumped to her defense. “Leslie Jones is one of the greatest people I know. Any personal attacks against her are attacks against us all,” he wrote as the hashtag # LoveForLeslieJ began trending on Twitter.
Many users asked why Twitter wasn’t doing more to regulate the offensive tweets aimed at Jones.
Jones addressed Twitter directly. “Twitter I understand you got free speech I get it. But there has to be some guidelines when you let ( hate) spread like that ... It’s not enough to freeze Acct. They should be reported,” she tweeted.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After a day of fighting back, Jones seemed defeated by Monday night. “I mean on my worst day I can’t think of this type of hate to put out,” she wrote.
She added: “I use to wonder why some celebs don’t have Twitter ( accounts) now I know. You can’t be nice and communicate with fans cause people crazy.
“As much as you want to thinks actors ain’t human I want to give you something to think about. I work off pure passion for this game. I’ve never claim to be better or special. I just try to do my job as best as I can. Isn’t that any of us yall. So Yea this hurts me!”
“I’m numb ... I’m not stupid to not know racism exists. But we have to make people take responsibility. ... We have to stand up to it.” Jones in a Twitter post