#IamLeslieJones: Standing Together Against Digital Harassment

In case you missed it, last week the worst of Internet whiteness attacked Leslie Jones, one of the stars of the summer blockbuster Ghostbusters and the best American Olympic fan to ever fan in Rio. This isn’t the first time she’s had some horrible sh*t thrown against her in the digital space. Twitter trolls came for her at the opening of the movie, driving her from the platform for a while. Now they’ve hacked her website. There’s a lot going on in this story — how masculine whiteness works, the silence of her white Ghostbusters co-actors — but most significantly, this is a story about how Black women aren’t allowed to succeed without receiving a constant reminder that we aren’t equal and we aren’t free. Now none of us here have a million-dollar movie deal or have taken selfies with Simone Biles, but we all have experienced this pain. So what are we going to do with this? We’re going to do what we do for each other: we’re going to shout out our support and share our stories. We’ve all been “too much” for our spaces. Too Big. Too Black. Too Loud. Too Funny. Too Old. Too Fem. Too Butch. Too Everything. And we are all Leslie Jones. Brittany As a Black woman, I exist in a specific space. I am a usurper, impostor, threat, communal property. I’m a stepping stool, a workhorse, cannon fodder on the front lines of the fight against oppression. Quiet, I’m complacent. Outspoken, I’m a beast. Desired sexually, despised intellectually, disregarded emotionally, and put in my place for hav…