Kind of the crazy the extent of harassment she’s experienced, and I’d never heard of her before. These people attacking her must be very in tune with the discussion and committed to their behavior. I can only imagine what people like AOC experience.
A brief summary:
The personal insults and slurs started fairly quickly. In the comments sections of my articles I’d be called a “dumb bitch” or an “ugly nigger.” People soon started dropping my personal information into comments as well—information about my children or past jobs. The death threats came pretty quickly too, if not as frequently. To my knowledge, 2017 was the first time I was doxed. Doxing is when someone posts your home address, email, phone numbers, financial information—pretty much anything they can find on you—online for people to do with what they wish. In 2019, my home was swatted. Swatting is when somebody calls the police from a phone number in your neighborhood and states that there is some violence or threat of violence happening in your home in order to have an armed SWAT team sent to your house. In 2017, a swatting led to the death of a Kansas man, who made the mistake of lowering his arms when a SWAT team showed up at his home out of the blue. In my case, a caller pretending to be my son phoned the police and said that he had shot his parents to death. Six officers holding rifles pulled my son out of our home at six a.m. and searched our house. If I hadn’t become aware before the swatting that my personal information had been placed online, the situation could have been much worse. But I had received notice that my address (and my mom’s address, and my sister’s and brother’s addresses) had been placed on a website that specifically encourages swatting. I had called my local police department and let them know that they might be called to my house on a swatting attempt. So even though they still sent an armed response to my house, they did so knowing it was unlikely that they were going to find two dead bodies inside. It meant that when my sleepy teenage son opened the door and saw police and then quickly shut the door so he could put his shoes on, they didn’t open fire. I cannot tell you how often I’ve played out worse, alternate scenarios in my head since that happened. — Mediocre, pg 165
A few days after the police showed up at my door, my mom started receiving harassment at home. A few more days later, somebody tweeted out my social security number. In my career as a writer, I have been able to speak more openly on social and political issues than any other Black woman I know. I do not have to worry about being fired from my job; speaking out is literally my job. I do not have to worry about losing friends—I lost all the ones who were going to leave a few hundred articles ago. But my children and I have had to spend quite a few nights away from our home for our safety. I have had my email hacked, my financial information compromised. My sons’ schools have reached out to make sure there are safety plans in place for them there. I’ve received so many death threats via email that they have their own folder (which I’ve titled “fan mail”). Armed police have been sent to my house looking for my dead body. — Mediocre, pg 166