Hate on the Internet is nothing new, but the racist tweets sent personally to President Barack Obama over the past week may qualify as some kind of breakthrough.
After the President created his own personal account @POTUS on Monday — distinct from @WhiteHouse, which is run by staff — it took mere minutes before hordes of racist users sent him tweets targeting his race and appearance.
“Welcome to Twitter, nigger,” one user wrote. Many followed in kind: some added adjectives like “tree-swinging,” while still others edited photos to depict Obama as the victim of a lynching.
Several other users called the President “black monkey,” one instructing him to “get back in your cage.”
The New York Times reported that neither White House officials nor a Twitter spokesman could provide the exact number of racist tweets that made their way to the commander-in-chief.
“[T]hey appeared to be a small number in what was an otherwise social-media-fueled show of love for Mr. Obama,” the Times wrote.
I have 2 apps on my phone that let me know which of my relatives and acquaintances are bigots and racists.
One is Facebook, the other is Twitter
And shortly there after, those sending the tweets whined “But we’re not racists! We’re just white men with very fragile egos!”
I can’t believe anyone is surprised at this. I may be old fashioned on certain things and IMO Twitter is stupid and so is Facebook.
OR as Fox would say, these are really tweets from Liberal, making the good christian white folks look bad
After all Supreme Court has established that racism is dead. It died long ago, especially in south.
(Raises hand). Then I’m old-fashioned, too.
President Obama, Sir, I do not know how you keep such composure. My hat is off to you and Mrs. Obama.