It’s super important to emphasize the fact that whatever you put on the internet can — and will — be scrutinized. Growing up as the first generation to be so immersed on the internet, there are always different things trending and going viral. While some may be lighthearted and entertaining, others are incredibly unsettling.
Two Georgia high school students uploaded a video of them making racial slurs on the viral app TikTok with the goal of making it to the “For You Page.” TikTok is an app where the goal of the video is to get it to trend; some people do cool things like create art, pay it forward, or learn dance challenges. There is, of course, a darker side to TikTok, where crude and vulgar videos start to trend. Like many other social media platforms, the videos posted on there can be reposted on other sites. Rather than trending for being funny, the teenagers were trending for quite the opposite, as a lot of users scolded them and the content on the video.
Soon, the video left the platform as it was reposted on other social media sites, causing many people to speak out against the nature of the video. In a typical “Twitter, do your thing” scenario, Twitter users found not only the high school that the students attend but their prospective colleges as well. A multitude of people sent emails to both schools, resulting in them being expelled from their high school and getting their college offers rescinded.
The teenagers are a couple, and the girl spoke out through Instagram posts the following days stating that she didn’t make the video because she’s a racist, but did it because her boyfriend is racist. She apologized to anyone she offended but stood firm on the fact that the social media outcry following the video basically ruined her life.
Why did I cackle out loud at “I believe blacks are human too” pic.twitter.com/H6r9XeI8xR
— Hey all you cool cats and kittens! (@Dnellicious) April 18, 2020
Many people seem to forget that whatever you post on the internet can be traced back to you. A lot of people post things and say things but are shocked the minute that they face repercussions. So much information is out there; even random strangers on the internet can find where you go to school and what colleges you may potentially go to.
Other students of Carrollton High School spoke out on the internet to discuss the nature of the town that they live in. Many pointed out that before this video was even posted, the town itself has always been a seemingly racist community and this didn’t surprise any of them. Members of the school board, of course, denounced these actions, but there’s a push for the community to progress forward from their overt racist views. About a third of the Carrollton High School student population is black but even the teenager who posted the video herself admitted that she was shocked to the number of racist people in her school and town.
Looked up that Steph Freeman video that everyone is talking about and holy shit is it so much worse than i thought it would be.
Like how do you dedicate that much time to a tiktok and not ONCE think “maybe not”
— Blake Th?mas (@thomas_224) April 19, 2020
Many people think that because we are living in 2020, racism is a thing of the past. In reality, it’s still something that is definitely an issue. One of the biggest issues is the overwhelmingly large sentiment that this a nonissue, creating an environment where students think they can post an extremely vulgar, racist video and there be nothing wrong with it. Many on Twitter suggested that you should simply just watch what you put out on social media — which can’t be emphasized enough.