When most people get racist messages on Twitter, they either a) ignore them or b) try to come up with a snarky, withering, devastatingly clever burn to put the bigot in his place.
Solomon Georgio took another tack. Earlier this week on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, he decided to fight Twitter racists with a simple weapon: love.
While that might sound a tad reductive, that’s exactly what Georgio, an L.A.-based comedian, did. He spent Martin Luther King, Jr. Day searching for racist tweets, responding to each tweeter with a message of patience, compassion, and love:
For MLK day, I will now search for maliciously racist tweets & tell the author that I love them.
— Solomon Georgio (@solomongeorgio) January 20, 2014
.@Kriegsson Hey, buddy. We don’t see eye to eye, but I love you.
— Solomon Georgio (@solomongeorgio) January 20, 2014
.@marilyn_misery I assure you that I shower everyday and smell quite pleasant. Regardless of that misconception, I love you.
— Solomon Georgio (@solomongeorgio) January 20, 2014
.@kendoll1234 I really don’t understand how this question can be funny, but I still love you and your father.
— Solomon Georgio (@solomongeorgio) January 20, 2014
.@MayfairGhetoMoM I hope you can reassess what you just posted. However, I still love you.
— Solomon Georgio (@solomongeorgio) January 20, 2014
Astonishingly, a handful of the tweeters deleted their original racist tweets, responding to Georgio’s message in kind:
.@justinw001234 Thank you. Some jokes can hurt people, and it’s something you should take into consideration.
— Solomon Georgio (@solomongeorgio) January 20, 2014
@solomongeorgio I love you to
— dylannix (@dylannix3) January 20, 2014
Others reacted to Georgio’s project with befuddlement:
@solomongeorgio What the fuck.
— Adm slah (@slahalshami65) January 20, 2014
@solomongeorgio that’s sum deep shit
— lauren (@AgentChodyBanks) January 21, 2014
And a few, sadly, still hewed to their original sentiment:
@solomongeorgio leave me alone you are black
— Junior Dipper (@jacob_randles) January 21, 2014
After a few hours of spreading the love, Solomon was, understandably, a bit worn out:
Oh, sweet goodness. I need an ice cream break.
— Solomon Georgio (@solomongeorgio) January 20, 2014
Thank you all for the kind regards, but sitting in my pajamas typing ‘I love you’ isn’t MLK comparable. Let’s all do more!
— Solomon Georgio (@solomongeorgio) January 21, 2014
Of course, Georgio is right, to a degree, and saying “I love you” to racist trolls on Twitter isn’t necessarily a better defense than ignoring them or calling them out on their shit. It’s also not easy to imagine this level of civility being achieved IRL — I doubt Georgio and any of these Twitter trolls will move in and start picking out curtains together anytime soon (though if they did, I smell a sitcom).
But it’s nice to imagine a world where one could simply fight hatred with love, as elegantly and effectively as Georgio did here, and it’s certainly a lovely way to honor MLK’s memory.
H/T Jezebel | Photo: Flickr, NewsHour