Kristen Howerton: Mother fights back against racist trolls harassing her over YouTube video
Kristen Howerton is a marriage and marital therapist who has run a popular blog about parenthood for 10 years
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Your support makes all the difference.A mother has hit back against the “ongoing racist harassment” she has been suffering after posting photos of her family online in an blog post.
Kristen Howerton is a marriage and marital therapist who has run a popular blog about parenthood and adoption for 10 years. She and her husband live in California with their two white, biological daughters and two adopted black sons.
But Mrs Howerton and her family became the target of hundreds of white supremacists after posting a video to YouTube on Christmas morning of her two daughters looking delighted at their presents of black American Girl dolls.
"I was portrayed as a 'nauseating' woman who hated her own race and who was training her daughters to be ashamed to be white,” the mother-of-four wrote on her blog.
"For several days, I fielded comments coming so fast that my Twitter feed looked like the NYSE ticker. The comments all had a general, not-very-creative theme:
1. I’m disgusting
2. I’m teaching my white kids to hate themselves
3. I’m probably Jewish
4. I’m probably cheating on my husband with a black man
5. My black children will sexually assault their siblings"
Mrs Howerton’s story recalls that of AliceAnn Meyer, who hit back against internet trolls after a photo of her son was turned into a cruel meme mocking his disability.
"Many people’s response has been, you put your kids on the internet, so…” Mrs Howerton told the New York Times.
"At the end of the day, as my anger about the whole thing recedes,” she added in her blog. “I really actually feel sad for these people."
"How pathetic it must be for them to spend their life avoiding things that involve non-European cultures," she continued.
"As for me, I’m gonna put some Earth Wind and Fire on the stereo, pour myself a glass of French wine, fry up some Cuban-style tostones and Italian sausages and open a can of Indian chutney to dip them in, and I thank the Lord above that I’ve evolved way beyond the limiting mind of a white supremacist."
You can read more of Kristen Howerton's blog here
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