For over 24 hours Leslie Jones took time away from what should have been one of the high points of her life to strike back against racism on Twitter.
Jones' Ghostbusters opened at U.S. box offices with $46M and ended up coming in at the number 2 position.
But instead of focusing on that, Jones was fighting the sea of eggs and dog avis who hurled slurs and epithets at her on social media.
I just don't understand pic.twitter.com/N9xWoXPttu— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 18, 2016
Exposing I hope y'all go after them like they going after me pic.twitter.com/ojK5FdIA0H— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 18, 2016
When it became too much, she decided to remove herself from the platform.
"I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart," she wrote.
I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart.All this cause I did a movie.You can hate the movie but the shit I got today...wrong— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
I don't know how to feel. I'm numb. Actually numb. I see the words and pics and videos. Videos y'all. Meaning people took time to sprew hate— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
It's so sad,most of these comments sound like they are from ignorant children. "I'm the source of AIDS?!" WTF!! These people hate themselves— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
You have to hate yourself to putout that type of hate. I mean on my worst day I can't think of this type of hate to put out.— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
As much as you want to thinks actors ain't human I want to give you something to think about. I work off pure passion for this game.— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
I'm more human and real than you fucking think.I work my ass off. I'm not different than any of you who has a dream to do what they love.— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
I've never claim to be better or special. I just try to do my job as best as I can. Isn't that any of us yall. So Yea this hurts me!— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
You have to hate yourself to putout that type of hate. I mean on my worst day I can't think of this type of hate to put out.— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
But I'm I that naive to think that some things was changing yes I was. We still live in a world where we have to say "black lives matter"— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
I'm so tired of it. Why is this still a fight? I want to hate so bad but I can't because I know it doesn't fix anything and just make me sad— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
It occurs on a smaller scale, but even marginally visible Black women experience the kind of abuse Leslie endured. Tweets to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Twitter's Support and Safety yielded undesirable results. The onslaught continued.
When Buzzfeed reached out to Twitter for a statement, a spokesperson confirmed they've seen the complaints and are working on a solutions.
This type of abusive behavior is not permitted on Twitter, and we've taken action on many of the accounts reported to us by both Leslie and others. We rely on people to report this type of behavior to us but we are continuing to invest heavily in improving our tools and enforcement systems to prevent this kind of abuse. We realize we still have a lot of work in front of us before Twitter is where it should be on how we handle these issues."
The hashtag #LoveforLeslieJ was created as a way for supporters to send love to the comedian. But the hashtag should not have to exist.
Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage