Yesterday, the president of the University of Texas College Republicans, Lauren Pierce, tweeted in response to the shooting at the White House, “Y’all as tempting as it may be, don’t shoot Obama. We need him to go down in history as the WORST president we’ve EVER had!” #2012″.
Obviously that shit didn’t fly well with the majority of Americans- Democratic or Republican- and Pierce was not only attacked with a barrage of hate tweets on Twitter but the story was picked up by ABC, Huffingtonpost etc.
I was fascinated by this story. Here was this young lady who has a position of power at a reputable university saying such ignorant crap. Her Twitter photo showed that of a bleached blonde with her boobs shoved together and a big toothy smile. Her Twitter profile said she believes in American Exceptionalism. She is a young Ann Coulter. A hate machine, not even thinking about the consequences of running their mouth. I don’t particularly care for her. I don’t like what she said and I’m glad there has been fallout from her tweet (the UT College Republicans asked her to step down from her position). I also don’t like that she not only gives Texans a bad name, but Laurens too.
As I tracked the comments going back and forth on Twitter about this event, I noticed that many people shot back hate-licked words just as bad as Lauren’s. People insinuating that they should shoot her, that they hope she dies, calling her “cunt” or “bitch”. People saying that this is why Texas sucks. It blew my mind.
I know that it’s easier for people to use these words when they’re hiding behind a computer screen, but seriously, when did people get so hateful? Maybe I’m being naive- pitchforks and burning people at the stake is nothing new to society, but haven’t we grown up a little? Haven’t we learned that responding back to hate with more hate does nothing? Isn’t there enough stress in the world and in our lives to be constantly battling with one another?
Forget Occupy Wall Street, we need an old fashion cumbaya. Or enema.
Separately from that it does concern me that a girl who has obviously wiggled her way to some authority at one of the largest colleges in American could be so brash and ignorant to say such things in a public forum. Are these the sort of people we’re letting be in charge? Does being blonde and pretty really get you that far?
Did I just crawl out from under a rock?
TELL ME!!!
12 Comments
It makes me a little ashamed to say that I attend the same university that she does. I wonder if she even paused to reconsider before she sent out that tweet or if she just hit send without any hesitation.
I get the impression that she didn’t consider it before she sent it. She only apologized when people started to jump all over her.
Since her attitude is actually more pervasive in the USA than many of us would want to admit, it’s easy to jump on someone like her who was so blatant about it. She was being made an example. Threatening her is wrong, but sharp points about her idiocy and maliciousness, in my opinion, is warranted in this context. I mean…I didn’t make fun of her hair or boobs (ahem), but I did tell her she is part of the problem in Texas and a shining example of why people have a nervous sense of humor about our state.
Haha, I didn’t make fun of her boobs and hair! I just pointed out that both those things are amplified on her profile picture. Maybe it was unnecessary for me to point that stuff out. I guess my point is she looked like a bimbo. Anyways, it is too bad that people feel that she reps Texas in general. People like her exist all over the country, sadly.
*shakes head*
This is awful. I am so sad that what people remember about Texas is Ricky Perry, George W. Bush and people like Lauren Pierce. I’m also really bothered by people spewing hate online, whether that be for fun or just to be mean. I see a lot of that on Tumblr, anonymous comments like “Go die you fucking hipster.” It doesn’t show any sort of bravery or wit, just pure cowardice.
Nothing saddens me more than the amount of hate rhetoric being spewed in this country. It seems like no one is interested in making progress anymore – they are interested in being right and making the other guy look bad. People need to stop looking at others as “the enemy” and realize that though we have different ideas, we all just want a better world. Maybe Lauren Pierce should remember that Obama is a father, a husband, a friend, and a man.
This is obviously so ignorant, and we all know it, so I want to talk about blonde-ness. I’m a natural blonde. I’ve been dying my hair dark brown for a couple years now, and when I first made the change, I was amazed at how much more seriously I was being taken. I realized that with my blonde hair, I consistently felt like I had to work SO HARD to prove my intelligence to the most REGULAR of people. It is mind-blowing. Even though i am obviously still the same person who occasionally trips, counts change wrong, or blanks out completely, THESE MOMENTS DON’T GET REFERRED TO AS “blonde moments” BY COMPLETE STRANGERS ANYMORE.
Judgement and hateful rhetoric runs rampant in our country, and it is so unfortunate. I’m glad to see that Ms. Pierce has been relieved of her position; hopefully she takes it to heart and goes forth to do something good in the world.
Thanks for always writing something killer, Lauren.
I know you saw my reaction to this yesterday on Twitter and I’m not at all surprised by the backlash she got (or that it took such a negative response before she apologized). The things we do and say in the realm of social media can and are seen by a LOT of people. Her vast ignorance is only amplified by the fact that she probably believed she could get away with saying something so awful on a public platform.
As a minority and a liberal, things like this are disheartening. I wouldn’t want to stereotype this girl for being a white, blonde conservative anymore than I want someone to stereotype me for being Mexican, but she’s clearly out to make that very difficult.
There’s no good excuse for encouraging bigotry and violence like that. I can only hope she actually learned something from this experience.
Yea she probably learned to create a sub-account without a profile pic. SMH
I went to a school similar in size and culture as UT for undergrad, UF, and UT for grad school. Having experienced a predominantly conservative Greek system that myself and my college bf were a part of at UF, and working as a TA at UT to girls much like this one, I can’t say I’m terribly surprised by this. Doesn’t change my outrage, but sometimes I feel like living in Austin and being a part of the creative community here, we’re in a pretty safe bubble. Part of me wondered if her saying something like this was borderline illegal. I’ve heard some appallingly HORRIBLE, ignorant things that would make your jaw drop come out of College Republican leaders at UF (located in what is basically the South GA swampland), but putting this on Twitter changes things. As far as the outright garbage coming from her tweet, it reminds me of all the millions of teens that threaten to kill people who diss Beiber or whatever preteen star on Twitter. It makes me sad that this has to be a Texas issue, because we already get enough flack…it’s everywhere. If anything, I’ve heard worse stories come from my mom whose side of the family is from GA. The stories she tells me about working as a psychiatrist working at the VA in Atlanta are insane.
[…] and just generally reviled. All that in addition to the seemingly inevitable comments on her appearance: “a bleached blonde with her boobs shoved together and a big toothy […]
You’re not nuts. People, women esp. are now hired on the basis of how good they look in photos and on TV. First. If they have some communications skills, well, gee, that’s okay, too. I live in Texas, and the “that’s why Texas sucks” comments are so ignorant I can’t believe it. Obama has millions of supporters in TX who voted for him and who think Perry is a total waste. Only ignoramuses make the kind of massive generalizations about an entire (and quite large and diverse) state. So the hell with the haters.