How a high school Instagram account became a community's nightmare

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     August 17, 2023 A lot of people look back on high school as the halcyon days of their youth. At least, that's what I've heard. I certainly had some fun times in high school: driving around with my best friend, running track, hanging out at the mall. But my overwhelming memory is of constant indignation. The parties we didn't get invited to, the teachers we found unfair, the boys who didn't like us back—every little bump in the road felt catastrophic, because we had no framework for understanding the world beyond our small town. Given those heightened emotions, I feel lucky to have been among the last wave of American high schoolers to escape the omnipresence of Instagram. There were instances of racism and sexism in my predominantly white hometown, but nothing that compares to the incident I read about today in the [New York Times Magazine](. As writer Dashka Slater explains, a Korean American teenage boy in Northern California created an Instagram account filled with racist memes that targeted several Black, female classmates. Tensions in the community came to a head when students staged a protest during a mediation session aimed at mitigating the harm the account had caused. In an [interview with Mother Jones' Michael Mechanic](, Slater discussed the series of events, which formed the basis for her YA book out next week, Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed. Their conversation touches on the unique volatility of our teenage years, and the ways we can care for victims of vicious online attacks while still holding empathy for the people who perpetrated them. One quote from Slater touched on the pain of adolescence in a way that I found particularly poignant: The job of every adolescent is to construct what your identity is going to be. These girls are doing that with the added responsibility of basically trying to create a shell around themselves so they won’t be derailed by the ambient racism in our society. And this account broke that whole defense they’d built like an asteroid coming through the roof. Suddenly the things they’d convinced themselves were true—that people are taking you seriously, not judging you for the color of your skin, that you are safe, people aren’t staring at you, aren’t saying things behind your back—all of that just vanished, and they were left really vulnerable. I hope you'll take the time to read the interview, which treats the harrowing saga with humor and poise. —Abigail Weinberg Advertisement [House Subscription Ad]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [How a High School Instagram Became a Community’s Nightmare]( Dashka Slater's "Accountable" is a cautionary tale for teens, parents, and educators. BY MICHAEL MECHANIC MOJO MUST-READS BY DANIEL SCHULMAN   Sons of Wichita Like the Rockefellers and the Kennedys, the Kochs are one of the most influential dynasties of the modern age, but they have never been the subject of a major biography—until now.[Get Sons of Wichita here](. [Trending] [What to know about the latest court ruling on the abortion pill]( BY MADISON PAULY   [Now that Trump has been indicted under RICO, let's look at his past mob ties.]( BY DAVID CORN   [Santos fundraiser indicted for impersonating top aide to Kevin McCarthy]( BY NOAH LANARD   [Unions say Biden's climate bill ignores workers]( BY OLIVER MILMAN Advertisement [House Sustainer Ad]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [How Dating Apps Became a Paradise for Predators]( Platforms like Grindr and Tinder have broad legal immunity when they hook users up with con artists, rapists, and murderers—for now. BY ABBY VESOULIS [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755