Internet troll ordered to renounce white supremacy after harassing black college student
An internet troll was ordered to attend “anti-hate training” and publicly renounce white supremacy after harassing a black college student on social media.
Oregon resident Evan James McCarty was one of several people sued by Taylor Dumpson after a neo-Nazi website publisher orchestrated a campaign of online harassment against her, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
{mosads}Dumpson’s suit claims that shortly after she became the first black woman to serve as American University’s student government president in May 2016, The Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin directed readers to cyberbully her.
The Daily Stormer’s name originates from the Nazi propaganda newspaper Der Stürmer.
Dumpson claims in her lawsuit that she has feared for her safety and has developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It’s one of the first things I think about in the morning and one of the last things I think about when I go to sleep,” she said.
McCarty allegedly engaged in the harassment on Twitter under the pseudonym “Byron de la Vandal,” an apparent reference to Byron De La Beckwith, who assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963.
In response to an article posted by Anglin with Dumpson’s whereabouts, McCarty tweeted a picture of bananas captioned “ready the troops,” her suit argues. Another tweet directed at her read “ooga booga,” she said.
The same day Dumpson was elected student government president, someone hung bananas on nooses on American University’s campus in Washington, D.C. No suspects were ever identified, the outlet noted.
McCarty settled the suit and has agreed to apologize directly to Dumpson in a video conference, AP reported. She will use that footage for advocacy training and educational purposes.
He will also attend one year of anti-hate training with a licensed therapist or counselor and complete four academic courses on race and gender issues.
The agreement also calls on him to complete 200 hours of community service promoting “racial justice and civil rights.”
“This advocacy could take many forms, such as direct outreach to other white supremacists to attempt de-radicalization,” the agreement obtained by AP states.
McCarty’s parents, Deb and James McCarty, apologized for their son’s actions in a statement, saying he is a different person than when he “hid behind an alias and was persuaded into hateful activity on the internet.”
“Evan, our son, feels deep regret about his actions and is committed to making changes and moving forward in a positive way,” they said in a statement. “At this time, he is focused on continuing to make progress, pursuing his degree, contributing to his community and committed to making amends.”
Dumpson is now 22 years old and in law school.
She told the outlet that she hopes her lawsuit will “hold people accountable for their bigoted actions.”
“I guess I was open to the idea that even the perpetrator of a racially motivated act of bias could still be more or less reformed,” she told AP.
She still has lawsuits pending against Anglin and another defendant, Brian Andrew Ade, who were not involved in the settlement.
Anglin is facing two other federal lawsuits for alleged racist and anti-Semitic trolling campaigns.
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