A project in Brazil is posting Twitter users' racist comments on billboards in their neighborhoods. The project, which started two weeks ago, is called Virtual Racism, Real Consequences, and it intends to show that online bullying has an impact in the real world. It was organized by the Criola organization, which works to defend the rights of black women in Brazil. Half the population of Brazil identifies as mixed-race or black and have faced racism and persecution throughout their history, explains a video by AJ+.
The project was spurned by a wave of racist comments against Maria Julia Cutinho, the first black weather forecaster on prime time TV in Brazil. She corrected another anchor on air, and while some praised her savvy, many more Facebook commenters tore into her, attacking her race, appearance and intelligence, reported Black Women of Brazil. "Go f--k yourself," said one commenter.
A leader of the project said that "we omit names and faces of the authors because we have no intention of exposing anyone. We just want to educate people so that in future they think about the consequences before posting racist comments," reported Tech Insider.
The project finds racist comments, and using Twitter's location function, easily locates where the Tweet's author lives. Project organizers buy a billboard in the area, remove the face and name on the tweet and post it for the world to see with the caption "Virtual Racism, Real Consequences," according to the project website.
The racist tweets that are posted around Brazil are horrible to read. One expresses "if you showered, you would not look so filthy." Another, "I came home stinking of black people." The project wants to show that people's awful words have a real impact, reported Tech Insider, so that they would think twice about what they say and question their racist prejudices.
One man expressed his support for the project in AJ+'s video: "it's absurd. People who make comments like this should go to jail."
