Skai Jackson pledges to use her platform for the greater good, which is why she’s now
opening up about her decision to expose racists amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
We all know the power that a celebrity’s platform can hold as we’ve come to see more
and more stars speaking out in support of the Black community following the death of
George Floyd.
In addition to bringing awareness to what’s been going on in the world, and educating
her 6.5 million followers on ways they can become allies, Skai Jackson has been taking
a whole different approach when it comes to “using her platform.”
Last week, she shared a message to Instagram letting her fans know that if she sees any
posts that contain racial slurs, remarks or videos being posted, she WILL be exposing
those people.
In her statement, Skai also wrote that if you are exposed by her, she doesn’t want
to see you reaching back out to her begging her to remove your post.
She added, “How do you think your words affect my people?
Your privilege won’t get you out of this one.
So no!!!
I will NOT take it down!
Next time, think about what you say!
I will never condone racist remarks/quotes/slander/etc.
You’re the real bullies!
You’re victimizers, not the victims!
Go boo hoo somewhere else!”
Well it seems she’s stayed true to her word as she has been busy retweeting racist comments
over the past few weeks.
No joke, you guys, Skai is NOT playing.
She even went as far as tweeting Yale University about a racist troll, and tweeted the college
screenshots of their racist student.
Yale’s Twitter account responded back by saying QUOTE, “Thank you for notifying us.
While we cannot respond to every comment, the appropriate university offices are addressing
this.
Yale's leadership recognizes the pain caused by racism and is committed to fostering an
equitable environment.”
Many fans have been supportive of Skai’s tactics to expose such hatred online, however,
it’s also caused such a wave of controversy that Twitter suspended her account for 12
hours… just for… doing… the right thing…
Internet discussion boards have even been created defending the people writing racist
tweets and even accusing Skai of being a ‘cyber bully’.
She tweeted a screenshot of one of the articles, writing, “So trying to ruin someone’s
life for doing the right thing, and using my platform for good isn’t bullying???
Hmm... okay!”
Now, she’s getting even more of a chance to speak out on her decision to expose racist
behavior online.
During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Skai revealed that as an advocate against
bullying, she would always get DMs from her fans saying, ‘Look at what this person said
to me, I don’t know how to deal with this,’ and ultimately felt she needed to intervene.
She revealed that she’s received over 3,000 DM requests over the past few days, Skai also
said that she is ‘cautious’ when calling people out, and will only do so if fans are
able to provide many legitimate examples of racist behavior.
She said, “I’m not exposing anything that’s private -- that’s one thing I won’t do.
Everything that is said is public information.
You posted these videos, it’s out there to the public.
A lot of people have been trying to get me to post their address and number and I’m
like, no, no, no, that’s one thing I will not do.
I’m only posting public information.”
Skai did add that sharing this information does raise some fears regarding her own safety,
however, she’s not too concerned about people who criticize her tactics.
She said, “If you don't like it, if you don’t support it, then obviously it says
something about you yourself.
In the back of my head, I was a little bit worried about it.
Is this gonna harm me?
But in my opinion, I feel like it’s done more justice for me and other people.”
Skai also shared that she’s received DMs from fellow celebrities and influencers with
massive followings who are “too scared” to expose people themselves, buuuut she’s
pretty much run out of sympathy for anyone who crosses the line.
It seems the exposure has sure paid off, as it was revealed yesterday that The Flash actor
Hartley Sawyer was fired from The CW after Skai exposed a series of his past racist and
misogynistic tweets.
Skai took to Twitter last week to share screenshots of his tweets, writing, “Hartley Sawyer
you have been exposed.”
She later opened up to ET about Hartley, admitting that she didn’t know who he was at first,
but that so many fans had been sending her his tweets.
Skai added, “What he was saying was just utterly disgusting.
So, verified or not?
I’m gonna say what I have to say and I mean, he got fired.
That sucks, but he’s grown.
He’s old enough to know that those things that you say, those homophobic slurs, those
racists slurs, are just not OK.
They’re not OK, period.”
Although some users believe that Skai’s tactics an act of ‘bullying’ and anti-heroism,
the majority of people, however, have been praising Skai for exposing such racist remarks
and acts of hatred.
L.A. producer Eugene Lang said it best, writing, “People need to stop wondering if @skaijackson
should be exposing racists and start asking why she is single-handedly doing the jobs
that these teens' parents, friends, schools, workplaces, and platforms should be handling
in the first place.”
What’s really important here is that Skai is using her platform to shed light on the
real-life racial injustices happening every single day from people of ALL ages, and we
can’t help but applaud her for her courageous efforts.
That said, if you’re still looking for ways to educate yourselves and get involved with
the Black Lives Matter movement, we’ve linked resources down in the description below.
To see which celebs have spoken out against the racial injustice happening throughout
the country, click right over here for another Clevver video.
And feel free to share all your thoughts on Skai’s approach in using her platform to
expose online racists right down here in the comments.
I’m your host Sussan Mourad, see you next time.