In part two of the unmissable season 5 finale of Listen To Black Women, hosts Lore’l, Danielle Young, Jessie Woo, Torrei Hart, and Claudia Jordan dive deeper into the complexities of social media and how commenting or responding to trolls can do more harm than good. Titled “Combatting The Comments Section,” in this episode, the women open up about the painful realities of facing unjust hate and death threats, the distortion of their words, and the crucial importance of advocating for their community. 

Jordan kicked off the conversation stressing that debates online should never escalate into a scenario where people have to spew evil and hatred toward one another in the comments section. 

“I just think you shouldn’t be evil about the person. You ain’t feeling it. You can easily just be like, alright, not my thing, or maybe just share it in your friend’s circle. But I don’t think you should say evil things.”

Hart agreed with the sentiment. When facing adversity from online trolls, the 46-year-old actress and TV host said she tries to take the high road by diffusing the situation on social media. 

“I don’t want nobody saying anything evil about me. So, I try to just say how I want to feel. I try to reciprocate that.”

RELATED CONTENT: Watch ‘Listen To Black Women’ Episode 5 — The Cost Of Speaking Up As Black Woman

For those who are determined to defend themselves online, Jordan emphasized that speaking out against hate on social media often comes with a price. The radio host experienced it first hand in 2020 when she lost a major endorsement deal with a company after standing up for members of the Black community during the protests that followed George Floyd’s death.

“This company had brought me out to market to Black people, then had the caucasity to be angry with me when I’m making positive statements about the Black community in defense with all the Black Lives Matter and all the police brutality going on, found out one of the people in the company was a major Trumper and didn’t like what I had to say, so dropped me,” she revealed. “I was like, wow, so I’m good enough to get Black people to buy your products, but I can’t defend my people against unlawful killings of unarmed Black people.”

Jordan sued the company and won. 

For Young, a writer for Essence, journalists and media outlets can often play a harmful role in fueling or spreading information that leads to polarizing online interactions. She recalled an incident at a Love & Hip-Hop event years ago, where a journalist from a well-known gossip site was publicly called out by singer K. Michelle for allegedly spreading damaging misinformation about the Black community. Young pointed out that the heated debates that frequently erupt in the comment sections can hurt people’s mental and emotional well-being.

“Honestly, standing there in the moment, I was like, wow, we do have a responsibility to our people, you know, as people that are in the media, but then also as consumers. There’s like, some sort of gratification that these people are getting whenever they go to comment and they feel like the jab is probably helping them feel better…and you’re not thinking about the idea that the internet could be more than that to that person. They could delete themselves,” Young said. 

Woo agreed, adding, “Not only deleting themselves, but somebody losing jobs, like how we were just talking about. People lose jobs behind opinions because opinions are communicated as facts… It’s never that deep.”

Don’t miss this powerful conversation as we wrap up the season with a discussion that demands our full attention. Watch the season finale of Listen To Black Women above.

RELATED CONTENT: Watch ‘Listen To Black Women’ Episode 5 — The Cost Of Speaking Up As Black Woman

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