Atlanta’s internet ‘troll for good’ uses her brand of activism to fight racism
Is Atlanta still the Black mecca?
This is a perennial question in metro Atlanta and on this week’s episode of “It’s UATL,” hosts Nedra Rhone, Najja Parker and DeAsia Paige get some insight from UATL Editor Gavin Godfrey, an Atlanta native who spearheaded the AJC’s recent series, “Atlanta: America’s Black Mecca.”
“Whenever I travel somewhere else, and I come back home, there’s like this blanket of comfort that hits me because I look around and everybody around me is Black,” Godfrey said.
But Godfrey also notes that there are plenty of quality-of-life concerns that challenge the idea of Atlanta as a Black mecca, and he is tired of conversations that focus solely on the highs and skip over the lows.
“I feel like we do, of course, a great job of like selling and marketing Atlanta to the rest of the world, as this great Black city, but you can’t spell inequality without ATL,” Godfrey said.
In the segment called “Ask Atlanta,” local Atlanta residents also weighed in about Atlanta’s diversity and whether it can retain its status as a Black mecca.
Our hosts also chatted with Kiandria Demone, an Atlanta resident who used her unique brand of online activism to prevent a woman in Rochester, Minnesota, from receiving more than $750,000 in gift funds.
A viral video had shown the woman confirming that she called a child with autism a racial epithet while in a public park.
Demone knew it was pointless to target the woman, but she did want to target the company that was processing money from the crowdfunding site and hold company executives accountable for their actions.
“I go toe to toe essentially with people who are boldly standing in their racism and usually they cower,” said Demone, who calls herself an internet “troll for good.”
She wants to expose the bad guys — the companies who are profiting from harm — and she offers a blueprint for how we can do more of that in the future.
Have a question or want to share some of the ways you practice activism other than protesting in the streets?
Use your phone’s voice recorder to send us a message on Instagram @itsuatl. We may play your response on a future episode.
Or email us at uatl@ajc.com and don’t forget to add your name, your age and where you live.
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About the Author
Nedra Rhone is a lifestyle columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where she has been a reporter since 2006. A graduate of Columbia University School of Journalism, she enjoys writing about the people, places and events that define metro Atlanta.
