Blogging mum overcomes racist online abuse

UTTING ON A BRAVE FACE Blogger Michelle Marie. Pic: Elizabeth Toher

Ciara Galvin

A BALLINROBE resident who received a torrent of online abuse has said she will continue to put herself out there.
Michelle Marie, a blogger and positive-body-image advocate, started her weeklong curation of Twitter account ‘@Ireland’, which is taken over by a new voice every week.
After just 30 minutes of curating the account, the mother of one began to receive a bombardment of abuse about the colour of her skin and her nationality.
Michelle is originally from Oxford, but she moved to Ireland a number of years ago.
@Ireland was created by news site Irish Central, which describes the Twitter account’s aim: ‘As the Ireland of today is not confined to the island of Ireland, the varied voices of @Ireland come from Ireland and across the world.’
Michelle told The Mayo News that she had previously curated other Twitter accounts, including ‘We are world’ and an LGBT account but had never received the kind of abuse she did last week. “I didn’t expect the level of abuse. It was stuff like, ‘You’ve no right to be running an Irish account, you’re black’. Lots were saying ‘Go back to Africa’,” she said, adding that she isn’t from Africa.
Michelle admitted that the abuse on Monday last did ‘grind her down’ and that she was ‘tearful and hurt’, but thanks to her partner, friends and family, and the outpouring of support from others, she continued to curate the account for the rest of the week.
“I took some time out Monday and didn’t tweet until Tuesday, but I didn’t want to let them [trolls] win. I would have stopped, but all the support kicked in. I felt I had a nation behind me and lots of support from outside Ireland,” said the plus-size model and blogger.
Asked if she felt the trolling was done by any particular group of people, Michelle said she did feel it was a community of trolls that had focused on her because she was a ‘easy target’, and added that many of the trolls were Donald Trump supporters.  

Worldwide attention
Michelle described the media attention that followed as ‘surreal’. “I didn’t realise it was going to receive so much interest. It made me realise that racism is still an issue.”
What she would say to those trolls who attacked her online? ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, she said simply.
“They saw the colour of my skin. If they stopped and understood what the account was about and what I was about… We need to stop looking at people’s race, size and sexuality and start looking at the person as a whole,” she said.
According to Michelle, the experience has made her more prepared for potential abuse but said that this would not stop her from putting herself out there.
“I will do a little bit [of social media]. I would like to make a change.”