There Are No Girls on the Internet - Part One: Why Trump Targeted Two Black Election Workers

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

Ruby Freeman & Shaye Moss are heroes for their testimony before the Jan 6th commission, but they shouldn’t have to be. The Daily Zeitgeist’s Miles Gray joins Bridget to discuss what happened when the disgraced president and the right wing digital media ecosystem coalesced to attack Black women for simply doing their jobs as poll workers during the 2020 election.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. So after 18 months, the probe into the insurrection on January 6th finally came to a close on Monday. and their final recommendations are actually kind of huge. Let's get into it. The committee recommended that the Department of Justice investigate Trump for inciting an insurrection,

conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, an obstruction of an official proceeding. The committee officials and investigators said that they decided to make criminal referrals against Trump after seeing sufficient evidence of all of this behavior. So, yeah, basically the stuff that we already knew, the stuff that we basically all saw with our own eyes unfolding on and before January 6th.

And now I am really curious to find out what happens next. I have been a little bit skeptical that we will ever actually see Trump or any of his cronies face actual accountability for their actions. But notably, I have not seen a lot of the major Republican players on the right circling the wagons to protect Trump like I thought they might have done. So I guess we'll see. During the closing comments, the committee played a montage of all the different people who were hurt or killed during January 6th, and that includes Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss. And I am really holding space for these women in the aftermath of the commission.

Their story is a really good reminder why we should all care about what happens on the Internet, because not only does it hurt the people targeted like Ruby and Shea, but when our online platforms amplify lies that traffic in racism and sexism, it has real consequences for all of us. It makes us all less safe and less secure in the process. So I sat down with my good friend Miles Gray from the podcast, The Daily Zeitgeist, to discuss the story of Ruby Freeman and Shaymoss, two private citizens who were targeted by Trump and his allies, and how cruelly their own country betrayed them. And this is just part one of a two-part conversation about what these women went through and how it hurts all of us.

Welcome to another episode of Internet Hate Machine. I am so thrilled to be joined by one of my favorite humans, Miles Gray of the Daily Zykeyes. Miles, thank you for being here. Are you for real? I'm for real. Oh my God. Thank you, Bridget.

I mean, honestly, the feeling is very mutual. Can I tell them off mic? I was in my feelings because when I was in D.C., I was like, let's hang out. And you didn't see the message in time. But it did break my heart only because of my deep respect and admiration for you. So the feeling is so mutual. As I said, next time you're in D.C.,

I'm taking you and yours out to a big dinner. I mean it. Okay. I mean, I don't need a big dinner. I was, you know, whatever. Just show me something cool, you know? Like, is Marvin still open on Q Street? It closed.

It's no longer there. Yeah, it's gone. It's like a D.C. institution gone because of the pandemic. Oh, no. I really, wow. Anyway, this isn't a D.C. restaurant show. But anyway, shout out to R.IP. Long live Marvin's.

Long live Marvin. That had so many good nights there. Yeah. But I have to ask. you Miles, have you been following any of the January 6th hearings? Me? The co-hosts

of a daily news podcast? Me? Oh, I would say, I mean, to be honest, I follow enough to know like what happened during every night of Cuchella, as I refer to as the January 6 hearings. So, like, I'll keep up with the big developments from there.

But I definitely have like there's so I know there's so much information to go deep on that I part of me is like my cynicism where it's like look I'll be interested if there's actual consequences so wake me up when I start seeing people getting per block but to that to that end I have been keeping up but I would say like I'm a I don't even know how to gauge my engagement with the news like casual follower although I probably know a few things but yeah I've been following it's so funny because I was going to say the same thing I I consider myself a casual follower, but that makes it sound like you're talking about

Grey's Anatomy or something or like Housewives, like, oh, I dip in and dip out. I missed the last season. It's like, I don't know if we should be talking about. Exactly. You're like, I know that it went from, like, I know, I remember when it became Sloan, Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital, like, and that was a wave too. And then that one person who got hit by the bicycle and then they were about to, anyway, all that to say, yeah, who knows in this age of.

so much information what is casual and what is like obsessed. Well, on December 19th, it's going to be the final public hearing of the January 6th committee and the final report is actually going to be released a few days later on December 21st. So it's kind of all coming to an end. And I'm kind of like you, I followed it, but I am not getting my hopes up for actual consequences or accountability for any of the major players that deserve consequences. So we will see. Yeah, because we only have history to tell us that there won't be consequences. So I'm like, unless we have a market shift and how our legal system works and who we enforce the actual laws with, I'm counting on like, it's like I feel like the little pieces of a red meat that have people feeling like, oh, they're doing something are all the like ancillary tertiary sort of characters to this.

Like the like oathkeeper adjacent folks who they're like, oh, and then you walked in there and smashed a wall. See you in two years. but like where's Ginny Thomas at? Hello, are we talking about her at all? God, I would love to see her get a per block. Could you imagine? She'd be like, I need to speak with the manager. Like she would actually say that, I feel like, and then they would be like, oh, why didn't

you say that sooner? Take the cuffs off. Can I speak to the manager of jail, please? Yeah. Oh, wait, it's my husband. Clarence, do something, honey. So there's been so much compelling testimony from these hearings, but in my book, I don't think any was more compelling than the testimony from Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss. You might remember their testimony from a couple of months ago. Basically, when they gave their testimony, it kind of like broke my heart to hear this personal story in their own words of how Trump and Giuliani and this whole ecosystem of assholes basically ruined their lives and jeopardized their safety.

And I think that their story is one that is really about racism and sexism and like this general, visceral distrust and disdain that a lot of folks have for black women like Ruby and Shea. So I really think that their story is kind of like the culmination of so many things that we have already talked about on this podcast. You know, when racism and sexism run unchecked online and it creates the conditions for lies about black women to have a welcome home online where they will always be amplified. and legitimize. And in this case, it doesn't just impact these black women. It threatens democracy for all of us. So that's really what I'm excited to get into today. Please, I'm excited to talk about anything that helps me feel better about our democracy. I mean, or worse, but as long as we get to the bottom of it, I feel like there's there's comfort in knowledge, too. There's a little comfort in it. So if folks don't know, Ruby Moss and her daughter,

Shea Freeman, were both election workers in Folton County, Georgia, a state that Trump legitimately lost. in 2020, fair and square. And where you might... Yeah, I'm going to be saying that every 20 minutes like a goddamn egg timer on this episode, so get used to it. So if you're listening,

that may or may not be a drinking game. Yeah. Drink a sip of your beverage every time I bring that up. You might also remember that Georgia is where Trump pressured the Secretary of State to find votes for him in an attempt to rewrite history

because he lost. that election fair and square. So Shea had really been like a long time election worker in Georgia. This was something that she was like known for in her community. Listening to her talk about why she became an election worker, you know, she describes it as something that she did out of a way to like genuinely support her community. She talks about how there are a lot of older folks in her community and working as a poll worker felt like a way to give back to the elders in her in her town. You can just tell when she's describing this that it's something that she feels felt a lot of pride about. During 2020, Fulton County was meant to have a shortage of election workers because of COVID. And so Shea recruited her 62-year-old mother, Ruby, who was a retired 911 operator to also serve as an election worker. And yeah, it just was clear that this was something that these women were really excited to be sort of doing what they saw as their civic duty to support their community. Like they talk about it with such reverence and pride. In an attempt to cast doubt on the 2020 election, which Trump,

Trump legitimately lost. That's number two. Trump and his henchman, Rudy Giuliani, repeatedly named Ruby and Shea, both black women, as election workers who were rigging the election in favor of Biden. Now, I don't think I need to tell you this was just an outright, baseless lie. But this lie basically destroyed their lives.

And I want to get into a little bit of how it started and where it came from. Okay. On December 3, 2020, a lawyer working for the Trump campaign obtained security video from election night from the state. Farm Arena in Georgia. It showed election workers and poll counters, including Ruby and Shea, just doing their jobs, like, exactly what you, I know, how dare they? Well, I mean, yeah, we all know what they were doing in there. They were making votes up for Joe Byron. If you believe Rudy Giuliani, that is exactly what was going on. Right.

This lawyer brought the video to a Georgia State Senate committee saying that it showed someone who, quote, had the name Ruby across her shirt somewhere, finding a suitcase full of ballots underneath a table. Again, I don't really think I need to tell you that this is all complete bullshit. The video just showed election workers who were told to pack up for the night so they're putting the ballots away. Not in suitcases. There's no suitcases in this video. It's just like the normal ballot boxes. They put these ballot boxes away. And then later they're told, actually, go ahead and restart the vote count. Don't wait until the morning. And so that's what they did. It's just a humdrum,

normal video of people doing their fucking jobs. I just love, too, like, all these conspiracy theories that come from the right, they all have this, like, loony tunes depiction of how, like, reality works. Like, and it's in a leather suitcase

with ballots shooting out the sides. This thing was packed to the gills. Like, really? A suitcase? Like, what does that even mean? It's so how someone who was writing a bad movie would script, like election rigging, like being passed a suitcase

under a table. Like a briefcase is such a like weird thing to say that was in use for election rigging. Later Giuliani talks about how it involved like USB drives and like, you know,

staging a phony pipe breaking in the vote count center. You know, it's like it's so over the top and cartoony, but I do think that that is what these people think actually happens in real life. that real life works like a goddamn episode of Darkwing Duck. I mean, it would explain some of the logic that they used to try and overturn elections

or most people are like, what the fuck was that? Just like, I don't know, I think maybe call a bunch of goons to the Capitol and then it'll work out. Let's just try it. You know, you never know. You never know. So the video of these election workers, including Ruby and Shea, starts making its way online through this really gross cottage industry of like right-wing extremists blogs and media sites. And once it's in that online pipeline, it's everywhere.

It doesn't matter that this video was like immediately debunked by Georgia Secretary of State. Like immediately, once it's out there, it's out there. And this is where we really get like a big vector of lies about the women, which is a website called The Gateway Pundit. Have you ever heard of this? Oh, yeah. Real place where. you poison your brain with nonsense.

Absolutely. So the Gateway Pundit is an extremist right-wing media site. Research from the University of Washington's Center for and Unformed Public found that the Gateway Pundit was the second most prolific purveyor of election misinformation on Twitter in the late months of 2020. So just a real place where if you want complete fictions to be amplified to millions of people, that's your site. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I mean, yeah, it's it. They're soothing bedtime stories for panicked white people who are not ready for the status quo to be upended, sounds like.

Exactly. The same day that that lawyer for Trump sends that video saying that he thinks that it includes election tampering, the Gateway Public publishes an article, the first article that disseminates the video and a story that was promoted under the headline, huge in all caps, video footage from Georgia shows suitcases filled with ballots pulled up from under a table after supervisor told GOP poll workers. to leave tabulation center, right? And so that's the first time that this video kind of hits the online space in a big way. The Gateway Pundit then calls Ruby out by first and last name, writing on the site, her name is Ruby Freeman, and she made the mistake

at advertising her purse on her desk the same night that she was involved in voter fraud on a all caps, massive scale. Her T-Search says Lady Ruby, and her purse says La Ruby, which is her company. This was not a very smart move. Her company is called La Ruby's unique treasures.

It's on her LinkedIn page. Maybe the Georgia police or Bill Barr's DOJ may want to pay Ruby Freeman a visit. The article concludes with an image of her with a banner that says, in all caps, red lettering, crook gets caught. Oh, boy. Yeah, that's, you already know that's bad news. I mean, knowing, too, like this online trash to, like, Fox News or News Max pipeline. It's like it always, you can always write like link every Tucker or Hannity thing.

And it's always going to start off with some weird non-cernel of lie that's posted online. Exactly. And so that's, I think that this, exactly what you just said, I feel like the way that this video moved through the online right wing blogosphere digital ecosystem really gives us an idea of exactly what you're talking about, right? How this sort of digital ecosystem works. Like, it started with Gateway Pundit, then it goes to O-A-N, then Trump starts amplifying it on his Twitter, right? And so, like, it starts in this, like, really kind of what should be like a fringe site, even though Gateway Pundit did get White House credentials when Trump was in office. But then it ends up with Trump amplifying the video that he got from Gateway Pundant and then Fox News talking about it, right? And so it really does move through this, like, shitty pipeline of extremist right-wing garbage.

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I've been having harassing phone calls and emails, and they came out and made a police report. yesterday. And last night, about 10 minutes after night, somebody was abamming on the door. And now somebody's slamming on the door again. All right, they're abamming on the way, ma'am. So, I mean, it's... She sounds so afraid.

Yeah, she sounds so afraid. It's heartbreaking. And this is like a 60-something-year-old woman, you know, who is making this call because people are banging on the doors of her house in the middle of the night and she doesn't know what to do. It is terrifying. And I think what's also really important to point out here is the ways that Trump and his cronies specifically used racism and misogyny to fuel this lie.

Like, I don't think that this lie would have worked the same way had Ruby and her daughter not been black women. And I think if we didn't have a digital media climate kind of ready and willing to validate and amplify the worst racist lies about black women, who we already know are disproportionately harmed by things like disinformation and harassment and conspicuble. theories, I don't think it would have worked the same way. And I think that you saw that in a lot of the way that Trump and his allies talked about these women. I'm going to play another clip for you from Rudy Giuliani. I apologize for making you listen to his voice. Tape earlier in the day of Ruby Freeman and Shea Freeman-Mawes and one other gentleman, quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine.

I mean, it's obvious to anyone who's a criminal investigator or prosecutor, they are engaged in surreptitious illegal activity, again, that day. And after a week ago, they're still walking around Georgia line. It should have been questioned already. There are places of work, their homes should have been searched, to evidence of balance, for evidence of USB ports, for evidence of voter fraud. Oh, so, so they had the USB port, what you put the USB drive into? Yes.

Isn't it interesting how earlier you were like, wow, pretty weird that their claims of voter fraud involve like briefcases. That's pretty cartoony. And now he's saying that they're passing USB drives back and forth to each other like vials of heroin. And then he says that their house should be searched for USB ports? Like which is it? Is it like a super high-tech? USB enabled voter theft, or is it briefcases full of ballots? I'm just saying like, I'm more getting angry as like a nerd who likes technology.

The port is the opening in which you would insert some kind of USB cable or thumb drive. That's like being like, and they had outlets that they were passing around. It's like, well, is it the plug or what are you talking about? The thing it goes into what you're, I think what you mean is a USB drive. So aside from getting hung up on that, like you're saying, this is just so common with these right wing people because we already get it.

Like we know you're anti-black racists. That's completely clear in all of the legislation and the rhetoric that's being used. But to even like evoke like the drug war to put these women in the context of the drug war because that was absolutely, he's referring to a hand-to-hand crack deal or some shit. You know what I mean?

And he's basically saying, okay, black people, you know they're shady because of drugs. Therefore, what the fuck were they doing with those USB ports? You see, it writes itself. And it's this like really cheap way that allows this racism to just casually continue because it's like, oh, right, tick that box, tick that box. Yep, black people dangerous. Mm-hmm. Yep, yep. That's enough for me.

Exactly. Like, the way that he so casually evokes the drug war, I think it's meant to. be like, y'all know how black people are. Yes. There is never, there is, why would you, you're already baselessly accusing these women of vote tampering. Why are you then also evoking drugs? These women have not, like, that's, it just, it just goes to show how, when it comes

to racism, exactly like you said, it's these seemingly disparate things glom together just to be like, just by virtue of this being a black person, something shady is going on. Just by virtue of their presence. Like he could have said, and then you see in the video, handing each other USB ports like it was the wire or something. You know what I mean? That's basically what he's saying. You know, and that's just...

Rudy hasn't seen the wire. He's not. He's not. No, but I'm saying, yeah, of course not. But I'm saying that's a shorthand that it's evoking, which is essentially to say, look, we're so racist. We can't even imagine black people committing this kind of crime of voter fraud. So let me dumb it down to something that our, like, our culture has rammed down your

throats as to what black people are, which are drug dealers or gang members. So let me re-contextualize this voter fraud in this very neat trope that you're already used to having like no thought cliches that you just immediately say yes to. And that's how, yeah, and it's sad how quickly that momentum moves because people really, they just need a reason to act out, like act on their racist beliefs. Exactly. And so obviously these women were not passing a USB. drive back and forth. What they were actually passing each other was a piece of ginger candy. So what Giuliani was saying, which is complete BS. Yeah.

You might also remember that infamous phone call where Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger asking him to find votes. In that call, he evoked Ruby Freeman by name. Here's what he said. We had at least eight on tape. We had them counted very mistakenly. thousand voters having to do with Ruby Freeman. She's a vote scammer, a professional vote scammers, and hustler. So he calls her a professional boat scammer, and hustler. And I think even kind of like what Miles was saying, the language that he uses to talk about her,

a hustler, a professional scammer. Like it really harkens back to this, I guess, a really specific and well-worn trope about black women. that I think he's really in a kind of a savvy way trying to hearken back to. Like, oh, you know how black women are all scammers and hustlers. Their welfare queens. You know how they do.

Exactly. Yeah. So I also think kind of to that end, and this is like a little complicated to talk about, but I think it's definitely part of it. One of the reasons I think that this lie took off like it did is because of the visual of these two black women. Sites like the Gateway Pundit who are, that are really good at knowing

what's going to resonate with their audience, what's going to stoke something within their audience that's going to motivate them to click and share, it's probably not surprising to you that they really used a lot of images of these women. Like every story had a picture of them, like a close-up of them, looking sort of like they were up to no good,

doing something nefarious. And I think that those images, I think, really added like a visual element to the story that really allowed it to take hold with racists. On election night, these women were wearing blonde hair extensions, which contrasts with their dark complexions. Basically the exact same hairstyle that I am currently wearing. Ruby owns a fashion store, like a jewelry store, and so she has kind of a flashy, personal

style. She's wearing a bedazzled shirt and has a bedazzled purse. I think that they posted these images so often to pretty much say, look how black these women are. And I think Trump and Giuliani saw this video of two black women counting votes in Georgia, and they knew that they could say that they could say that they're not. these black women are the culprits and that those black women were liars and those black women were the reason that Trump lost the election. And I think the same way that Trump makes a whole thing of like attacking black women that's like was his thing when he was in the White House.

I think that he's getting served on the regular by black women. Exactly. Exactly. I think that he knew his base would be poised and prime to believe whatever wild conjecture that he pulled out of his ass because they have a visceral disdain and distrust for black women that he. he stokes. And I think, you know, when social media platforms are the cesspools of racist, sexist, sexist garbage, of course, it's going to amplify those lines of thinking. So I think that Trump knew that his base would be really ready to believe if they saw this visual of black women just simply doing their jobs and, you know, not doing anything wrong in Georgia, that would be enough proof to convince them that something shady was going down in the absence of like actual

proof proof, that basically his supporters would be like, hey, black women were involved in the vote counting process, that should be enough to tell you that the election was rigged against me, which it wasn't because he lost. Exactly. What was that? He lost the election, you said, the 2020 election? Okay. He did lose.

Let me just check. Yeah, it says here that he lost. Okay. But yeah, I mean, it's the same lazy racism. It's like, basically, he's trying to scale up the Central Park Birdwatcher 911 call. Pretty much. It's a black person, you know, because that has been weaponized against black. black people

since time immemorial the mere presence of blackness is enough for racist people to say something is a foot here just be just off the fucking physical presence of black people you know what I mean and so to your point

it's it's because all the base probably all have a very similar like outlook on black American people which is like who who oh huh so if that's already your baseline in thinking about a black person. It doesn't take much

then to just be like, and that's bad, right, folks? And a lot of people, yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's no thought that needs to go into because, like, to your point, it's just to like, they're just sort of, like, drafting off of the cultural momentum of racism that already exists, like, to the point where we don't really, some

people just don't even need facts. It's the fact that they are black women is, quite literally enough. Exactly. And I think that they knew that their base, for them, that would be enough. They didn't need any other kind of proof. just the fact that black women were in the mix in Georgia, enough said. And this led to really like an uptick in very scary online harassment.

She says that she got so many threats wishing death upon her. One of them said, should be in jail with her mother and saying things like, you should be glad it's 20-20 and not 19-20, which is obviously like a pretty obvious threat to like lynch her or reference to lynching. It ain't about being a flapper. Yeah, they're not talking about, like, being a bootlegger or something. Yeah, that's a lynching reference. Right.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, IHart's twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only IHart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business. Think IHart.

streaming, radio, and podcasting. Call 844-844-I-heart to get started. That's 844-8-4-8-4-I-heart. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions, to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going.

From the WNBA standout, Kate Martin, and rising hockey star, Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't belong. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ledecki.

The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world, Like, I can do anything. I can do anything.

Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. And so it really goes to show how, you know, we're not talking about just mean messages on the internet. We're talking about very scary threats that these. women went through because of these lies. I want to play another clip of their testimony talking about how this affected their everyday life. Now I won't even introduce myself by my name anymore.

I get nervous when I bump into someone I know in the grocery store who says my name. I'm worried about who's listening. I get nervous when I have to give my name for food orders. I'm always concerned of who's around me. I've lost my name and I've lost my reputation. I've lost my sense of security, all because a group of people starting with number 45 and his ally, Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter, Shea,

to push their own lives about how the presidential election was stolen. It honestly boils my blood to hear her talk about how this reputation and name that had meant so much to her. Like, she talked about how she used to wear her name bedazzled on her hat, on her shirts, on her purse, because she was so proud of her name. And now she doesn't even introduce herself by name anymore. And that is what Trump and Giuliani took from her. It's heartbreaking.

You know, these women were pillars of their community, and now they are, you know, basically resigned to a life. of hiding for their own safety. Yeah, it's, it's so hard to, like you say, hear that because there's so many levels of loss that are being experienced by this woman. Like, you know, just in the context of slavery, right? You've already lost your identity and your name through chattel slavery, through the middle passage. Like, you've completely been severed from your sense of belonging or identity.

just from being forcibly brought to this land. And then to go through all the other things that black people have to had to go through since the end of slavery and to have someone like this who still believes that this country is worth saying, you know what, this is a way that I feel like I can give back because this is giving me something. And I, and I, this exchange feels fair. To only have that lead to something like this where now you're doubling back and saying, I've lost my name.

I've lost my ability to even have pride in myself. That's like such a level of like the dimensions of loss are so profound that it's not just like, and I can't even go on Twitter anymore. It's no. I've actually become afraid to identify myself because someone's lies are fueling a bunch of violent thoughts and deeds from other people. That's really, it's really fucking hard to hear that.

because she doesn't deserve that. And I really feel bad when people are so invested in how good this country is and wanting to stick up for it and fight for it. And you're getting crumbs back constantly. And there's another part of that too that feels it's really difficult for me to watch and like kind of wrecking with as I see this all happen. It's the same thing with like that one capital police officer, that one black officer who was fighting off this whole crowd. And I'm like, in a way, I'm like, for what, man? Because what are they given? I mean, what, how has, how have things, how have those, how have the needs of our community actually been heard or met?

But somehow the resilience to come back and keep believing, it's like, it's, it like makes me feel bad that I'm cynical. It makes me feel like, I don't know, is that the, is that the best place to put my energy or not? But that's just, I think that's always the darkness that exists when you look at these kinds of situations where, especially black Americans are like, I actually believe in the good of this country. only to have your own blackness weaponized against you to the point that you have, you're in hiding. It's just fucking. This level of doxing is, it's like so inhumane and cruel.

Like they're literally, and the amount of, they didn't have to be there. They didn't have to, they didn't have to work in the voting polls. They didn't have to help people. They were there to help people vote. They were there to help people vote.

And they've now doxed them to the point that they're afraid to use their own name. That is that that is America and that is disgusting. Yeah, I just wish. It's funny, you know, like my grandmother, she loved to dress flashy. She's a black woman. You go to church.

You put your nice wig on, you know what I mean? The wow metallic jacket and stuff. That's like part of culturally, that's part of how we have a sense of pride. Absolutely. Of what little we have, we have left because we were completely excluded from the the fruits of slave labor, you know,

and then to even say, like there's some, I can see like you, like, you know, some people can easily identify with what you're talking about. Other people may have a harder time. But that was another part that really is hard to hear is like,

I used to like to wear my things. Like the little bits of joy that she was able to extract from her life or taken away from her. And I think that's, and how easily and how quickly that happens should really be frightening for all people and not just people who are black or women or people of color. It's the idea that like, this is kind of the game that people are playing now. They're like, you know, we'll lie on you. And we don't care what the toll is because we'll just sick a mob on you. Yeah, it's difficult to hear me, to listen to what you're saying. She reminds me so much of my own mother and grandmother who also like to wear their big hats.

and dress flashy and be bedazzled and have long nails. And that's part of a cultural identity of what makes them who they are. It's like a beautiful way that they express who they are to the world. And weaponizing your own identity against you, having these things that make you feel like you, that make you feel like you're showing up in the world and telling the world who you are, turning those things against you is a different kind of cruelty.

That I don't know that everybody can really understand. what that is like. No, because you look at people who are like, well, these other people have been canceled on the right or whatever. And like they're ashamed or whatever. It's like, no, man, Kyle Rittenhouse can walk into some bar in Texas and they'll cheer for him. And he'll be out here with his chest out saying, I'm Kyle Rittenhouse. You know what I mean?

That's, he hasn't lost anything. He's only gained something because it's only rallied more violent people like people around him. Whereas this is just like to your point, weaponizing your own existence against you, that battle's lost basically immediately, at least psychologically for the person who is the subject of it. It's really heartbreaking.

Yeah, and I'm like, part of me is like, stop fucking helping this place. They don't give a fuck. Look at what they do. You know what I mean? But I think it's really important to not become that, you can't get to that level of cynicism

if you are going to continue. that's a huge lesson. I think most black people carry within them is, I mean, you can't give up. Because we could have given up, we could have given up hundreds of years ago. But there has to be that sense that there is something on the other side of it to keep you going. That it's, when it comes out in this kind of cruel way to like use the optimism of these women to say, you know what, I think, I think this could be something good. And then it turned into something, just the antithesis of that, just tragedy upon tragedy.

Yeah, this is one of those situations that makes it, to your point, makes it really hard for me to be optimistic about the state of things. They were just so cruelly discarded and used, and no amount of money can make up for what they went through. They should get all the money. They deserve all the money. They should sue everybody. No amount of money will make up for what they have been through. Yeah. Unless you have like a gigantic neuralizer from men in black and you can just aim it at the whole state of the state of the state of it.

Georgia and be like, yo, look up in the sky real quick. All right, girl, put your bejeweled hat back on. You're good, Ruby. Like, that really would be the only way, truly. So we've talked about what Ruby and Shea went through. And next week on part two, we'll be looking at the major players who are behind the harassment campaign against them. Spoiler alert, Kanye West and R. Kelly are, like, tangentially involved.

And we'll also be looking at the wider impact that the normalization of attacks on election workers like Ruby and Shea have for all of us. Internet hate machine is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Coolzone Media, check out our website, coolzonemedia.com, or find us on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite.

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