American University former student Taylor Dumpson recently had the last laugh after being taunted by white supremacists who didn’t like the fact that she had emerged as the first African-American student leader in the school’s 125-year history.
When Dumpson was voted the first black female student body president, neo-Nazis, led by Andrew Anglin, sent hateful and foul messages to her using their online platforms, specifically, Ozone, the neo-Nazi site that was being operated by Anglin.
The bullies hung bananas on the school campus – a racist inference to people with African ancestry being like apes – while the neo-Nazi site published her photo, contact information, name and social media accounts.
RELATED STORIES
Becoming a national target for hatred, Dumpson told CNN that when she became aware of the wide-scale online attack, she was so frightened she had to lock the doors of the house as her parents were away.
The action of the white bullies caused the young Black lady to be so shaken to the extent that she couldn’t study nor eat, as she got diagnosed with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
However, help soon came her way when a Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law took up the matter and sued some of the racist people investigators could find, including Anglin and his website.
Dumpson won the case, with the court equating online harassment to physical harassment, handing her a $725,000 default judgment despite Anglin nor his company being in court.
In addition, the court ensured she received a face-to-face apology from one of her online harassers.
Taking the moral high ground, Dumpson, who has since graduated from the school, has accepted the apology from one of her bullies.
“Even though you’re a white supremacist, even though you’re a neo-Nazi, even though you think like this, I don’t think you’re always going to think like that,” she told CNN. “I don’t think that it has to be that way.”
She, however, said that she is still on the edge, adding that there are parts of her life she has lost forever.
Litigation was, nevertheless, her “clap back,” she said.
