Fans Showered Leslie Jones With Love After She Revealed The Abuse She Receives On Twitter

Leslie Jones is one of the most talented comedians working today. Her skits and guest bits on Saturday Night Live and her performance in the Ghostbusters reboot is some of the funniest stuff seen on screen in ages. Half the weeks she appears, Jones practically saves “Weekend Update” with a mix of skill and sheer commitment to the bit. However, for as many fans as she has around the world there will still be awful people on the internet who feel comfortable saying horrible things since they are protected by their computer screens or social media anonymity.

That was the situation in which Jones found herself today, beset by dozens upon dozens of online creeps who think it is okay to send somebody gross photos, insulting memes, or racist epithets. Jones, ever willing to share the struggles of her career and the abominable behavior of internet trolls, tweeted out some screenshots of the abuse she was receiving. Most were either incredibly racially charged, mocking of her looks, or both.

Twitter, as the company has been known for in the past, has done nothing about the abuse because it doesn’t “comment on individual accounts” and it’s unclear whether any of the people being reported by the actress or her supporters have been banned from using the platform. Fortunately, there are more good people on the internet than bad on most days and ever since she started tweeting out these horrid examples, love has been flowing in from all corners using the hashtag #LoveforLeslieJ.

https://twitter.com/ILLCapitano94/status/755199458036420609

https://twitter.com/gaileyfrey/status/755198671080202240

https://twitter.com/gaileyfrey/status/755197327216738308

As heartening as it is to see fans and fellow celebrities from around the industry speak up about this abuse and send Jones compliments and support, it shouldn’t necessitate hundreds of people coming together with a hashtag to combat bigotry. It would be pretty nice to just not have bigotry in the first place. Leslie Jones in the best and neither she nor anybody else in or out of the public eye deserves this treatment.

Update: On Monday night, Jones responded to the endless stream of abuse with a tweet storm of her own.

The comedienne continued on and made clear that celebrities are people too, which should be obvious to pretty much everybody and not an excuse to spew hatred.

Finally, Jones put out a call to action for ignorant people to know better and the good people out there to hold such online trash responsible for their actions.

Jones ended the stream of tweets by letting everybody know she is taking a break, and we honestly can’t blame her one bit.

(via Twitter/Buzzfeed)