WOFFORD STUDENT RESPONDS TO ONLINE ATTACKS FROM ARKANSAS FANS —

I, like most Wofford students, was devastated by our loss to Arkansas. I still whole-heartedly believe that we should have advanced to play UNC in the Round of 32, and so naturally I was glad to see the Heels defeat the Hogs. I’m from Tar Heel territory and had my NC friends in mind when I tweeted: “GO HEELS GO!! –Love, Wofford.” Later I favorited a tweet shared by @Terrier_Talk, in which a Razorbacks fan complimented Wofford’s stellar season (Great! I was thinking. Good sportsmanship between two schools’ fans… I so appreciate that!).

Things went downhill – rapidly – from there.

An adult male in Arkansas started re-tweeting my tweets (anything concerning Wofford or our recent game), which were all pro-Terrier, heartbroken-Sarah tweets. None of these were vulgar, attacked Arkansas fans or were meant to be read by anyone outside my little bubble of 227 North and South Carolina followers.

Within minutes, more Arkansas fans were sharing my tweets to other Arkansas fans, and they (bitter, having just lost) were replying to my tweets with incredible cruelty.

In less than an hour, I was sent more than 20 pictures, memes, gifs and messages about my love for the Wofford Terriers and my support of UNC. There were vulgar words, offensive pictures and one picture-tweet in particular that so politely requested that I “please and sincerely go **** [my]self.” These words were extremely hurtful and infuriating.

I sat on my bed shaking as increasingly more Arkansas fans continued to attack, ridiculing Wofford but always pointing their proverbial middle finger at me, specifically. Even after the instigators were blocked, the initial retweets produced many replies over the next days. They were just words, sure – but I hadn’t gone looking for them, and they stung.

I’m not telling this story in retaliation – the last thing I want is for any reader to retaliate in any way against anyone who supports Arkansas. I repeat: I do not want you, reader, to belittle anyone in any way because of the Jacksonville game or in my defense.

To do so would undermine my purpose in writing. I’m not defending my tweets: taken out of context, some of them came across as offensive, and one could argue that I shouldn’t have tweeted about Arkansas or favorited that tweet… I get it. I’m not writing to whine because someone had a negative reaction to my words and called me bad names; I’m an English major and I can handle it.

I’m writing this because I want us to stop and think about how it’s possible that an older man on a computer four states away feels that it is appropriate – even funny – to openly attack a college student by taking her words and placing them in front of an audience for whom she felt no anger and against whom she had no desire to launch an attack.

I’m writing to highlight that cyberbullying doesn’t just happen to pre-teens and teens as is most often portrayed, but is increasingly prevalent in the world of sports – yes, among adults, as well. I’m writing to say that Terriers, we cannot do this to others. As much as I love basketball and as proud as I am of my friends and classmates that make up this legendary team of student-athletes, I am appalled that somehow a 40-minute contest between two sets of 20-something year-olds is placed above any human life.

I love this game and my school, but it’s just a game, and none of the humans living vicariously through these teams deserve to be treated like non-humans – not me, and not the man who told me to **** myself. Nobody.

It is never acceptable to verbally attack or demoralize another human, especially someone you don’t know personally. The words we type reach much farther than the distance between two computers: they have lasting impacts on the people who read them, on the reputation of the school represented by the author and on the general attitude of the sports world.

I’m fine. Eventually, bitter Razorbacks will stop scrutinizing my tweets. I’ll continue to share my thoughts, however trivial, to my 227 followers, and I’ll continue to love the Terriers for all they accomplish on the court, in the classroom and in the workforce.

But I will never single out a person I don’t know and belittle their personal, trivial opinion – especially out of context, because next time the consequence could be much worse than just a disgruntled newspaper writer. I will never choose to make someone feel like a lesser human being because they represent the wrong side of my opinion or wear the wrong color.

Neither should you, Terriers. Otherwise, “Intaminatis fulget honoribus” is worth nothing more than the baskets we miss.

— Sarah Madden