Mikayla Sharrieff, India Skinner and Bria Snell are 11th graders in high school. They go to Banneker High School in Washington, D.C., named after famed African American genius Benjamin Banneker. In the tradition of great thinkers and innovation and discovery, these three young women of color had developed a way to purify lead-contaminated water in school drinking fountains. That in and of itself is amazing. But to top it off, they were chosen as one of a few finalists in a NASA competition. The announcement came in the last week of April and most everybody was excited for them.
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But while the teens were gaining traction on social media and racking up votes, users on 4chan — an anonymous Internet forum where users are known to push hoaxes and spew racist and homophobic comments — were trying to ensure the students wouldn’t win.
The anonymous posters used racial epithets, argued that the students’ project did not deserve to be a finalist and said that the black community was voting for the teens only because of their race. They urged people to vote against the Banneker trio, and one user offered to put the topic on an Internet thread about President Trump to garner more attention. They recommended computer programs that would hack the voting system to give a team of teenage boys a boost.
NASA was forced to close the voting much earlier than planned because of this activity.
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4chan is what happens when the internet drains a swamp of super angry and bigoted people and they all collect in one septic tank. And like most things that are thought of when stuck inside of a metaphorical septic tank, the results are shitty.* But, NASA has a history of shooting shit into space, and isn’t letting that ruin these kids’ day!
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