Editor's Note: (Roxanne Jones, a founding editor of ESPN Magazine and former vice president at ESPN, has worked as a producer and as a reporter at the New York Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. She was named a 2010 Woman of the Year by Women in Sports and Events, is a co-author of "Say It Loud: An Illustrated History of the Black Athlete," and CEO of the Push Marketing Group. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. )
(CNN) We were in second grade. And I can still feel the dirt in my hair, falling down my face. Still hear the bullies screeching like monkeys, calling me "Rocky," after the old African gorilla at the local zoo. Nearly every week for a time, the kids in my neighborhood would chase me home with their monkey taunts.
That gorilla chant found me again nearly 30 years later on the cobblestone streets of Spain, where I was vacationing at a mountain villa. A group of white men decided to chase my son and me down the street making monkey noises. At first, I laughed, stunned by their ignorance and because they looked so ridiculous curling up their arms making money sounds, but then I saw they were serious and meant to do us harm. Then we ran -- fast.
So you see, little black girls are taught at a tender age how to defend ourselves against racist, woman-hating thugs, against those who would do us harm. We learn to sniff out bigotry before it can crush us. And we understand that we are all Leslie Jones. We will not let you destroy her. Not this time.
Leslie Jones, you are not alone.
Leslie Jones is an actor. On Wednesday, her website JustLeslie.com was deactivated after hackers posted personal information, including her home address and passport number along with explicit photos that appeared to be of the comedian.
Jones had just completed a hugely successful and entertaining stint as a guest commentator at the Olympics in Rio, where she breathed life into a boorish NBC broadcast. But it seems Jones' celebrity and her refusal to cower to cyberbullies has made her a target once again online. Since starring in the "Ghostbusters" remake earlier this summer, the actress has become a favorite of social media trolls.
Jones rightfully challenged Twitter's abuse monitoring system months back after she was the target of a flood of hateful, racist, misogynistic tweets. Twitter's response was to ban Milo Yiannopoulos, a columnist and alt-right agitator who encouraged Jones's Twitter harassment.
"If I hadn't said anything [about the abuse], nobody would have known about this. All those people would still have an account. ... Hate speech and freedom of speech are two different things," Jones told Seth Meyers in an interview after the first cyberattack.
And today, fans are rallying around Jones to help her remain strong in the face of these new assaults. Yesterday, immediately after the latest cyberattacks became public, fans and celebrities began offering support using the hashtag #LoveForLeslieJ. But clearly, tweets are not enough.
At this moment, more than at any other -- in my lifetime at least -- we have to stand up, act up and speak out against racist, sexist behavior whenever we see it, whether at work, at home, in our government, or now more often on our social media feeds.
Because this is personal.
When these vile cowards attack Leslie Jones, they attack all black women — every woman — who has ever been told she doesn't fit into Western society's made-up definition of woman's beauty. No one has the right to define us, or our bodies.
Dropping the mic: Famous Twitter exits
Actress and comedian Leslie Jones tweeted in July 2016 that she would be leaving Twitter
because of racist and hateful comments. "I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart," the "Ghostbusters" star said. "All this cause I did a movie. You can hate the movie but the s*** got today...wrong." Jones ended up just taking a break, and not totally quitting.
Director Joss Whedon thanked users on Twitter in May 2015 before unceremoniously shutting down his feed. This led to speculation that
abusive complaints about
Black Widow's role in the movie "Avengers: Age of Ultron" caused him to quit. But Whedon told Buzzfeed he left Twitter because he didn't want it to distract from his next project. "I just had a little moment of clarity where I'm like, You know what? If I want to get stuff done, I need to not constantly hit this thing for a news item or a joke or some praise, and then be suddenly sad when there's hate and then hate and then hate."
Chrissy Teigen is one of Twitter's more popular users, but vicious threats in response to one of Teigen's tweets about gun control once chased the model and TV personality away from the platform. She has since returned.
Alec Baldwin and Twitter have been involved in an on-again, off-again relationship. The actor has left Twitter twice -- in 2011 and 2013 -- but has always returned. His most recent exit, inspired by a profane fallout with a journalist that landed Baldwin in some severely hot water,
included this tweeted farewell: "Now f**k this twitter + good luck to all of you who know the truth." He has since returned.
Chris Brown, too, has a love-hate relationship with Twitter. After getting into a feud with comedian Jenny Johnson in 2012,
Brown posted a message to his fans, "teambreezy," instructing them to "catch me in traffic" rather than on Twitter. He deleted his account at the time -- as he did in 2009 -- but is currently active.
Megan Fox tried Twitter for a while in 2013, but she just didn't get it. "5 days on Twitter and I have yet to discern it's purpose. #WhatIsThePoint ???" she said. The next day, Fox went on Facebook to make her Twitter exit official. "My Twitter account has been shut down," she said. "I thought that 2013 might be the year that I finally blossomed into a social networking butterfly... but as it turns out I still hate it. Love you guys but I will just never be that girl."
In 2010, John Mayer realized that his love of Twitter was getting in the way of his day job. After updating his followers on absolutely everything, the musician gave up Twitter to head back into the studio. "I was a tweetaholic,"
Mayer later said. "I was always writing on it ... and it started to make my mind smaller and smaller and smaller. And I couldn't write a song."
The worst Twitter quitter is the one who leaves without warning,
like James Franco did in 2011. After joining the site in February, just before hosting (and live-tweeting during) that year's Oscars, the actor abruptly dropped off with little explanation. Although he said in an interview at the time that "social media is over. Still up there. Going down. You heard it here first," he eventually made his way back to the platform.
There was a time when Miley Cyrus actually wanted to keep her private life (and private parts) to herself. In 2009, Cyrus was inspired to quit Twitter and did so
with a rap video announcing her decision. By 2011, Charlie Sheen's epic posts on the social site had persuaded her to return.
After providing plenty of entertainment, "Lost" writer/producer Damon Lindelof
gave up Twitter in October 2013. His final tweet was cryptic -- "After much thought and deliberation, I've decided t" the unfinished post read -- but he later explained that his exit had a dual purpose. It was a nod to his show about the Rapture, "The Leftovers," but it was mostly just time to go. "I was in a place of feeling like Twitter was really consuming me in an unhealthy way," he told TV critics.
Ashton Kutcher decided to hand his Twitter account over to more capable hands after his own got him in trouble. When Penn State fired football coach Joe Paterno in 2011 in the wake of its child abuse scandal,
an uninformed Kutcher fired off an indignant tweet that seemed to ignore the allegations. Kutcher later apologized and said he would stop tweeting "until I find a way to properly manage this feed." For a time he let his PR team handle his account, although he seems to be tweeting on his own more lately.
In April 2012, Nicki Minaj was so annoyed by a supposed fan site leaking some of her new music that
the rapper made a grand exit from Twitter altogether. "Like seriously, it's but so much a person can take. Good f******g bye," she tweeted before taking down her profile. Within nine days, Minaj was back at it.
Negativity on Twitter also got to Jennifer Love Hewitt,
who tried to quit in July 2013. "I'm sad to say twitter is no longer for me," the actress posted. "I have enjoyed all the kindness and love that came my way, as well as support. But this break is needed. Life should be filled with positivity and holding each other up, not making threats and sending bad vibes." Hewitt's break was extremely short-lived; she was back on Twitter by August.
At least when Kanye West quit Twitter in October 2012,
he promised he'd come back eventually. After growing his Twitter account into a gold mine of Kanye-isms -- who else would inform us that "fur pillows are hard to sleep on"? -- West deleted all those incredible missives and left just one tweet up on his dormant account: "BE BACK SOON." And he is, in a big way.
In 2012, Charlie Sheen also briefly decided that Twitter was no longer the winning way to go. The man who introduced us to #tigerblood
temporarily ended his tweet spree with the farewell, "reach for the stars everyone. dogspeed cadre. c out." Like those before him, Twitter's siren call eventually lured Sheen back to its 140 characters.
In April 2014,
Minnie Driver became fed up with rude tweets about her looks after the actress was photographed in a bikini while on vacation. "God some people are horrible: you try being photographed when you don't know it's happening, when you're on holiday with your kids," she said. "I'm out of this Twittersphere for a while. It's too mean sometimes, about your body, about your soul. Not worth it."
For centuries, black women's magnificent, strong bodies have been coveted, used and then abused at will. We have been stripped down to our souls — though never losing our spirit — robbed of our humanity, our families, our dignity. But still we rise to unimaginable heights generation after generation, whether it be to the White House, the big screen or the boardroom. And though we have shed many tears, we will not be broken.
According to reports by the National Center for Education Statistics, black women are among the most educated group in America. Accounting for both race and gender, there is a higher percentage of black women (9.7%) enrolled in college than any other group, including Asian woman (8.7%), white women (7.1%) and lastly, white men (6.1%), according to the 2011 US Census Bureau.
So yes, the hateful words may sting us. And often leave unseen scars. But they also make us stronger, more resilient. As a girl, I plotted ways to get back at my haters. I found my revenge in the classroom -- where I discovered I could be smarter, work harder than most -- and in sports, where my oversized body was stronger than most. And more than once, my sweet revenge came at the end of my fist, when I got tired of running and decided to stand and fight.
Leslie's revenge is her success. Bursting onto the big screen at 48 years old to star in "Ghostbusters" was the culmination of years of hard work that took Jones, the daughter of an Army vet who dreamed of being a comedian, from a college hoops scholarship to finally a big break with "Saturday Night Live."
She is a living example of the American dream. Working hard, succeeding on her own terms where no one imagined she could, or should. Jones' story is one to be celebrated and even emulated.
So no, haters, you cannot have Leslie Jones, or Gabby or Serena. Or any of the long list of trailblazing black women you too often try to destroy. We know this game well and you will not win.
"Our noses are broad, our lips are thick, our hair is nappy -- we are black and beautiful," said Stokely Carmichael .
And we're here to stay. Deal with it.