Good NewsDollars rolling in for UNICEF with one woman’s clever social media strategy
One Australian academic is schooling her Twitter trolls by donating $1 to UNICEF for every hate tweet aimed at her.
I donate $1 to @UNICEF for each hate-filled tweet I get from trolls. Nearly at $1000 in donations. The needy children thank you, haters! 😎
— Susan Carland (@SusanCarland) October 21, 2015
The “Hijabulous” Susan Carland, 34, is a lecturer at Monash University’s School of Social Sciences who converted to Islam at 19. She received her PhD in sociology for her thesis on Muslim women using their faith to defend feminist ideas.
I FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY HAVE THE TITLE "DR"!!! #PhD #DrDrDr pic.twitter.com/2KDpx9ARQR
— Susan Carland (@SusanCarland) October 29, 2015
She has become a prominent figure in Australian media, as she and her husband Waleed Aly, host of a current affairs show called The Project, have been dubbed the “Muslim Brangelina.”
And this guy won Media Personality of the Year at the @GQAustralia Man of the Year awards! pic.twitter.com/PhxJdLd4iD
— Susan Carland (@SusanCarland) November 10, 2015
In a piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Carland wrote how she came to the brilliant idea of letting her haters be her motivation, and their tweets a source of funding for peace projects.
@SusanCarland @UNICEF You have the most ridicilous surname ever. Car-land. Yeah I got nothing, I just wanted you to donate. You're lovely.
— Lady Lins (@Starsleeper) November 16, 2015
“As a Muslim woman, people from many different quarters are eager to tell me how to dress and how to act,” Carland wrote. “They also seem determined to tell me what I believe.”
As I sat in front of my laptop one day, reading the merry stream of toxicity directed towards me, I wondered what the most edifyingly Islamic response I could give would be. The Koran states “Good and evil are not equal. Repel evil with what is better.” I’d tried blocking, muting, engaging and ignoring, but none of them felt like I was embodying the Koranic injunction of driving off darkness with light. I felt I should be actively generating good in the world for every ugly verbal bullet sent my way.
And so the idea of donating $1 to UNICEF for every hate-filled tweet I received came to me. I particularly liked the idea of giving to UNICEF, as so often they were assisting children who were in horrific situations that were the direct outcome of hate – war, poverty due to greed, injustice, violence. These children seemed like the natural recipients for the antidote to hate. And donating to them every time I was abused felt like tangible good in response to virtual hate.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with some supporters tweeting “hate” messages just to up the donation.
But mostly, people just want to support a woman who will speak her mind.
Maybe you can take off $1 for every “you are awesome" tweet if things get out of hand @SusanCarland. PS. You are awesome #UNICEF #hijabulous
— Elise Terranova (@imaginary_lines) November 16, 2015
@SusanCarland fighting hate with charity :) Wonderful role modelhttps://t.co/JWTnEr01Is
— Mariam Veiszadeh (@MariamVeiszadeh) November 12, 2015
This is great, thank you susan for showing us negativity can lead to such positive actions 💋 https://t.co/Rt1hud2vBq
— RedVelvetCherryDoll (@Yanatarai) November 16, 2015
Even UNICEF gave her a shout out.
@SusanCarland Thanks for your support! You've turned hate into something wonderful: education, health care and protection for kids.
— UNICEF Australia (@unicefaustralia) November 12, 2015
