I wish we saw more of Mister Okafor

An example of micro-level abuse and its trauma can be seen in last week’s story with Mother of Daughters, Clemmie Hooper, and the targeting of writer, actor and mum Kelechi Okafor, whose Instagram was briefly removed and then reinstated. News broke that the adored Instagram influencer, blogger and midwife was behind a fake account maliciously trolling and abusing other mummy influencers. Victims and targets of the eight-month-long orchestrated attack included black women and expecting mothers-to-be.

Kelechi claims she was one of the blacks mums-to-be Clemmie targeted under her account “AliceinWanderlust”. Why? Because Kelechi dared to share her pregnancy announcement with her followers and friends who were doubly happy and excited for her as she not too long ago honestly and bravely revealed she had a miscarriage.

This is what makes Clemmie’s actions both disturbing and upsetting. Clemmie, a midwife and mum of four, knows the emotional rollercoaster mums-to-be go through and the sensitivity and love that is needed. Clemmie also knows that black women are five times more likely to die during or after childbirth than white women. She even discussed this two months ago on her podcast with Candice Brathwaite, a black woman who she wrote vile racist comments about, stating that Candice is “really aggressive” and used “race as a weapon”.

For too long, the stereotype of a troll has been a greasy angry man, living in his mum’s basement. This is far from true. Yes, there are incel groups who very much fester on their collective hatred of successful women, but as this story shows, our 21st century online trolls very much include our “faves”, our political leaders, maybe even our friends and work colleagues.