A lot happened in 2018, but perhaps what social media users noticed most was the uptick of racist and hate-fueled incidents dominating their newsfeeds.
Here a sampling of some of the incidents, ranging from racism to bullying to being just plain mean, that went viral in 2018.
"White" and "colored" water fountains
A Wisconsin high school student was disciplined after
labeling school drinking fountains as "white" and "colored."
Images of the signs gained a lot of attention on Facebook.
An Air Force sergeant's racist rant
A U.S. Air Force sergeant in Las Vegas posted
a racist, profanity-laced rant to Facebook
. The video was viewed more than 800,000 times. In it, a woman dressed in uniform is heard ranting about "black female" subordinates who "have no respect" and give her "attitude."
A teen with a scalp condition had her wig ripped off in a bullying incident
A Tennessee mother posted an outraged message on social media after daughter, who has a scalp condition that causes hair loss,
had her wig snatched off her head in a bullying incident
posted to Snapchat.
Blackface photos surfaced more than once
Members of a fraternity at California Polytechnic State University
were seen wearing blackface in photos on social media
. But they weren't the only ones to be called out for that this year.
A student in Indiana was also accused of wearing blackface
after having a dispute with a peer. And then there were people like Megyn Kelly,
who defended blackface
. Her morning show was canceled shortly after her comments.
The woman who wouldn't let a man enter his own apartment
A video posted to Facebook showed
a white woman refusing to let a black man enter his own apartment building
. The social media post went viral. The woman was also fired from her job.
The black men arrested at Starbucks for no reason
A customer at a Philadelphia
Starbucks store recorded two black men being arrested by police officers
. The offense? Well, nothing. Melissa DePino, the Twitter user who originally posted the video, stated that the men who were arrested were waiting for a friend and did not order any food or drinks. She added they were "taken out in handcuffs for doing nothing."
@Starbucks The police were called because these men hadn’t ordered anything. They were waiting for a friend to show up, who did as they were taken out in handcuffs for doing nothing. All the other white ppl are wondering why it’s never happened to us when we do the same thing. pic.twitter.com/0U4Pzs55Ci
— Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 12, 2018
The women who had cops called on them while checking out their Airbnb rental
Three black women had the cops called on them while they were checking out their Airbnb rental
in Rialto, California. Someone thought they were burglars.
The various people who got mad at Spanish speakers
A man
berated employees and customers for speaking Spanish
in a New York restaurant, describing them as undocumented and threatening to call immigration officials in a rant captured on video and posted to Facebook. And then there was a woman in Colorado who criticized two friends for speaking Spanish to each other at a store. The video of the encounter went viral. Luckily,
a stranger came to their defense.
Permit Patty
A woman
threatened to call police about a young African-American girl selling water
on a San Francisco sidewalk. The video of the encounter went viral and she was later dubbed "Permit Patty."
So my little cousin was selling water and didn't have a permit so this lady decided to call the cops on an 8 year old. #PermitPatty pic.twitter.com/SiL61pnAgl
— Sasuke (@_ethiopiangold) June 23, 2018