Tuesday, August 23rd at 7pm, join author Dashka Slater as she presents her book “Accountable”. The book tells the story of racist social media account that upended the lives of teenagers, educators, and other adults in a small northern California city. This event is free; we hope you can join us for what is sure to be a challenging and thought-provoking talk.
About Accountable
When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew.
Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults―educators and parents―whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse.
In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean?
Award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author Dashka Slater has written a must-read book for our era that explores the real-world consequences of online choices. (source: Amazon.com)
About Dashka Slater
Journalist, novelist, and children’s book author Dashka Slater has been telling stories since she could talk. Her New York Times bestselling true crime narrative, The 57 Bus, has received numerous accolades, including the 2018 Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association and the 2018 Beatty Award from the California Library Association. The recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Slater grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts but has spent most of her adult life in Oakland, California, where she is always working on far too many writing projects.. (Source: DashkaSlater.com )