Silver Lake Resident Continues Online Fundraiser Despite Racist Comments

We wrote recently about Kristin Bedford, a Silver Lake blogger and photographer who had kicked off a campaign on IndieGoGo to raise money to get an MFA in photography at Duke University.

There's good news: Kristin is already 25 percent toward her goal of $16,000. She's been featured on IndieGoGo's home page and, on Wednesday on its Twitter feed.

But with fame, comes notoriety. And Kristin has had a dose of that too. Soon after she posted her IndieGoGo video pitch on YouTube, she started getting comments--lots of them. And they all weren't supportive of her idea to be a social justice photographer.

Here's what happened next, in Kristin's words:

On Thursday, May 24th I woke up to the good news that my tuition fundraiser to study documentary photography was featured on AOL. [Ed: AOL picked up the story from Echo Park-Silver Lake Patch and featured it on the AOL homepage in certain communities.]

The video I made for the fundraiser is not just posted on Indiegogo but also on Youtube. In it I speak about my journey to document social justice issues and show 21 of my photos.

By about 12 noon dozens of comments on my Youtube video were left filled with vitriol regarding blacks, undocumented immigrants, and Asians. The repeated theme was that I was hateful to not represent the true issue, which is "the marginalization of the white race." When I first saw these comments I was in complete shock and there was that "are they talking about me?" moment. Immediately it set in that it was me or at least my voice and my work.

I disabled the ability for people to comment on Youtube because it was clear the posts were only growing by the hour. I would have thought that it would have stopped there. People went to my website and sent me notes through that email. I have been getting hate mail from white supremacist groups for the last twelve days.

The core of their message is that the white race is under attack. In a recent note from a group called the WhiteEuropeans they said, "It's Whites who live on the margins of society...and who are being genocided. Grow up." I think that is as succinct and as polite as they get. Usually they take more punches at me and are a lot cruder about non-whites.

The element that amazes me is that I all I had to do was show 21 photos of people on the street and talk about social injustice and I could yield such a backlash. I am just one woman who does what she believes in and wants to go to school to further that passion.

At first I was fundamentally perplexed by their notes. Now I get what they are about and I realize this is just training for me. As long as I do what I believe in and document what I see, there are going to be counter voices, and some of them filled with hate. I truly think that this is just the beginning.