People Use Twitter To Call Out The Oregon Militiamen

This Saturday, a group of militiamen took over Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. It wasn't long before Twitter users noticed some striking differences between the way the armed, militarized white men were being treated, and what protestors of color dealt with last year from police and the media. TLDR: the white men weren't being labeled terrorists, thugs, or being fired on or attacked. Many noticed the heartbreaking difference between the peaceful negotiations with the armed Oregon men, and the police shooting of unarmed 12-year old Tamir Rice. Some created brilliant parody hashtags to point out the harsh reality and find some humor in a scary situation. Hashtags like #YallQaeda, #VanillaISIS, and #YeeHawdists riff off the belief held by many on Twitter that if the Oregon men had been Muslim, they would have been called terrorists. Some Twitter users mocked a group they felt were being treated with way too much respect by the media, and others spread more serious messages through what seemed like a light-hearted channel. Here are a few of the funniest, and most biting, uses of parody hashtags.