Plenty of women on Tinder have been met with rude, angry messages when they've rejected a match or simply not responded. Normally, the only recourse you've got is to hit "unmatch" and/or "report." But everyone who's wished their Tinder trolls could receive greater punishment is forever indebted to Kevin Tran, who just completely dragged a white dude for harassing someone on the dating app.
"I met this guy in college and he seemed like a decent guy," he wrote in a Facebook post. "He was nice, friendly, etc."
But, of course, plenty of guys who seem nice and friendly in person can be total jerks behind screens. "Over the weekend, he matched a friend of mine on Tinder and they exchanged messages," Tran recounted. "When she didn’t respond immediately, he lost it and left a bunch of nasty messages."
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"Nasty" is an understatement. He uses racist and sexist slurs against her, tells her she's wearing too much makeup, and says Asian people are a "waste of time."
When Tran confronted the guy about his rant, he unfriended and blocked him. But it was too late — he already had the evidence. "Sexism and racism takes many forms and it cannot be tolerated. As a man and POC, we can't let this stand." he wrote.
Since the post went viral, several commenters have recounted similar experiences with him and other trolls. The response illustrates that this problem is not specific to one person. It's part of a problematic culture that teaches men it's okay to harass women and people of color on dating apps and elsewhere.
That's why we can't just dismiss such harassment as inevitable or not a big deal. "We have to protect each other by calling these people out," Tran wrote, "even/especially if they are your friend, and showing that this behavior will not be tolerated and will never be acceptable."