Analysis Of Alison Ettel Internet Mockery Case
Alison Ettel is the founder and CEO of the cannabis company TreatWell Health in San Francisco, California. In a New York Times article, over the summer, Ettel was in her home when she reportedly, “was disrupted by, Jordan Austin, and her mother, Erin Austin, selling bottled water outside of their apartment building, ” and she, “tried to be polite, … because they’re screaming, they’re yelling” when she was trying to work. On the other hand, Erin Austin disputed this claim saying that Ettel, “never asked them to be quiet, Ettel just came out and directly demanded to see a permit to sell water from an 8-year-old”. Many people were outraged on Twitter after Erin Austin posted the video of the confrontation on Twitter. The Daily Mail compiled tweets from people about the incident and many of the tweets have gone in Erin and Jordan Austin’s favor, with people saying, “They want the police to kill us. The girl was causing no harm. They know what happens when they call the police”, “This woman asks to speak to somebody’s manager on daily. She permanently wears folks OUT”, and even CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill responded saying, “If you call the police on an 8 year old Black child selling water, you’re saying that you don’t care if that child lives or dies. It’s that simple. ”
Many people have blasted Ettel, calling her a racist and other sorts of profanity for calling the cops on an 8-year-old kid. In the days following this, many dispensaries stopped selling her products and Ettel was forced to resign from her position. This story was somewhat similar to our protagonist in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester Prynne committed adultery and the leaders of the town gave her the punishment of the scarlet letter. The leaders weren’t sure if her husband was still alive so they didn’t kill her, but she had to wear the letter for the rest of her life. Hester Prynne and Ettel both felt guilt when they were shamed. When Hester was paraded around the market-place, everyone staring at her, “was almost intolerable to be borne” and she tried to hide the scarlet letter from everyone’s view by pressing, “the infant to her bosom, with so convulsive a force that the poor babe uttered another cry of pain”.
According to the New York Times, Ettel also tried to hide when she, “saw she was being recorded, she immediately crouched behind a wall”. During Hester’s shaming, people labeled her and spread rumors about her. Even the children took part for, “they had been imbibed from their parents a vague idea of something horrible” and, “pursued her at a distance with shrill cries”. Ettel was also in some way labeled as people called her a racist and an evil person. People also categorized Ettel as a white person who needlessly escalated encounters with black people. Ettel and Hester were both changed by the shaming, but Hester had better outcomes than Ettel. Whereas Alison Ettel will be permanently scarred by the shaming, Hester Prynne took it upon herself to improve. By doing works of mercy and servitude, Hester was able to be recognized by the townspeople not as the person who committed adultery, but as a person who is humble, hard-working, and saw her with admiration. The townspeople “refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original significance. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne with a woman’s strength”.
On the other hand, Alison Ettel was sent a tremendous amount of hate mail and was sent numerous death threats. She even tried to apologize to the Austin family, but they rejected her apology. Ettel was very apologetic about the incident and put her pride aside to try to make amends. Despite the fact that the townspeople saw Hester in a different light, Hester was not actually apologetic about committing adultery. Instead, she tried justifying what she did by talking to Reverend Dimmesdale about what they did and said, “What they did had a consecration of its own. They said so to each other!”. Hester Prynne tried hard to improve herself and was able to change the ideas of the townspeople, but Alison Ettel also tried and was unsuccessful. Nowadays, anyone with a phone or computer with access to the internet can post anything about someone and others can view it. People have had their lives ruined by this public shaming. Since anything online is saved and can be seen in the future, people many decades in the future can see the things that others have done and the public shaming can continue. Even if you erase or delete your posts, they may come back to haunt you.
I feel that the big difference from now and the past is how information is spread. In the past, information was spread by word of mouth or through literature. Today, just with a click of a button, you can find anything about anyone. In the past, things were able to be covered up or forgotten easily, but in the present, everything is saved so anything you say or do can be used against you, Even if people forget, all it takes is one person to start the discussion again for you to experience hell again. So before you speak or post anything, think about it first.
