Quaden Bayles racially abused after Black Lives Matter protest months after horrific bullying video went viral
QUADEN Bayles has received racist abuse after attending a Black Lives Matter march just months after a video of him in floods of tears due to bullying went viral. The nine-year-old Australian captured the world’s hearts after the clip of him saying he wanted to die was viewed millions of times on Facebook. Quaden attended […]
QUADEN Bayles has received racist abuse after attending a Black Lives Matter march just months after a video of him in floods of tears due to bullying went viral.
The nine-year-old Australian captured the world’s hearts after the clip of him saying he wanted to die was viewed millions of times on Facebook.
Quaden attended a Black Lives Matter protest in Brisbane over the weekend amid ongoing fury over the death of George Floyd.
He shared a number of photos on his Instagram page, which has almost 470,000 followers.
Vile trolls however piled in on some of his posts as they threw racial abuse and other insults at the youngster, who has achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism.
His fans however were quick to slap down any twisted bullies picking on the boy.
One said: “Please leave the comments off. I am so sick of seeing grown ass adults bully a CHILD.”
Another added: “So many trolls hating, they got no life but to make stupid comments.”
Others said the “keyboard warriors” need to “f**k off with the hate” and “don’t listen to them haters”.
One wrote: “So sad how many people terrorize this kid.”
Quaden shared pic of himself meeting with Queensland rapper Lisi at the protest, and also holding a picture of TJ Hickey.
The 17-year-old TJ died during a police pursuit when he was thrown from his bike and impaled on a fence in Sydney in 2004.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised for Quaden, much of which was donated to good causes – including work with Aboriginal communities.
Quaden, from Brisbane, first emerged in the public eye earlier this year when his mum Yarraka filmed his deep distress in a now-viral video, to show “this is what bullying is doing”.
After collecting her lad from school “in hysterics”, following further abuse, she filmed him and shared the clip on Facebook.
The video shows a sobbing Quaden saying: “Give me a knife, I want to kill myself. I just want to die right now.”
Her appeal sparked an outpouring of worldwide support for the bullied boy, including from celebrities and athletes.
Australian actor Hugh Jackman said “you are stronger than you know, mate” and urged people to “be kind” to each other.
The trolls didn’t stop however – with Quaden even having to reveal his passport after a vile conspiracy theory that he was an “18-year-old actor” was shared online.
Quaden’s family now have an Instagram account where they can keep fans up to date with his life – but are still facing harassment by trolls.
He joined the protests over the weekend amid the global outpouring of support for Mr Floyd.
The 46-year-old “gentle giant” died after white police officer Derek Chauvin sat kneeling on his neck in a now-infamous viral video.
Most read in News
Protests over police brutality have now morphed into calls to end any and all systematic racism.
People have been sharing their own stories of facing prejudice as protests spread worldwide.
And activists are now looking at monuments with links to slavery and oppression which they say should be removed as not to glorify past injustices.