Butterfly Effect Project and local officials respond to racist comments on Facebook targeting the Riverhead-based youth group

“We’re not going anywhere.” 

That’s the message from The Butterfly Effect Project in response to a slew of racist comments made on the organization’s recent Facebook post announcing an upcoming event honoring founder Tijuana Fulford and five junior volunteer leaders — all Black women.

The Butterfly Effect Project, founded in 2014 to break down racial, cultural, economic and social barriers and empower young girls of diverse backgrounds, found itself on the receiving end of vile comments and racist tropes shortly after the announcement went up on its Facebook page.

Fulford called a press conference today at BEP’s headquarters to denounce the hateful remarks.

“The Butterfly Effect project never runs or hides when there’s a challenge ahead. We are both the source and recipient of boundless love and support. We will continue to feed the homeless with warm smiles. We hold our heads high as we distribute clothes and household items at our pop-up shops proudly. We will ensure backpacks full of school supplies, get to the students who need it, regardless if they’re in our program or not. We will buy Thanksgiving meal baskets for families throughout the community, and will continue to be the beacon of light that shines so brightly in many communities,” Fulford said.

“I will not allow commentary,  hateful, negative, vile and racist voices to silence the joyful noise that the Butterfly Effect Project makes.  So I will not be deleting your comments, despite them being extremely offensive,” Fulford said. 

Fulford gave her remarks standing next to a large monitor on which screen shots of some of the comments and memes were displayed as she spoke.

“You want to be seen. I see you. You want to be heard. I hear you. I still stand and say with love and respect that we understand that seeing a post of beautiful young women aspiring to be the best versions of themselves triggers you immensely,” Fulford said. “That young women succeeding and being honored inspires violence and hatred in you, it also lets me know two things: one, that we are doing a phenomenal job, and two, there is more work to be done,” she said.

“And if you think you are mad now, wait till you see what is coming down the pipeline.”

Members of the Butterfly Action Group, the organization’s youth-led action group, spoke after Fulford. 

D’Andre, a member of the Dragonfly chapter — a BEP chapter for boys — said seeing the comments at first “nearly broke my heart.” But they didn’t break his heart, because, he said, “I know behind the screen of the person that responded is an immature and negative adult pushing down on youth success in life…You have to be really low down to call kids names like this,” he said. 

“The Butterfly Effect project teaches us to handle situations like this and move past things like this. We don’t judge. We empower one another. I hope this message reaches you and you honestly grow up and take that advice,” D’Andre said.

Alexandra, one of the youth leaders being honored at the event advertised by BEP’s Facebook post, said the commenters want an argument or reaction. “The ignorance is loud,” she said. Alexandra said she is a high school senior who plans to become a civil rights attorney. The comments stoked her passion and increased her motivation to become something great and to change the world, she said.  

Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard attended the press conference to support the organization, which he said is “a great program” that has done a lot of good for the youth it serves and the larger community.

“It’s hard to believe that in the year 2025 there are ignorant people in the world that live like this and survive daily. They’re not productive for society. They serve no purpose. Their thoughts, their words, they serve no purpose. What I enlist them to do is to educate themselves,” Hubbard said of the people posting racist comments.

Riverhead Town council members Bob Kern and Denise Merrifield were also on hand to show support for BEP.

Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico in a Facebook post called the comments “grotesquely racist and ignorant” and said, “This is yet another example of the abject cesspool of misinformation that social media is becoming.”

Mark McLaughlin, chairperson of the Riverhead Anti-Bias Task Force said “There is no place for this kind of rhetoric in Riverhead.”

Fulford said the organization will be filing a police report to document the incident. “We had someone do a deep search and so we’re going to give all that information over to the police today,” she said. The organization is also beefing its security on the property and around chapter meeting places. 

“It boggles my mind that there are people that still are so narrow-minded and have these thoughts and feelings, but they’re also cowards,” Hubbard said in an interview. “They’re keyboard warriors who  hide behind their computer screen—  a lot of times with fake names and everything else.”

Asked if he thinks the current debate around race issues that’s happening in Washington around race issues right now, like DEI, feeds this kind of behavior, Hubbard said, “Oh, sure, it does. I totally agree that it does, you know, and that’s unfortunate, because that’s not — I’m not sure that that was the intent and the purpose of some of the things that are trying to be done. But it certainly has turned out to be a much bigger problem than it ever should have been or needed to be.”

McLaughlin said in an interview that the comments are unacceptable. “Hate is always unacceptable,” he said. 

The Facebook comments included hateful names, curse words, memes referencing DEI and depicting monkeys and dancing apes.

It’s “very unfortunate for, not only the honorees, but people that even support the honorees, that have to deal with this kind of hate. And it’s unacceptable,” McLaughlin said.

“Shame on them,” he said. “I hope people shine a light on where these people are, and that light shines so bright that people that are in a place to address them for their actions are able to see it.”