On Monday night, I sent a tweet responding to the fact that mass shooters are most likely to be white men. It was a dashed off over-generalization, tweeted after pictures of the shooter being taken into custody surfaced online. It was a careless error of judgement, sent at a heated time, that doesn’t represent my commitment to racial equality. I regret sending it. I apologized and deleted the tweet.
Well, that does not sound like the qualities necessary to be an effective Group Race and Inclusion editor, whatever that is.
I wish I were more surprised by it, but I’m not. Some part of me has been waiting for this to happen because I can’t do the work I do and write the columns I write without invoking the ire and anger of alt-right Twitter. There is always the threat that tweets which challenge white supremacy will be weaponized by bad faith actors. I had always hoped that when that moment inevitably came, USA TODAY would stand by me and my track record of speaking the truth about systemic racism.
I think you could have done that work, but you opted to be racist instead and you were fired because of that. The tweet that caused you to get fired was not truthful.
During my time at For The Win, my most important work focused on tackling systemic racism and sexism within sports, going up against the NHL, Barstool Sports, and most recently, Oral Roberts University’s anti-LGBTQ+ policy.
I think Portnoy would destroy her.
This is not about bias, or keeping personal opinions off of Twitter. It’s about challenging whiteness and being punished for it.
You were punished because you generalized and stereotyped and were wrong. Something you claim you are constantly fighting against.
We’re never going to see real change in newsrooms unless editors allow for their writers, and BIPOC writers specifically, to freely critique white structural relations. The fact that many newsrooms still view that as “bias” is a saddening and dispiriting fact.
Do you understand that is not what you were doing when you were fired for your tweet? No? Cool. Good Luck!
On Monday night, I sent a tweet responding to the fact that mass shooters are most likely to be white men. It was a dashed off over-generalization, tweeted after pictures of the shooter being taken into custody surfaced online. It was a careless error of judgement, sent at a heated time, that doesn’t represent my commitment to racial equality. I regret sending it. I apologized and deleted the tweet.
Well, that does not sound like the qualities necessary to be an effective Group Race and Inclusion editor, whatever that is.
I wish I were more surprised by it, but I’m not. Some part of me has been waiting for this to happen because I can’t do the work I do and write the columns I write without invoking the ire and anger of alt-right Twitter. There is always the threat that tweets which challenge white supremacy will be weaponized by bad faith actors. I had always hoped that when that moment inevitably came, USA TODAY would stand by me and my track record of speaking the truth about systemic racism.
I think you could have done that work, but you opted to be racist instead and you were fired because of that. The tweet that caused you to get fired was not truthful.
During my time at For The Win, my most important work focused on tackling systemic racism and sexism within sports, going up against the NHL, Barstool Sports, and most recently, Oral Roberts University’s anti-LGBTQ+ policy.
I think Portnoy would destroy her.
This is not about bias, or keeping personal opinions off of Twitter. It’s about challenging whiteness and being punished for it.
You were punished because you generalized and stereotyped and were wrong. Something you claim you are constantly fighting against.
We’re never going to see real change in newsrooms unless editors allow for their writers, and BIPOC writers specifically, to freely critique white structural relations. The fact that many newsrooms still view that as “bias” is a saddening and dispiriting fact.
Do you understand that is not what you were doing when you were fired for your tweet? No? Cool. Good Luck!
Her lost comment is the crux of the whole thing. She believes that “critiquing white structural relations” (whatever that even means) is not bias. I mean, I can almost even see her point there if I try hard enough. But if she believes that saying “it’s always a white man” when it was not, in fact, a white man is an example of critiquing white structural relations, then I just don’t know what to tell her.
You can be critical of what you perceive to be a system that favors white men. But assuming that a crime was committed by a white man without evidence isn’t fixing that; it’s just intentionally fanning the flames of racial divide.
“I can say he’s a good kid. I think the football messed him up,” Alonzo said of Phillip, 32, who played for the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers and New York Jets.
“I don’t think he ever did anybody any harm,” he added.
“He used to be my doctor a long time ago. I know they were good folks down there. We’re gonna keep them in our prayers,” Alonzo told the outlet.
