Some people are just racists, and there is nothing we can do to change that. I’ve now come to that realization. Yes, I know that racism exists, but come on, we’re knocking on the door of 2014… and we’re still dealing with this ignorance? And what’s even worse, there is no end in sight.
Twitter and other social media sites were all buzzing a little more than usual on Friday, and I needed to find out why. A few seconds later, I came upon this tweet by Justine Sacco:
Who is Justine Sacco? Well first of all she is a racist, apparently unaware that things posted on a social media website is not the same as writing in her personal diary. Secondly, she is a public relations officer and senior director of corporate communications at InterActiveCorp (more commonly known as IAC), a Media company that owns Match.com, Vimeo and CollegeHumor.com, among others.
The tweet above was made as Justine boarded a flight to Africa and by the time she landed, her Twitter account was deleted but her tweet had already gone viral, as people all over the world voiced their disgust at the so-call humor of Miss Sacco. But her boss did not find the tweet funny. IAC, trying to separate the company from their racist employee, quickly issued this statement:
“This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC. Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.”
IAC, who also owns other popular sites like About.com, OkCupid and Urbanspoon, took further steps and removed Justine’s name from their Contact page.
Some are saying that Justine’s twitter account could have been hacked, that someone took her cell phone for example and tweeted out that message. But some digging from Buzzfeed found more offensive tweets, spanning over two years.
Buzzfeed dug these tweets up before Justine’s account mysteriously disappeared. Tweets like;
We can tell this one is not going to fade away anytime soon, as the world awaits IAC’s decision on Justine Sacco. Waiting for Palin and Republicans to somehow use this as a political strategy to “protect free speech!”
