Perhaps the person managing People Magazine’s Twitter account was trying to be witty or edgy. This person failed at both but pretty much stuck the racist landing.
The debut of the ABC drama, “How To Get Away With Murder”, starring actress Viola Davis, was met with a number of rave reviews. However, in spite of the that, the person posting this tweet had trouble seeing Ms. Davis as any other character than the maid she played the in the movie “The Help”. The tweet has since been deleted but not before it was captured by some quick-working folks on Twitter.
Racism in 140 characters. Congratulations, @PeopleMag. You win Scum of the Day Award. https://t.co/7Cx2LKjW8S pic.twitter.com/PUUUdPS6vs
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) September 26, 2014
After it hit, the tweet actually was picked up by a few news outlets. This, now doubt, led to the following “apology” from @peoplemag:
Apologies for the earlier tweet. We love HTGAWM & The Help, where that quote was from. But it was stupid & insensitive. Won’t happen again. — People magazine (@peoplemag) September 26, 2014
In addition to better social media standards at People, might I suggest some diversity training, also?
