USA Today’s fired its sports media group’s race and inclusion editor Hemal Jhaveri, for tweets she made shortly after Monday’s Colorado shooting, Jhaveri announced on her Medium page Friday.
The Hill reports the firing came after a tweet — now deleted — that Jhaveri made Monday night about the shooting in which she stated, “It’s always an angry white man. Always.”
In her Medium essay, Jhaveri described how the events unfolded after her tweet.
“By Tuesday morning, after the shooter was identified as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, several high profile alt-right Twitter accounts picked up the tweet as an example of anti-white bias and racism against whites. You can guess what happens next,” she wrote.
“There was social media outrage, threats and harassment towards me, and by the end of the day, USA TODAY had relieved me of my position as a Race and Inclusion editor,” Jhaveri added.
Initially in the essay, Jhaveri described the tweet as a “careless error of judgment" and added that she regretted sending it and apologized for the tweet made largely before anyone knew the race or ethnicity of the mass shooter.
However, later on in the piece, Jhaveri characterized the tweet as “a challenge to white supremacy” that was weaponized by “bad faith actors.”
“This is not about bias, or keeping personal opinions off of Twitter. It’s about challenging whiteness and being punished for it,” she added.
A spokesperson for USA Today would not discuss the details of Jhaveri’s firing or comment on her essay.
“USA TODAY was founded on the basis of diversity, equity and inclusion,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We hold our employees accountable to these principles both personally and professionally.”
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