A former USA Today editor claims she is the victim after she lost her job for saying that the Colorado gunman was an ‘angry white’ man.
Shortly after the Boulder shooting, which took the lives of ten people, Hemal Jhaveri took to Twitter and wrote: “It’s always an angry white man, always.”
She also agreed to a post from Deadspin writer Emily Julia DiCaro who had said: “Extremely tired of people’s lives depending on whether a white man with an AR-15 is having a good day or not.”
Jhaveri immediately removed her Twitter post when it was reported that the gunman was identified as Syrian-born Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa.
However, her followers already accused her of racism, and USA Today also fired her.
Writing on Medium, Jhaveri wrote: “I am no longer employed at USA TODAY, a company that was my work home for almost eight years.”
She continued: “On Monday night, I sent a tweet responding to the fact that mass shooters are most likely to be [W]hite 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 [judgment], sent at a heated time, that doesn’t represent my commitment to racial equality. I regret sending it. I apologized and deleted the tweet.”
But right after leaving USA Today, Jhaveri wrote: “White USA TODAY reporters have been able to minimize racialized people in print, our white Editor-In-Chief was thoughtless about black face, and a senior politics editor (also white) showed disregard for journalistic ethics by hosting a taxpayer funded reception for Trump appointees.
“All kept their jobs. Going outside of USA TODAY, there’s an even longer list of high-profile white journalists who stayed in their positions after accusations of sexual assault, using the n-word, and editorial negligence.
“Sending one wrong tweet that ended up in the hands of Sean Hannity on Fox News though, was enough for this publication to turn tail.”
The former USA Editor also said that she was not shocked that her job had ended, saying “the ire and anger of alt-right Twitter” also played a part.
“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,” she expressed.
“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.
“That, obviously, did not happen.”
A spokesperson for USA Today’s parent company Gannett told Fox News hat the news outlet was “founded on the basis of diversity, equity and inclusion” and that “we hold our employees accountable to these principles both personally and professionally.”
The spokesperson further said: “While we can’t discuss personnel matters and don’t want to comment on the specifics of her statements on Medium, we firmly believe in and stand by our principles of diversity and inclusion.”
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Replaced!