Posted on 12/21/2013 9:30:19 AM PST by GodAndCountryFirst
A message about race and AIDS in Africa posted on the Twitter account of a public relations executive at an Internet media giant caused an outcry on Twitter and the web on Friday.
The message, from the account of Justine Sacco, the communications director for InterActiveCorp, better known as IAC, read: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”
IAC is the corporate parent of more than three dozen companies, including Match.com, The Daily Beast and Dictionary.com. The company, based in New York City, also owns BlackPeopleMeet.com, a dating site for African-Americans.
“This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC,” the company said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.”
(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.nytimes.com ...
It’s a dumb comment...but I’m curious about one thing..the last two words..”I’m white.” If she had omitted them, would it be any different?
Forget PC.
This was a stupid statement.
Whites can get AIDS, especially if they expose themselves to it in places where it is prevalent whether that be in Africa or in other venues. Chances of contracting AIDS depends that the guy DOES while in Africa, just as it would anywhere.
Of course, there is no law against being stupid or expressing your stupidity publically. But as an employer, I don’t have to keep stupid people on the payroll.
I think I get it.. There isn’t any AIDS in the African Black population, so it must be in jest, RIGHT?
It’s a shame, things are getting so confusing, and folks are wound much too tight lately..
Judging by the reaction from this tweet, I bet if a person were to refer to New York City as “hymietown”, they would be shunned forever, never to appear in the media again.
And you can bet they would never be considered an expert on civil rights.
A stupid comment. Anyway, being white doesn’t reduce one’s risk of getting AIDS. Being female does.
How many white people in africa get aids, out of curiosity. I know that it may not be causal, but I can see a person ignorant of how the disease is spread making such a comment, and stats would actually support her.
She is being cast as a racist. But, even if the tweet was a little strange, it was not racist.
Overwhelming number is black...because that’s the majority of the population in equitorial Africa.. However, the vast majority of cases are by heterosexual transmission...due to prostitution.
Dumb statement.
Wait. There’s a BlackPeopleMeet.com
“posted on the Twitter account of a public relations executive at an Internet media giant”
What a stupid idiot; hope she gets canned. I work with too many “preferred minorities” that think the speech laws that apply to white guys don’t apply to them; if we have to learn the new PC nonsense they have to as well.
Also the popularity of dry sex and certain practices regarding widows having sex with their dead husband’s brothers, among other odd cultural sexual practices.
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