For some reason, I do not get offended anymore when I come across ignorant and absurd messages like the one below—-even if it is coming from an educated white person.
Surely, there are still some non-Africans out there who think Africans live on trees and therefore, it is not much of a SHOCK that a PR executive for a major media company would tweeted such a racist ‘joke’…
Before Justine Sacco boarded a British Airways flight 43 to Cape Town yesterday, the Communications Director for IAC, a parent company for Vimeo, OkCupid, Tinder, CollegeHumor, and Dictionary.com sent out a tweet to say: ‘Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just Kidding. I’m White!’
Her ignorant tweet sparked a social media revolt and it was retweeted over 3,000 times. It was also picked up by news sites around the world while Sacco was still in the air…
Justine Sacco’s tweet was blasted all over for being ‘outrageous’ and ‘inappropriate’, with titles like ‘Worst Tweet of the Year’ stacking up against her. And then Sacco deleted the tweet—she also deleted her entire Twitter account.
As I stated, I do not get offended anymore by such messages as an African—simply because ignorance in itself is a disease and I do not have to be bothered by sick people.
She has bn sack, serves her right
I dont think they are ignorant , they are just wicked ,and and never want anything good for blacks but its unfortunate.
@ato, i agree .. they still see black as negative ….
I understand that’s a bad joke to pull,….I think her point is clear that sickness and diseases don’t know colour or status….her status is quite open for interpretation…..unfortunately she pulled it out in a wrong way….plus she just tweeted what some ignorant people out there thinks…sad but true…..
@missy,what is true abt wat she tweeted? Re u saying all africans ve Aids or the fact dat she comes to africa she ll aquires. Pls just shut up n stop trying to defend the indefensible. U just sound stupid just like her…
Hmmmmmm how could she?? some jokes are silly and expensive!!!