Former InterActiveCorp PR director Justine Sacco lit a firestorm over the weekend with an offensive tweet about her impending vacation to South Africa.
“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” Sacco tweeted.
The backlash was swift and severe. Sacco was fired from her job and the entire debacle further established the power and influence of black Twitter.
Now, Sacco is issuing an apology for what she calls a “careless” tweet:
Words can not express how sorry I am, and how necessary it is for me to apologize to the people of South Africa, who I have offended due to a needless and careless tweet. There is an AIDS crisis taking place in this country, that we read about in America, but do not live with or face on a continuous basis. Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to be cavalier about an epidemic that one has never witnessed firsthand. For being insensitive to this crisis – which does not discriminate by race, gender or sexual orientation, but which terrifies us all uniformly – and to the millions of people living with the virus, I am ashamed. This is my father’s country, and I was born here. I cherish my ties to South Africa and my frequent visits, but I am in anguish knowing that my remarks have caused pain to so many people here; my family, friends and fellow South Africans. I am very sorry for the pain I caused.
Still, Sacco’s former employers were not swayed by her mea culpa.
IAC said in a statement Saturday: “The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question.”
“There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally,” the statement went on. “We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core.”
Sacco’s Twitter account has been deactivated in the wake of the controversy. But a pro-AIDS research organization has capitalized on the story.
Justinesacco.com has now been re-routed to the charitable Aid for Africa‘s donation page