A 20-year-old college intern in Arizona was fired after she tweeted photos of herself and a friend accompanied by a blatantly racist caption.
Erika Escalante tweeted the racist images, which showed Escalante and a friend in a cotton field, with the caption: “Our inner n****r came out today.” They were quickly deleted, but people had already taken screenshots of the offensive images and began to circulate them.
The company where Escalante was employed as an intern, health company Isagenix, did not find any humor in the tweet and quickly fired her after only two hours.
We too find this tweet offensive & we are shocked. This does not reflect our values & culture. The intern is no longer with us.
— Isagenix® (@isagenix) October 26, 2015
“We were shocked when we saw, it’s not what you would expect,” company spokesman Kevin Snyder told Fox 10. “When I looked at it, I immediately knew we had to make a swift action,” he added.
“I deleted it, but it was much too late,” Escalante told Fox 10 Phoenix.
Escalante said that she wanted to apologize to anyone that she offended. “I apologize fully, I take full responsibility for what I have done. It’s just not OK,” she said.
“I am sorry if you took this to heart, I am so sorry, I didn’t mean it at all, it was a mistake, that’s all I can say,” she said, explaining that she meant it as a joke.
https://twitter.com/Eri82195_/status/658608123821821952