Another day, another white person’s old tweets come back to haunt them.
You would think people would start to dip into their social media archives to make sure there isn’t anything potential career killing. Following in the footsteps of Milwaukee Brewers all-star pitcher Josh Hader and Hollywood director James Gunn, the latest violator is USA Today blogger Lindsay Ok, who currently writes for the site’s Ravenswire blog – which focuses on the Baltimore Ravens.
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Ok’s tweets, first reported by Black Sports Online, date back to 2010 and 2011 and offer an array of hot takes on Asians driving ability, use homophobic slurs to describe Pittsburgh Steelers fans, and says that the NFL – which she actively covers now – stands for “N—as For Life.”
Once the now-deleted tweets were discovered, Ok tweeted a half-hearted apology to those who “might have been offended.” She goes on to claim they were taken out of context – not sure what context could justify “N—as for life” – and that she does not have a “racist or homophobic, or bad bone in [her] body.”
— lindsey ok (@lindseyyok) July 24, 2018
There is no official word yet coming from USA Today or RavensWire about whether her status with the site has changed or whether she would face any sort of disciplinary action.
Last year, Charlotte Observer reporter Jourdan Rodrigue, who covers the Carolina Panthers, got into similar hot water over old tweets that condoned racism and one which used the “n-word” in a so-called joke. Rodrigue drew scrutiny across the league and was eventually suspended following the Twitter flap.
Let’s agree on one thing: regardless of your age and whether you think it’s funny, racial slurs are never Ok.
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