Chicago Transit Authority links photos of Abraham Lincoln impersonator to Black History Month
Twitter unloads at the cultural faux pas, 'clearly someone lost their damn mind'
The Chicago Transit Authority thought it was honoring Black History Month by retweeting photos of a man dressed as Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday.
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The Chicago Transit Authority thought it was honoring Black History Month by retweeting photos of a man dressed as Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday.
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“In honor of Black History Month, Abraham Lincoln was seen making a guest appearance on the CTA,” the agency posted on its Twitter account, retweeting photos of a Lincoln impersonator greeting CTA riders at a Red Line subway stop, reported The Chicago Tribune. The initial photos were posted on Lincoln’s birthday, but CTA retweeted the pictures linking Lincoln to Black History Month.
Unquantifiable benefits of #publictransport — meeting #AbrahamLincoln last night on the @cta red line pic.twitter.com/33rVVsFmVf
— Chantal Forster (@cocoforster) February 12, 2020
Realizing the flub, CTA deleted the tweet less than an hour later.
“Apologies, unfortunately our last retweet went in a direction that was not at all intended. Nonetheless, we WILL continue to honor the African-Americans who have played a large role in CTA history,” CTA said in a tweet. “Unfortunately, the wording we used while sharing one of those moments didn’t capture the lighthearted spirit of our customer’s original tweet. Based on feedback from our followers, we felt it was best to remove the post, acknowledge those concerns and apologize.”
Apologies, unfortunately our last retweet went in a direction that was not at all intended. Nonetheless, we WILL continue to honor the African Americans who have played a large role in CTA history.
— cta (@cta) February 12, 2020
Still, it wasn’t before people saw it and slammed the agency for getting it wrong.
“Yeah clearly someone lost their damn mind posting that tweet as a true dedication to Black History Month,” one Twitter user said, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Yeah clearly someone lost their damn mind posting that tweet as a true dedication to Black History Month.
— RT Stewart (@RT_Stewart) February 12, 2020
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Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which freed slaves in the antebellum south, so perhaps this was in the mind of the person responsible for retweeting the Lincoln photos and linking the images to Black History Month.
Although this was clearly a miss, in early February, CTA got it right by posting historical photos of former African-American CTA employees on its Twitter feed.
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