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On Friday just before boarding a flight to South Africa, Sacco tweeted the following message:
“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”
Thinking she was being cutesy-cute and humorous, Sacco boarded the flight and thought nothing of her actions. However, what Sacco was unaware of was that while she was in the air and off the web, the tweet went viral and caused an unbelievable firestorm.
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Within just a few hours, the hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet sprung up in anticipation of Sacco’s landing. By the time her flight touched-down, the damage was done and her life was no longer the same.
Once she turned her smartphone back on, Sacco was floored to learn that literally hundreds of thousands of people from around the world had responded to her tweet, giving her a verbal tongue lashing and a virtual beat down that sometimes veered into vulgarity. Sacco, who boarded the flight as communications director of InterActive Corp (a parent company of numerous websites), found out over the weekend that her employer had a little joke of their own: upon return to the U.S., she should report to the unemployment line instead of what is now her “former” place of employment.
In a statement, her former employer said this of her firing:
“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. 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.”
In a hastily arranged statement to The Star, a South African newapaper, Sacco said:
“Words cannot 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.”
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Although Sacco’s Twitter comments were an horrendous attempt at being “cute,” all was not lost. Someone in the Twittersphere trumped her cuteness by purchasing the website: www.justinesacco.com, then re-directing it to AID FOR AFRICA, a coalition of charities that benefit sub-Saharan Africa. Check and Mate!!
Upon her return to American soil, the now unemployed Sacco is likely going to replay that tweet in her head hundreds of times. She may also want to invest in a few additional PR classes, focusing on the subject “What NOT to do while a PR representative!”
"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"
Um. Wow. Just. Wow.
I mean ….are there words?!…except to say…….
Consider the kind of person…male or female…who would actually think like this let alone tweet it for ALL the world to read!?! …smh.
Stunning.