Rodullistetulle Gay Timesin päätoimittajalle potkut rasismin takia

[Skeptikko]

Vasta tehtäväänsä nimitetty Gay Times -lehden ensimmäinen rodullistettu päätoimittaja, Josh Rivers, sai juuri potkut, kun paljastui, että hän oli twiittaillut vähemmän poliittisesti korrektisti:

The Newly Appointed Editor Of Gay Times Has Been Fired For Posting Dozens Of Offensive Tweets
https://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/the-editor-of-gay-times-posted-dozens-of-offensive-tweets

Josh Rivers apologised after BuzzFeed News asked him to square a series of old racist, misogynistic, and ableist tweets with his new public support for diversity.

The newly-appointed editor of Britain's oldest gay title, Gay Times, has been fired after dozens of offensive tweets he had previously written were uncovered.

In an interview with BuzzFeed News published on 15 November, Josh Rivers apologised for a series of racist, misogynistic, and ableist tweets. Later that day he was suspended, and on Thursday his employment was "terminated with immediate effect".
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Decades of white-run, white-owned, monocultural LGBT magazines had come to an end in October when Gay Times announced its new editor would be Rivers, who, as a mixed-race British-American, was the UK's first BAME editor of a gay men's magazine.

The news was greeted ecstatically, not least because Gay Times, founded in 1984, attributed the appointment to a desire to "best serve the magazine's diverse and culturally inquisitive audience." Rivers, 31, promised "a monthly journal that speaks to the vast and varied lived experiences of our community ­– in its entirety."

This, many hoped, could mark a new beginning of inclusivity, where sexual racism, body fascism, ableism, and other forms of oppression permeating gay media and beyond could be challenged. Say goodbye to the flip book of white abs and white pecs.
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But while researching Rivers – previously the magazine's marketing manager – following an invitation to interview him, BuzzFeed News found several dozen tweets between 2010 and 2015 that would shock many people.

There were tweets about Jewish people: "I wonder if they cast that guy as 'The Jew' because of that fucking ridiculously larger honker of a nose. It must be prosthetic. Must be." In another tweet, he applauded as "genius" a quote from animated sitcom Family Guy: "Jews are gross. It's the only religion with 'ew' in it." In a third, he asked for film recommendations – except ones about the Holocaust.

Then there were the tweets about Asian people: "The creepiest gay men are short, old asian men with long nails. Fact." He also described two Chinese people sat next to him at the 2012 Olympics as "sneaky fucks" because he didn't see that they were there while he "screamed 'we just shat all over china'." In another tweet he wondered: "Long day. How would I type that with Chinese accent? Wong way?"

Rivers tweeted his views about other parts of the world, too: "Waitress from next door just got back from Africa & told me I should go soon. Do I look like I'm trying to get killed? Jog on, honey." And, "So the Egyptian men celebrate by raping women? Cool. Freedom rings for fat, smelly, hairy, cunt-face, backwards rapists. YAY!"

The tweets about women were of a similar ilk. "I've just seen a girl in the tightest white tank & lord help me if she's not pregnant, she should be killed. #gross"
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I'm surrounded by fucking monkeys. And not Planet of the Apes  monkeys either. Fucking retard monkeys. I'm so annoyed!
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A lot of people would see those tweets and think he's nothing but a racist. "I think those tweets, yeah, they're perhaps reflective of a lack of awareness." Rivers says he has only recently started reading feminist texts and understanding how misogyny is reflected in language.

It is of course the case that not everyone is schooled in feminist theory, queer theory or the sociology of race. But how, as a queer person of colour, could he be so unaware of his own attitudes to tweet such things?