I do not know if they have followed the amazing case of Alexi McCammond, that 27-year-old American journalist, extremely smart and with a meteoric career, who a few weeks ago was named director of
Teen Vogue
, the youth version of the sacrosanct
Vogue
magazine
.
A crack.
But before she could take office, a handful of racist and homophobic tweets surfaced that Alexi (who, by the way, is black) had written at age 17.
In fact, the texts had already surfaced in 2019 and then McCammond apologized.
But now they have appeared again and the consequences have been staggering;
Vogue
employees
protested and two major advertisers, cosmetic firms Ulta Beauty and Burt's Bees, withdrew their ad campaigns.
Consequence: Alexi resigned before starting and once again made an act of public contrition.
And now let's look at the tweets that this 17-year-old enemy of humanity published at the time: "Googling how not to wake up with those swollen Asian eyes", "Outperformed by Asians" or, speaking of an educator who had suspended her, "Thank you very much, stupid Asian professor."
Likewise, when a baseball umpire disclosed at age 50 that he was gay, she wrote: “Why should this be considered newsworthy?
It is not".
A topical and homophobic comment, indeed, that I have heard other times from the lips of intolerant people;
but, on the other hand, the phrase is so light that it could even be understood in favor of sexual diversity, because we will not be totally free until there is full normalization, until that is news.
What I mean is that Alexi's texts were racist and sexist, no doubt, but stupid and of little depth, silly adolescent comments, who knows if they were even made to please the group, a longing so typical of that ungrateful age.
Because the rest of his biography, up to today, seems to be perfectly clean.
But a few nonsense released on the networks when she was almost a child, of which she has already apologized, will ruin her career and her life.
And no, the recent killings of Asians don't make the lynching more justifiable.
A world capable of behaving like this seems frightening to me.
For the record, I am not writing this column to angrily condemn political correctness.
Because I don't condemn her.
I think that in this, as in almost everything, the reason is in the good sense and the middle ground.
The language is not neutral;
it is marked by the dominant ideology, and as values change, the language is changing.
Sometimes habit makes you not fully aware of what you are saying;
I often use "by God" even though I am not a believer, because the word has been emptied of meaning for me.
Something similar can happen to someone who thoughtlessly lets go of “Chinese work” or “black snack”.
But that's why I think we should listen more to what we say, and try to clean the cobwebs of old prejudices.
And thus, to say pejoratively "that is a gypsy" seems indecent to me.
Even worse, because they are more full of deliberation and meaning, are the jokes (raped, sissy, racist).
It is logical and necessary to want to adapt the public word to common respect.
But it is inadmissible to turn it into a bigoted witch hunt.
Although, if I look at it carefully, I think that, more than intolerance, this case reflects hypocrisy.
And racism, and machismo, and the prejudice that they claim to fight.
I highly doubt that such a campaign would have been organized if Alexi had been a white man with powerful ties.
They have allowed themselves to stone her because she is black, because she is young and female.
Let's see, let's compare his with some of the niceties that Donald Trump has said: "When you're a star [like me] you can grab women by the cunt";
“What do we want Haitians here for?
Why do we get people from shitty countries?
They all have AIDS ”;
"Mexican immigrants bring drugs, crime, they are rapists and I suppose some are good people."
It is just a micro-sample of his many nonsense, but you see, no one made him resign, on the contrary, he was president and he is still there, voted and venerated, perhaps also by the advisers of those prickly cosmetic firms.
In short, it is sad, scary and ashamed.
