As the scandal around the now-New York Times editorial board member Sarah Jeong flared up, Candace Owens, Communications Director at conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, called attention to Jeong's previous tweets.
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Owens, who is black, posted the text of one of those tweets, replacing the word "white" with "black."
Black people are only fit to live underground like groveling goblins. They have stopped breeding and will all go extinct soon. I enjoy being cruel to old black women.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) 4 августа 2018 г.
The above statements are from @nytimes editor @sarahjeong. I simply swapped out the word “white” for “black”.
The activist also seemed to have done a similar swap, changing the word "white" for "Jewish." That tweet, however, appears to have been deleted, although some users were quick to take screenshots.
. @RealCandaceO was banned for 12 hours after replacing the word “white” with “jewish” in one of @sarahjeong’s racist tweets.
— mcm-ct.com (@mcm_ct) 5 августа 2018 г.
sarah jeong’s account remains unbanned. pic.twitter.com/5oAuWoo2JU
Apparently, a significant number of Twitterians reported her tweets, leading to the suspension of her account – something that drew the ire of social media users.
READ MORE: Twitterstorm Erupts as NY Times Retains Writer After 'Anti-White' Posts
Even though Twitter has already apologized to Owens for temporarily blocking her account following reports of violations of the platform's rules, the issue engendered a huge controversy.
BLOWN AWAY by the amount of patriots that just came to my side to make this happen.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) 5 августа 2018 г.
I will be periscoping LIVE about this entire debacle, in 30 mins.
I am blessed to know you all. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/r91vwRoVuA
Users accused the network of espousing a double standard, pointing to the fact that Joeng's tweets, largely viewed as “anti-white,” were never removed – neither was her account.
.@RealCandaceO was banned by @Twitter because @Jack approves of racists attacks against white people and this proves it. She literally quoted the #NYT editor swapping race. I wonder what would happen if all #whitepeople deleted the Twitter app one day? Snapchat anyone? pic.twitter.com/mIGQuVBWv8
— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) 5 августа 2018 г.
The double standards are just incredible.
— Gregory Mottola (@gmott57) 5 августа 2018 г.
I think it's funny that @RealCandaceO got a suspension for simply switching out the words from a tweet that @sarahjeong made. But Sarah didn't get suspended, nooo but she got hired by @nytimes. So in all reality only liberals can't be racist right? #RacistSarahJeong
— Noah Mullins (@noahmullins94) 6 августа 2018 г.
But Owens' account was suspended for 12 hours just because she imitated Joeng's tweets, simply swapping out the word “white” for “black.”
Sarah Jeong should have been suspended for racially abusing white people. Why is she getting away with it on twitter and media
— Tyler of Kent #MAGA #MUKGA #DMPhG (@malcolm2607) 6 августа 2018 г.
So, Candace Owens got suspended from Twitter for quoting Sarah Jeong's tweets (Sarah is not suspended and the tweets are still up) but swapping out 'white' for 'jewish'… Candace's account is now restored, but you see the issue, right? Right? Bueller??
— CT Jermin (@pastorctj) 6 августа 2018 г.
An Editor for the New York Times posted racist tweets about White People and Twitter did nothing about it so @RealCandaceO (a Black Trump Supporter) reposted but swapped the word White for Black. Twitter quickly suspended her account but there’s no discrimination of Republicans? pic.twitter.com/9KnOOD8fv5
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) 5 августа 2018 г.
After Twitterians launched a large-scale online campaign to make the platform unsuspend the activist's account by launching a hashtag #FreeCandace, Twitter unbanned it:
The irony of ALL ironies is that @RealCandaceO had her @Twitter account suspended for deliberately swapping the word “black” with “white” in @sarahjeong’s racist tweets below to emphasize liberal hypocrisy only to have them LITERALLY prove her point by suspending her. 🤣🙄 @jack pic.twitter.com/SB2mVwjunb
— 🇺🇸 Lynne Patton (@LynnePatton) 5 августа 2018 г.
UNREAL! @RealCandaceO has been banned from tweeting for 12 hours because she allegedly violated Twitter terms in service
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) 5 августа 2018 г.
She tweeted nothing wrong!
And interestingly @sarahjeong hasn’t been banned or suspended
Why was Candace banned?
Because she is a conservative
@Twitter why did you suspend candance Owens and not the Asian girl who said the exact same thing but replaced Jewish with white? #freecandace
— Whereitattho (@Whereitattho1) 5 августа 2018 г.
Candace banned when she demonstrated how a tweet she COPIED was racist, but the original tweeter wasn't. #FreeCandace and get rid of your two-faced double-standard.
— Dawn Ackley (@jenda45) 5 августа 2018 г.
The massive backlash came shorty after a barrage of Jeong's tweets dating back to 2014 and 2015 resurfaced following the NYT's announcement of the new hire. In her tweets, she blasted "dumba** f***ing white people marking up the internet with their opinions" and rhetorically wondered if white people were "genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun."
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Responding to the fierce criticism, The New York Times defended its decision to hire Sarah Jeong as an editorial board member despite her past remarks and claimed that she had responded to online harassment by mimicking the rhetoric of her bullies.
Our statement in response to criticism of the hiring of Sarah Jeong. pic.twitter.com/WryIgbaoqg
— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) 2 августа 2018 г.
Sarah has also tweeted out a statement, justifying her comments as “counter-trolling”:
— sarah jeong (@sarahjeong) 2 августа 2018 г.
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