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Twitterstorm Erupts as NY Times Retains Writer After 'Anti-White' Posts

© Photo : Youtube / XOXO FestivalSarah Jeong
Sarah Jeong - Sputnik International
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According to Sarah Jeong, her derogatory posts targeted at white people were in reality a sarcastic response to the online harassment she had allegedly suffered from.

On Thursday, The New York Times defended its decision to hire its tech writer Sarah Jeong as an editorial board member despite her remarks, which recently surfaced on social media.

According to the outlet, the remarks, in which Jeong targets white people online using obscenities, were her attempt to mimic the rhetoric of her harassers, who have frequently assaulted her in the internet. "She regrets it, and The Times does not condone it."

She has also made an apology online, claiming that her comments were "intended as satire" and promised to never do it again.

This comes after a bunch of Jeong's comments dating back to 2014 and 2015 were unearthed on Twitter shortly after The Times announced the new hire, in which she slams "dumbass f***ing white people marking up the internet with their opinions" and inquires whether white people are "genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun."

"Oh man it's kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old white men," Jeong wrote in July 2014 in one of the messages.

Her unguarded remarks prompted a social media outcry; reactions ranged from criticism and condemnation to defending the writer from backlash.

Some users lept to Jeong's defence and branded her as a victim of the "white supremacy movement" on social media.

Others, however, accused The NY Times of bigotry and some have cancelled their subscriptions to the paper.

Some users drew a parallel with another media scandal which broke out this February, when the Times fired a new tech writer, Quinn Norton, the same day she was hired, after it emerged that her old tweets contained derogatory remarks targeting African Americans and gay people; she also tweeted she had befriended neo-Nazis.

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