Saturday 21 December 2013

“Going to Africa, hope I don’t get aids. I’m white” – Justine Sacco

Justine Sacco, the communications director for InterActiveCorp, better known as IAC based in New York,
tweeted what you see above from an airport in London on her way to board a flight to an African country. How a cringe-worthy statement like this is 'Just kidding' is beyond me.

Unfortunately for Ms Sacco she couldn't take the tweet down
for hours because she was on a long flight to Africa…by the
time she landed several hours later, not only was there an
outcry on Twitter, her job was also on the line.

The company she works for quickly responded by releasing a
statement

"This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not
reflect the views and values of IAC.

Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an
international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we
are taking appropriate action." the company said in a
statement.

The tweet was deleted late last night (American time) very
early this morning (African time). Not only that, Ms Sacco's
entire Twitter account has

been deleted. There are also reports that she has been fired by
IAC. What an ignorant and tasteless statement to make…even
as a joke.

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