More than 20 members of Teen Vogue’s staff have written to publisher Condé Nast expressing concerns over incoming editor in chief Alexi McCammond after past racist and homophobic tweets were unearthed.
“We’ve heard the concerns of our readers, and we stand with you. In a moment of historically high anti-Asian violence and amid the ongoing struggles of the LGBTQ community, we as the staff of Teen Vogue fully reject those sentiments,” part of a statement shared on Twitter read. “We are hopeful that an internal conversation will prove fruitful in maintaining the integrity granted to us by our audience.”
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A representative for Condé Nast did not respond to a request for comment.
McCammond has not yet publicly commented, but as first reported by The Daily Beast, on Monday evening she sent a note to staffers stating: “I’m beyond sorry for what you have experienced over the last 24 hours because of me. You’ve seen some offensive, idiotic tweets from when I was a teenager that perpetuated harmful and racist stereotypes about Asian Americans. I apologized for them years ago, but I want to be clear today: I apologize deeply to all of you for the pain this has caused.”
She continued: “There’s no excuse for language like that. I am determined to use the lessons I’ve learned as a journalist to advocate for a more diverse and equitable world. Those tweets aren’t who I am, but I understand that I have lost some of your trust, and will work doubly hard to earn it back.”
Some of the tweets were shared over the weekend by Diana Tsui, editorial director of The Infatuation, on Instagram with the caption, “I’m tired of big media organizations pretending to give a damn about diversity and inclusion. And this especially is a slap in the face given what’s happened to Asian Americans in the past year.”
One of McCammond’s tweets said, “now googling how to not wake up with swollen, asian eyes” and another read, “give me a 2/10 on my chem problem, cross out all of my work and don’t explain what I did wrong..thanks a lot stupid asian T.A. you’re great.”
Both were from 2011 when McCammond was in college and in 2019 she apologized on Twitter, stating: “Today I was reminded of some past insensitive tweets, and I am deeply sorry to anyone I offended. I have since deleted those tweets as they do not reflect my views or who I am today.”
Among the many to comment on Tsui’s post was actress Olivia Munn, who said: “What the actual f–k.”
Later in the day, Benjamin O’Keefe, a frontrunner for the Teen Vogue top editor’s position, unearthed more tweets, this time homophobic in nature.