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by colesantiago·5y ago·view on hn ↗
> We should be clear about a couple things. First, McCammond apologized. She apologized profusely, and she apologized repeatedly. And she did not just apologize this week, when her job was in jeopardy. She apologized back in 2019.

Well for the twitter archeologists, this isn't enough and it will never be enough.

There is no "I should not have tweeted what I did and I take full responsibility for that"

There is no "Sorry for my past behaviour and I have grown out of it"

There is no "This isn't what you think it is"

There is no "Please, I can explain."

There is no redemption.

2 comments
After the clarification, this post really hits the nail on the head. For some social archeologists out on witch hunt, too much will never be enough. I'm willing to bet that every person with a social torch and pitchfork out for her blood said something equally shitty (likely more so) when they were in high school.

So now we (the collective) have destroyed the promising career of a talented, confident, young woman of color on the premise that when she was in grade 10 or 11 she said some potentially mean things.

If she had committed an actual crime (all but the most heinous), it would have been handled and expunged when she turned 18. That's the thing about juvenile crimes, we accept that kids make mistakes that should not haunt them into adulthood. Apparently though thanks to the wonders of social media, a joke in poor taste lasts forever.

I'll also note that she lost her job for three tweets (as far as I can tell) that all seem rather benign in my opinion and she is clearly not calling for any action or violence against others. Many political leaders have said far worse about immigrants out loud as adults in public with no ramification.

One of her offending tweets (the least egregious to be sure) is "Outdone by [an] Asian #whatsnew".

I'll note that statistically nothing is new. Asian American students dramatically out perform African American students across the board. Is it really racist to lament something happening that is itself at least partially caused by systemic racism? If, as a person of color, she tweeted "Hassled by White cop #whatsnew" would that have been racist?

Well done internet, we collectively suck.

Are you saying she did not apologize or are you saying that no apology would ever absolve her?
The latter.

Where we are going, this will unfortunately be the norm, no matter how many times one tries to seek redemption for past tweets.

I’ll advise my child and adult friends as well to not write shitty tweets.