Justine Sacco Reflects Back on Racist Tweets Posted in 2013

In mid-December of 2013 Justine Sacco, the senior director of corporate communications at IAC was headed to South Africa to visit family for the holidays. She was flying from New York, New York to Cape Town, South Africa. The young and hip woman sat in JFK Airport in NY on her phone, checking social media and communicating with family and friends. She began to post (tweet) things onto Twitter about her luxurious travels, the first being, "'Weird German Dude: You’re in First Class. It’s 2014. Get some deodorant.’ — Inner monologue as I inhale BO. Thank God for pharmaceuticals.” This was the first of many tweets Justine posted in just a few hours. After departing from NY Sacco ended up in London were she proceeded to tweet inappropriate things including, “Chilly — cucumber sandwiches — bad teeth. Back in London!” And immediately before Justine took off for her final destination, Cape Town, South Africa, she tweeted “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” And finally after an 11-hour flight Justine landed in Cape Town where she discovered an obscene amount of phone calls and texts from people she hadn’t heard from in years. They all wanted her to call them and “Get Help.” Justine Sacco had become the #1 trending person on Twitter. Social media ruined her life within minutes; she went from being a modest, hardworking young woman to the #1 trending person on Twitter. Within hours people knew whom she was, where she lived and could read everything she had ever posted.  When Sacco landed she listened to many voicemails, one of them was from her boss, she had lost her job and was told that she was to never return to the workplace, others talked about losing friendships and respect. In February 2015, Justine decided to address the public; she apologized for her childish behavior and lack of respect for herself as well as other cultures. She expressed the lesson she was taught in 2013 and how it’s made her who she is today.

Ronson, Jon. "How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life." The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Feb. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=0>.