In the midst of the Stop Asian Hate movement, the Juventus Women's Soccer team from Italy tweeted an overtly racist photo mocking Asian people.
On Thursday the team tweeted a photo of a player wearing an orange cone like a hat, and pulling their eyes up at the corners. The emojis suggested that gesture as well.
Twitter users did not respond well to any of it.
Some things never changepic.twitter.com/73glMzyWpM— Jeff Yang (@Jeff Yang) 1628192829
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear\n\nIt's 2021 and yet numerous people at Juventus thought this tweet was okaypic.twitter.com/Il7YxMl2YU— David Kent (@David Kent) 1628192439
The number of bad decisions made to get here are astounding.\n\n1. You make the face.\n2. You put the thing on your head.\n3. You do the racist thing w/ your fingers.\n4. You allow someone to take a picture.\n5. The social media manager posts it.\n6. & then a dollop of racist emojis.https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1423370008336375810\u00a0\u2026— W. Kamau Bell (@W. Kamau Bell) 1628193310
i didn't even know you could do asian hate crimes via emoji until this juventus shitstorm. what a formal innovation honestly— Delia Cai (@Delia Cai) 1628196233
i don\u2019t think i\u2019ve ever seen that combo before??? innovation indeed— nicole bae (@nicole bae) 1628196639
Juventus has deleted the clearly racist tweet. Absolute disgrace anyone thinks this is appropriate never mind funny. We've approached the club for a response, it had better involve the words "sorry", "out of order", "grossly inappropriate" and "fired".pic.twitter.com/Qrd9yhgutp— Anton Toloui (@Anton Toloui) 1628192508
i mean it's so damn stupid that i'm mostly depressed for these people that this what they even consider as comedy. \n\nlololol sad 4 u— Kimmy The Pooh (@Kimmy The Pooh) 1628193106
They have since deleted the tweet and issued an apology:
"We sincerely apologize that our tweet, which was not meant to cause controversy or have any racial undertones, may have offended anyone."
"Juventus has always been against racism and discrimination. #DifferencesMakeTheDifference"
The apology did not help the situation, as many felt it was disingenuous.
Oh look I found the racist bone in @JuventusFCWomen\u2019s bodypic.twitter.com/VTvfCKQabx— Jeff Yang (@Jeff Yang) 1628194298
How you gonna be against racism and actually post this?\nThat's not an undertone, it's an overtone...— Rebecca Gold (@Rebecca Gold) 1628195294
"Not meant to have any racial undertones"? Wtf? Ah, it's because it's OVERTLY racist... racist overtones... just racist. Unbelievable— Adrian Scarlett (@Adrian Scarlett) 1628242902
It took a player, a photographer, and a social media person together for the post. It's shocking not one person realized the nature of this picture. If a few individuals couldn't be self-aware about this post, then clearly you are not against racism & discrimination as you say.— M\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f Shapnik | No Room For Racism (@M\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f Shapnik | No Room For Racism) 1628194059
it\u2019s better to admit that you were in the wrong rather than denying the intention at all. To act as if we would buy this is yet again treating us with disrespect.\n\nPlease, then, tell us what the intention was. And give us an action plan for not letting this happen again.— \u3042\u3093\u306a\ud83d\ude4b\u200d\u2640\ufe0f (@\u3042\u3093\u306a\ud83d\ude4b\u200d\u2640\ufe0f) 1628234946
I have some questions:\n1) Who suggested that pose?\n2) Having taken the photo, why was it kept?\n3) Having kept the photo, who decided to choose it as acceptable for social media use?\n4) Why did nobody between point 1 and 3 say \u2018hey you know this is really racist and terrible idea\u2019— Simon Williams (@Simon Williams) 1628194196
Tell us what it meant then. Let's hear it.— Rory. (@Rory.) 1628193397
Especially with the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic, this microaggression promotes the violence that so many Asian people have experienced over the last year and a half.
Juventus' Twitter apology left us with more questions than answers: Who thought this was okay? How could anyone let this happen? What is the team going to do to hold themselves accountable for their actions?
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