Editor of Teen Vogue quits in racism storm
Magazine boss Wintour knew about offensive tweets... but still gave her job
THE editor of Teen Vogue has quit before her first day in the job over a series of racist and homophobic tweets.
Alexi McCammond had been given the role by Vogue editor-in-chief – Dame Anna Wintour – despite her being aware of the appalling messages her protege had put out on social media.
The 27-year-old was supposed to start at the Conde Nast publication next week but resigned after a backlash when the offensive tweets surfaced.
The storm comes just days after US Vogue was branded absurd after it published an article claiming the Daily Mail’s use of the phrase ‘a niggling worry’ in a headline about Meghan and Harry’s engagement was racist.
Pressure had built from staff, readers and advertisers after former Washington political reporter Miss McCammond was appointed to the role of editor-in- chief at digital magazine Teen Vogue two weeks ago.
Conde Nast HR boss Stan Duncan said in a memo to staff that Dame Anna and other executives were aware of her tweets from 2011 when they hired her but thought she had learned from her mistakes. After a public outcry, which saw cosmetics company Ulta Beauty deciding to ‘pause’ a seven-figure advertising spend with Vogue, Miss McCammond said she was ‘parting ways’ with Conde Nast.
The anti-Asian tweets from 2011 said: ‘Googling how to not wake up with swollen Asian eyes.’
Another now- deleted tweet aimed fury at a teacher, with her writing: ‘Give me a 2/10 on my chem [chemistry] problem, cross out all of my work and don’t explain what I did wrong… thanks a lot stupid Asian T.A [teaching assistant]. you’re great.’
Another tweet talked about a ‘bandwagoning homo (sexual)’ and another said: ‘Outdone by Asian #whatsnew’. A picture of Miss McCammond from 2011 wearing Native American headdress was also published on right wing website The National Pulse.
Dame Anna reportedly discussed the offensive tweets with executives before they offered the job to Miss McCammond. She struck them as an ‘impressive candidate’, the New York Times reported, and they felt an apology she gave in 2019 was enough.
But a group of 20 staff members last week posted a statement on Twitter saying they had complained to bosses. ‘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 these sentiments,’ the group said.
Last week, an article on American Vogue’s website asserted that the use of the word ‘niggling’ in a Mail headline regarding the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s engagement was racist.
Despite the word having been used numerous times in Vogue itself, and thousands of times in the British Press over the years, writer Hamish Bowles saw fit to criticise its use on a 2017 front page. The Mail wrote to Conde Nast asking it to correct its ‘extremely serious and unfounded allegation’ of racism but the publisher refused, siding with the British journalist.
Toby Young, of the Free Speech Union, said: ‘It’s a bit like claiming that a newspaper is racist because the ink it uses on its pages is black. It’s just silly and absurd.’
Conde Nast HR boss Mr Duncan said in a memo that Miss McCammond had made some ‘racially charged statements on social media about Asian people’ when she was a teenager.
He said: ‘Alexi was straightforward and transparent about these posts during our interview process and through public apologies.’
He added: ‘We were dedicated to making her successful in this role and spent time working with her, our company leadership and the Teen Vogue team to find the best path forward. To that end, after speaking with Alexi, we agreed that it was best to part ways, so as to not overshadow the important work happening at Teen Vogue.’
Before the scandal Miss McCammond had risen to become a prominent political reporter and covered President Joe Biden’s campaign for the website Axios.
In 2019, she was named the emerging journalist of the year by the National Association of Black Journalists.
In a statement, she wrote: ‘ My past tweets have overshadowed the work I’ve done to highlight the people and issues that I care about – issues that Teen Vogue has worked tirelessly to share with the world – and so Conde Nast and I have decided to part ways.
‘I should not have tweeted what I did and I have taken full responsibility for that.’
‘Learned from her mistakes’