Cancel ‘Vogue’ hire
New editor ripped for old anti-Asian tweets
Teen Vogue staffers openly slammed their newly hired editor-inchief on Monday over recently resurfaced tweets she made as a teenager that mocked Asian people.
More than 20 employees of the digital publication said in a statement that they wrote a letter to parent company Condé Nast about hiring former Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond.
The company announced on Friday that McCammond, 27, had been tapped to lead the fashion title, which frequently tackles political issues.
McCammond was recently embroiled in a media scandal involving the Biden administration after her boyfriend, then-White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo, threatened to “destroy” a Politico reporter looking to expose their relationship.
Ducklo later resigned.
Over the weekend, a series of since-deleted tweets that McCammond (inset) posted in
2011 resurfaced on social media.
“Now googling how to not wake up with swollen, asian eyes,” one of the tweets 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,” another said.
The tweets were shared widely on social media, with one former Condé Nast editor for The Cut, Diana Tsui, writing on Instagram: “I’m tired of big media organizations pretending to give a damn about diversity and inclusion.”
Online fashion-industry watchdog Diet Prada also shared the post and called out Condé Nast.
“You can debate all you want about how reflective some decade-old tweets are of someone in the present, but for a publication as progressive as Teen Vogue, the choice leaves us scratching our heads,” the post read. “Were there absolutely no other qualified people?”
It appears the tweets first recirculated in 2019, when McCammond issued an apology.
“Today I was reminded of some past insensitive tweets, and I am deeply sorry to anyone I offended,” she wrote on Twitter at the time. “I have since deleted those tweets as they do not reflect my views or who I am today.”
In their public statement, the Teen Vogue staffers said they reached out to management about McCammond’s “past racist and homophobic tweets.”
“We’ve heard the concerns of our readers, and we stand with you,” the statement read. “In a moment of historically high anti-Asian violence and amid the on-going struggles of the LGBTQ community, we . . . fully reject those sentiments.”
Condé Nast defended its decision to hire McCammond while pointing out that she apologized for the posts.
“Alexi McCammond was appointed editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue because of the values, inclusivity and depth she has displayed throughout her journalism,” the company said in a statement.
“Throughout her career, she has dedicated herself to being a champion for marginalized voices.”