...a programming note:
Blogging will be sparse the next couple of days. Oh, there
will be some stuff, but, you know tis the season … to be given the gift of the flu
by Carlos.
Yes.He.Did. And in return I have given him the gift of a throat so sore
I cannot speak, though I do have a myriad of hand gestures with which to get my
point across, but I digress.
Hope you all have a lovely holiday, while I’ll be having a lovely
holidaze, and now … The ISBL Asshat of the Week:
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Usually the ward is given to politicians of the Republican variety or pious members of the church who blame everyone but themselves for their ills, but this week the ISBL Asshat of the Week Award goes to Justine Sacco.
Don’t know who she is? You will.
Justine Sacco was the senior director of corporate communications at InterActiveCorp [IAC] which owns, among other things, The Daily Beast and Match.com. Last Friday as she was preparing to take a trip abroad she Tweeted this:
Yes.She.Did. Because only Africans have AIDS; and only Black Africans at that. Apparently being a big-shot at an internet company does not require one to read the news or stay current on any number of topics.
Naturally. After the Tweet went viral, Sacco issued an apology, and I will give her credit for not issuing a Fauxpology. No, she said this, and I’m guessing she was using a shovel to dig herself in further:
"Words cannot express how sorry I am, and how necessary it is for me to apologize to the people of South Africa, who I have offended due to a needless and careless tweet. There is an AIDS crisis taking place in this country, that we read about in America, but do not live with or face on a continuous basis. Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to be cavalier about an epidemic that one has never witnessed firsthand."
Yes, folks, there is no AIDS crisis in this country; no one lives with this; and Sacco has never seen it firsthand, even at her own internet company.
Naturally, Justine Sacco was fired from her job almost instantly, and IAC released this statement:
"The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question."
Kudos to IAC for taking such a strong, and direct, stand against this kind of asshattedness. But I might have kept Sacco on and maybe made her work in some AIDS-related charity, or volunteer in a hospital with AIDS patients right here in America so she can see that this isn’t just a problem in Africa, but it’s worldwide.
Just like her asshattitude.
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