Alexi McCammond became known as a political reporter for Axios, and was expected to have a bright future in journalism as the Editor-in-Chief for Teen Vogue this week – but she had to resign the position before starting as past tweets were discovered and published online.
After readers discovered racist and homophobic content on McCammond’s Twitter account, 20 current members of the magazine’s editorial staff wrote a letter expressing their concern about McCammond.
McCammond resigned the position quickly, without much struggle and released a statement on her Twitter account that says, “I became a journalist to help lift up the stories and voices of our most vulnerable communities. As a young woman of color, that’s part of the reason I was so excited to lead the Teen Vogue team in their next chapter. 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 Condé Nast and I have decided to part ways.”
The Tweets in question were written around 11 years ago, when Alexi McCammond was still a 17-year-old teenager. According to the Daily Mail, McCammond had written derogatory tweets promoting stereotypes against those of Asian descent. Though these were written a long time ago, critics are considering the rise of hate crime attacks against Asian-Americans and the recent shooting in Atlanta that cost eight lives.
Condé Nast said they were aware of McCammond’s past tweets, which came to light while she was working at Axios. The journalist had apologized numerous times for the content of those tweets.
“Given her previous acknowledgment of these posts and her sincere apologies, in addition to her remarkable work in journalism elevating the voices of marginalized communities, we were looking forward to welcoming her into our community,” said the company’s Chief People Officer, Stan Duncan in an email to staff. “In addition, we were hopeful that Alexi would become part of our team to provide perspective and insight that is underrepresented throughout media.”
However, once the job announcement was made, the company faced almost immediate backlash both online and from their own employees.
This isn’t the first time Condé Nast has had to deal with allegations of racism and offhand employee tweets and comments. However, this may be a turning point in the publisher’s history as they begin to uncover and investigate these claims – and refrain from finding themselves under further scrutiny.
