A “Stand With Jamilah” hashtag floated through the Twitterverse much of Friday after Ebony.com Senior Editor Jamilah Lemieux found herself in hot water for an erroneous tweet aimed at RNC Deputy Press Secretary Raffi Williams. Ebony magazine has since apologized her “lack of judgement.”
The incident began Thursday when Lemieux voiced her disinterest in Ben Carson‘s new Black conservative magazine with The Washington Times, a project that Williams fully backs and promotes. As they were grouped together in a heated Twitter exchange, Lemieux dismissed Williams’ stance, stating, “Oh great, here comes a White dude telling me how to do this Black thing. Pass.”
Williams is Black. And it didn’t take long for conservatives to park out in her mentions to berate her for her comment.
Lemieux added, “I forgot that tweeting something about a Conservative is like leaving a cookie out in a house full of roaches and turning off the lights.”
She later apologized to Williams for mistakenly identifying him as White, but said she still had no interest in debating with him.
After the controversy made its way though Twitter, spilled over to blogs and landed on Fox News, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus wrote a letter to the magazine’s editor-in-chief demanding that Lemieux apologize to Williams.
Instead, Ebony issued an apology to the RNC in a post titled “Diversity of Thought.”
“[...] EBONY strongly believes in the marketplace of ideas. As the magazine of record for the African American community, Lemieux’s tweets in question do not represent our journalistic standard, tradition or practice of celebrating diverse Black thought,” said the publication.
“In a letter to EBONY from RNC President Reince Priebus, he suggests, ‘that we can use this unfortunate episode as a catalyst for greater understanding between the Republican Party and the black community.’ EBONY acknowledges Senior Editor Jamilah Lemieux’s lack of judgment on her personal Twitter account and apologizes to Raffi Williams and the Black Republican community.”
Lemieux has yet to issue a formal statement on the matter.