Progressive website Al Jazeera Plus (AJ+) came under fire on Thursday for posting a video about Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters that referred to her as “sassy.” The footage was supposed to pay honor to the California representative, who has been a vocal critic of President Trump, but it missed the mark with its language.
In a now-deleted tweet, the company posted the following: “Meet @MaxineWaters, the sassy congresswoman leading the fight to impeach President Trump.”
Yeah, they tried it.
The term “sassy” strikes a nerve in many African-Americans, especially Black women, because it’s been used as a racist and sexist stereotype to describe us. Waters—who is vibrant, fearless and heroic—may read Trump for filth when needed, but so does Rep. Elizabeth Warren, and no one would ever use that same word to describe the white Massachusetts Congresswoman.
But no worries: Twitter didn’t miss a beat with this one:
https://twitter.com/BrittyKitty326/status/829833637197643778
https://twitter.com/MsPackyetti/status/829800621414948864
https://twitter.com/waaverlyyy/status/829748046216912896
https://twitter.com/localblactivist/status/829767315482873856
https://twitter.com/aurabogado/status/829759855002988545
https://twitter.com/BROADUS/status/829758473541865472
https://twitter.com/noredavis/status/829754160123883520
https://twitter.com/here_2infinity/status/829839774466859008
We’re pretty sure that after this reading, AJ+ probably won’t use the word “sassy” again.
You gonna learn today.
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Al Jazeera Plus Gets Dragged By Twitter For Calling Rep. Maxine Waters ‘Sassy’ was originally published on hellobeautiful.com