I don’t know who does the hiring, but obviously, there are people who do nothing all day but sit around looking for something to be insulted by. And it doesn’t even have to be a human.
But what makes it worse is when people apologize when there really is no need to apologize. The Monterey Bay Aquarium apologized Wednesday for fat shaming an otter. Not only that but the insult monitors determined it was racist, too. But what is a California aquarium to do?
You apologize and the skulk off into the night.
Here is the insult:
Abby is a thicc girl
What an absolute unit
She c h o n k
Look at the size of this lady
OH LAWD SHE COMIN
Another Internetism ! pic.twitter.com/s5fav2gu09— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 18, 2018
The tweet was interpreted by many to be an inappropriate use of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). “Thicc,” according to the top definition on Urban Dictionary, is “when a person has fat in the right places, creating sexy curves.”
As reported by The Sacramento Bee, one of those offended was Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical physicist at the University of Washington. Her Twitter account has since been made private, but she was quoted as saying, “I’m certain that @MontereyAq didn’t realize that they were basically comparing Black women to animals by using AAVE developed to talk about Black women’s bodies to describe an animal. But that’s pretty bad, MBA.”
After backlash, the aquarium issued the following apology:
If our tweet alienated you, please know that we are deeply sorry, and that we offer our sincerest apologies. If you follow our feed, we often reference popular memes to talk about the ocean. In this case, the memes used had connotations we were unaware of until now. 2/4
— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 19, 2018
In particular, several terms referenced originated from African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and specifically reference Black women’s bodies. Using them in a sea otter meme without that background makes insinuations we never intended. We need to do better. 3/4
— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 19, 2018
Our mission is to inspire conservation of the ocean, and we’re thankful for your support as we try to advance that mission on social media. We’re also thankful for those of you out there pointing out our blindspots and how we can improve. Thanks everyone. 4/4
— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) December 19, 2018