The Global Opinions Editor for the Washington Post suggested that “white women are lucky that we are just calling them ‘Karen’s’. And not calling for revenge,” in a now-deleted tweet on Sunday. The editor — whose name is Karen Attiah — never clarified what kind of “revenge” she was encouraging.
She also blamed the “lies and tears” of white women for everything from a 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma to voting for President Trump, in screenshots of her tweets posted by the Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy.
Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, slammed Attiah’s words as “sick, bigoted, racist, violent & wrong.”
The “global opinions” editor of WaPo says we are “lucky” she’s not “calling for revenge” against white women.
This is sick, bigoted, racist, violent & wrong. https://t.co/8zVS1eBbox
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 29, 2020
Others on Twitter interpreted her tweet as a call for race-based violence. Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire asked Attiah to clarify what she meant by “revenge.”
“When that white woman was beaten with two by fours during the riots… is that what you mean by ‘revenge’ or did you have something more fatal in mind?” Walsh tweeted in a reply to Attiah. Attiah refused to respond, instead deleting her original claims.
When that white woman was beaten with two by fours during the riots… is that what you mean by “revenge” or did you have something more fatal in mind? Please clarify
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 29, 2020
This also isn’t the first time Attiah has directed critical comments at the generalized audience of white people. On June 17, she tweeted “white people, you guys need to figure this out how to erase the emotional rewards of sadistic pleasure white people have long enjoyed in dominating and destroying black bodies.”
Perhaps now, what we finally see is a collective white shame and guilt about these cruelties.
So white people, you guys need to figure this out how to erase the emotional rewards of sadistic pleasure white people have long enjoyed in dominating and destroying black bodies.
— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) June 17, 2020
Attiah also appeared in an article on Sunday reacting to the Washington Post’s decision not to submit her work for a Pulitzer Prize and lamenting that the decision “stung.”
