Less than a week before Alexi McCammond was poised to take on the role of editor at Teen Vogue, the 27-year-old journalist has resigned from the job. The reason: racist and homophobic tweets McCammond made while a college student.
“After speaking with Alexi this morning, we agreed that it was best to part ways, so as to not overshadow the important work happening at Teen Vogue,” Stan Duncan, chief people officer at Condé Nast, said in an email statement, reports The New York Times. In the same statement, McCammond added that her “past tweets have overshadowed the work I’ve done to highlight the people and issues that I care about.”
Related: Activist Mommy pauses burning ‘Teen Vogue’ to help turn a gay man straight
McCammond studied at the University of Chicago and emerged as a prominent reporter beginning in 2020 when she covered the Democratic Presidential Primary. She also attracted notoriety for a romantic relationship with TJ Ducklo, former Special Assistant to the President and White House Junior Deputy Press Secretary under the Biden administration. Ducklo’s tenure with the Biden White House lasted just a few weeks; he resigned following reports that he had threatened a reporter, Tara Palmeri, for bringing to light his involvement with McCammond.
McCammond’s career hit another setback when remarks she tweeted in 2011 resurfaced. In the tweets, she mocks the appearance of Asian people and uses slurs against gay people. McCammond did apologize for the tweets and deleted them from her account, though that didn’t stop more than 20 staff members at Teen Vogue from threatening to resign if McCammond took over the job as editor. Ulta Beauty and Burt’s Bees, two key advertisers with the magazine, also suspended marketing campaigns over the hiring of McCammond.
McCammond’s resignation comes amid heightened scrutiny over anti-Asian-American bias in the media and the American public. A series of mass shootings at Asian-American run massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia on March 16 claimed the lives of eight women, six of whom were of Asian descent. Time also reports a worldwide spike in violence against Asian people brought on by stigma stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
rand503
No one should be allowed near twitter until they are over 30 and have had extensive training on how it works.
Kangol2
Though they were old tweets and though she did apologize extensively, actions have consequences. How fitting that she was hooked up with Ducklo, though. Birds of a feather….
Jay002
Yes this is why you need to teach your kids that you shouldn’t say bad things about other people nor should you write it down anywhere. Also you should not teach your kids to hate people who are different from them. I know people who are over 30 years old and still focus on the negative things about other people who don’t look like them. They try to justify it by saying I pretty sure they are calling me a ugly fat bitch behind my back, that may be true but you don’t have to prove to them or anyone else that you are a ugly fat bitch. One day they might get to know who you are and may say all this time I was wrong about you .
Iona Lexiss
“What other people think about me is none of my business.” –one of my favorites
amanwithanedge
and to think I was a fan of hers. buh bye.
Fahd
Seems like an ambitious go-getter who went too far and now is going nowhere for awhile. I think if so many people threaten to resign and advertisers pull out, there’s more to the story than those old tweets, but maybe the content was way beyond the pale.
Seth
Long before Twitter or the internet, my grandmother taught me that you should never write down anything you wouldn’t want the whole world to see. It was a good lesson.
mz.sam
Wow, I’ve always enjoyed Alexi’s career rise and continued on point reporting on MSNBC during the horrific years of the Trump administration. Besides, the cable service had reported on the momentary Biden press scandal and connecting the dots to this lust connection. An to add insult to injury making anti-gay and disparaging comments directed at Asian people. Holy shit-fuk!
ScottOnEarth
My favorite quote of the week: “…..the important work happening at Teen Vogue.”
Josiah Freshmount
A lot virtual signaling going on in these comments but y’all aren’t fooling anyone.
Teenagers say awful things in every generation. That you did not have your awful utterances written down doesn’t change the fact that you still said those awful things. Let’s see your contrition before you go passing judgment on others.
Openminded
I have to agree, Josiah. I doubt more than a handful of us would pass a test of judgement if everything we ever uttered was listed on a piece of paper.
I realize she should suffer the consequences of her past, but at some point we have to forgive people and leave their past in the past. IDK the story behind this girl, but either she did some mighty bad posts in the past or someone did a mighty good smear campaign on her. Virtually everyone could be better at not bad mouthing and judging others, and in some cases (not necessarily this one), we all need to forgive those who deserve forgiveness.
Iona Lexiss
If you don’t want your actions to have consequences then don’t get caught. This “kid” had a phone in her hand before she was a teenager. From an early age, this demographic thinks their actions are immune from scrutiny even though they’ve seen consequences play out over and over, historically, with their “favorite” “celebrities.” They all want to be “influencers” and be treated like adults. Boo-hoo for them and SHAME on the parents who don’t teach the values the kids need to make bright decisions.
Cam
@Josiah Freshmount
New screename for the same old troll once again using FOX News terms like “Virtue Signaling” is upset someone got in trouble for racist posts.
Older screename for the same troll comes right in to defend it.
storm45701
We say and do a lot of awful things as teenagers that we look back on in embarrassment. If you didn’t, then yu have nothing to mature from and grow in character.
Quietpanda333
I couldn’t agree more!
tjack47
So true. It’s immature to hold it against a child. What are they doing today? I think it’s done out of jealousy and hatred of the successful.
PollyDarton
I hear Mar-A-Lago is hiring.
Heywood Jablowme
Pros and cons:
She was great on MSNBC and when I first read about this I was sympathetic to her plight.
But just look at her photo. You know she MUST have been the meanest b*tch in her high school.
Openminded
Heywood, do you realize the irony of you judging her on her appearance in an article where she is getting cancelled for judging Asian people for their looks?
Iona Lexiss
Let me help. You know she must have been the meanest b#tch in high school not to mention middle school or junior high school. I’d really like to know how the people who went to school with her felt about her behavior then, and how they feel now.
Heywood Jablowme
@IonaLexiss (& gee I’m impressed!): Yes, that would be interesting to find out. Were her Asian and gay classmates pissed off at her at the time. I would guess so (based on my increasingly dim memories of h.s.) but maybe they weren’t. I haven’t heard of any reporters checking out that angle.
sgc208
Conde Nast has been trying to pump out the same banal, middle-of-the-road diversity talk for years with little change within their C-Suite and decision-makers. Blah, blah, blah, we will do better…and this is their star hire? I know 42 editors in my iPhone that could do this job blindfolded. It’s laughable that they waited WEEKS for her to resign instead of firing her right away. Not till the money started to go bye-bye that action was finally taken.
cuteguy
She should go work for Fox News. Racism and homophobia are welcome over there.
Iona Lexiss
A) “Whore” B) “…so as not to overshadow the important work at Teen Vogue.” Seriously? Important work? Is “Teen Vogue” even relevant anymore? Just asking for a friend…
mastik8
The fun never ends – Christine Davitt, a senior social media manager at Teen Vogue, who recently criticized Alexi McCammond and supported her ouster for past racist tweets regarding Asian Americans, wrote two tweets in 2009 using the N-word. Will she resign or be cancelled?
Cam
You had something like 1/5 of all their employees threatening to quit and advertisers pulling out. I wonder if in addition to the old posts she had a reputation in the industry for how she treated others.
TedV
It’s absurd to hold someone responsible for stupid statements they made as teenagers. When I think back to the terrible things I said to my own parents during my teenage years I’m not very proud of myself. This is virtue signaling at its worst.
That said, it seems telling that as this story unfolded over the course of almost two weeks there was never any public rallying to McCammond’s cause from other journalists. It leads me to believe maybe there is still an edge to her personality that doesn’t sit well with others.
Ryan99
If we cancel kids for stupid things they say, we’d all be cancelled.
dhmonarch89
I was bullied through school, 6-12th grade. I was called fag/homo/queer almost daily. Do I wish those people well- no, have I forgiven them- no, but would I try to get any of them fired- no. If they are still spewing the hate- fine, they should get fired, but we’re all immature idiots in Jr. High and High School- hopefully they’ve grown up.