After being mocked relentlessly for promoting a major error of basic math during a segment of MSNBC with Brian Williams, New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay responded to criticism with accusations of racism.
Gay, a black woman, wrote an opinion piece entitled “My People Have Been Through Worse Than A Twitter Mob”, and posted it to Twitter with the caption “A racist Twitter mob came for me over a trivial math mistake. I’m not going anywhere.”
Now, given the unmistakable Caucasian-ness of Brian Williams, who has also been mocked for the part he played in the whole affair, it didn’t take long for the rest of Twitter to point out that racism had absolutely nothing to do with the collective laughter of the internet. It was more the fact that neither Gay nor Williams took the time to double check their facts before promoting them live on television.
“Um…Brian Williams is white. We’re laughing at him too,” wrote one user.
Another pointed out the ridiculousness of her claim by asking “Basic math is racist now?”
BlazeTV’s Chuck Prather responded by pointing out Gay’s history of going to extremes, saying “I never considered your skin color but I sure did make a lot of fun at how far you rounded up. You have a track record of going to extremes and this is no different.”
Not surprisingly, the majority of those responding to Gay’s piece, including Prather, soon found themselves blocked by her, rather than invited to have a civil debate on the subject.