Who Is Sarah Hagi, the Journalist Who Uncovered Karla Sofía Gascón’s Racist Tweets?
“Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón came under fire Thursday after past tweets in which the actress said racist and Islamophobic things were resurfaced by freelance journalist Sarah Hagi.
Over the course of several hours Gascón apologized for her past tweets and also began to delete several from the platform. In the meantime, curiosity about the journalist who found the tweets in the first place has grown.
Here’s everything to know about Sarah Hagi, who has published work at the Guardian and Vulture.
Who is Sarah Hagi?
Freelance journalist Sarah Hagi hails from Ottawa and has written for the Guardian, BuzzFeed, Taste Cooking and more. Hagi currently writes for Vulture, where she recaps episodes of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”
Hagi is also a co-host of the “Scamfluencers” podcast.
A 2021 interview with The Chatner indicated Hagi attended Zaytuna College in Berkeley and was a chess reporter. It is unclear how serious the interview in question is; the outlet also mentions Hagi hosted a podcast titled “Recant and Deliver,” but if so, the podcast appears to have been wiped from the internet. The author’s style appears to satirize work in which controversial figures are asked softball questions.
“I’ve always been a free thinker. I hear a drum, I march or I don’t, unless I’m in the mood. I always go back to one moment from when I was a kid, I went to the zoo and I witnessed a seal clapping for fish — it was like a game it was a part of they didn’t actually know what was happening,” Hagi said in the interview. “Everyone was cheering for the seal, but I was the only one who said, ‘Why? What is happening here, Mama?’ I feel like that was my first foray into thinking outside the box.”
What did Sarah Hagi unearth?
Hagi uncovered a series of tweets from “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón in which the latter criticized the reaction to the 2020 murder of George Floyd and emphasized her support for banning religions that “go against European values.”
“Let me get this straight, a guy tries to pass off a counterfeit bill after consuming methamphetamine, an idiot policeman arrives and goes too far in arresting him, killing him, ruining the lives of his family and his colleagues, and turning the guy with the bill into a martyr hero,” Gascón wrote.
“I truly believe that very few people ever cared about George Floyd, a drug addict and a hustler,” she continued. “But his death has served to highlight once again that there are those who still consider Black people to be monkeys without rights and those who consider the police to be murderers. All wrong.”
Hagi explained to Variety that she began digging through Gascón’s tweets after she saw one that used the word “Islamist.” She explained, “It wasn’t a conspiracy — I do this with many celebrities. I just searched a term, and what I found was shocking.”
She also admitted that her identity as a Black Muslim made the experience “triggering.” Hagi added, “I could have looked, and there would be nothing, but it was just a hunch. It doesn’t mean that someone who said something like that is going to have as many racist tweets as she did or as many anti-Muslim tweets as she did. When you have an experience like I do, you know what the dog whistles are, and to me, that was a very clear dog whistle.”
Hagi also made it clear she’s not concerned about any negative response to her own actions. “I’m so serious when I say there is no form of online hatred towards me that can make me flinch,” she wrote on X Friday. “I do not give a s–t. I am more confident than you could possibly imagine and also I have the favour of brazilians rn.”
How has Karla Sofía Gascón responded?
Gascón began to delete the offending tweets Friday morning. “I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt,” she explained in a statement issued through Netflix. “As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well, and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain. All my life, I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.”
Gascón, the first transgender actor to be nominated for an Oscar, ultimately deleted her social media accounts Friday. “If you want, you can continue attacking me as if I were responsible for hunger and wars in the world,” she said in a new statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I have been threatened with death, insulted, abused and harassed to the point of exhaustion,” she continued before attempting to defend herself. “s part of this society, I have expressed my disagreement or agreement with all the related issues that have touched me and of which I have had an opinion, often erroneous, which has changed throughout my own experience.”
“I have always used my social media as a diary, reflections or notes, to later create stories or characters, not as something that would be scrutinized down to the last of its 140 characters, since sometimes I, myself, am not even aware of having written something negative,” Gascón added.
The discovery of her past tweets comes as the actress was also battling a second mess of her own making. In an interview with a Brazilian newspaper, Gascón accused the social media team for the also-nominated “I’m Still Here” of attacking her online. The Academy decided the criticisms did not violate its regulations, but only after Gascón came under fire in the first place.
“Emilia Peréz” received 13 nominations, including Best Picture. In the musical film, Gascón plays a Mexican cartel boss who transitions to become a woman.
The post Who Is Sarah Hagi, the Journalist Who Uncovered Karla Sofía Gascón’s Racist Tweets? appeared first on TheWrap.