Who is Christine Davitt?
CHRISTINE Davitt is a top staffer at Teen Vogue. She expressed concern about racist tweets posted by the magazine’s now-departed editor – but reportedly shared similar messages herself. Who is Christine Davitt? Christine Davitt is the senior social media manager at Teen Vogue. She has been in the role for almost two years after previously […]
CHRISTINE Davitt is a top staffer at Teen Vogue.
She expressed concern about racist tweets posted by the magazine’s now-departed editor – but reportedly shared similar messages herself.
Who is Christine Davitt?
Christine Davitt is the senior social media manager at Teen Vogue.
She has been in the role for almost two years after previously working at Vanity Fair and New York Magazine.
On Twitter she describes herself as a “pop culture enthusiast and fat queer femme”.
She attended the State University of New York and now lives in Brooklyn.
What did Christine Davitt tweet?
Earlier this month, Christine Davitt was one of more than 20 Teen Vogue employees who penned a letter to parent company Condé Nast calling for the magazine’s soon-to-be editor Alexi McCammond to be removed for her insensitive tweets.
In their public statement, they noted that they had “built our outlet’s reputation as a voice for justice and change” and said: “We take immense pride in our work and in creating an inclusive environment.”
McCammond had previously shared homophobic and anti-Asian tweets in 2011.
But it surfaced this week that Davitt reportedly wrote tweets to a friend identifying him as the N-word and used it again in a separate post.
She wrote: “I love the contradictory nature of the phrase “white n****”.”
Davitt has since made her Twitter profile private.
Why did Christine Davitt oppose hiring Alexi McCammond?
Christine Davitt campaigned against Alexi McCammond being made editor of Teen Vogue due to a series of homophobic and racist tweets.
McCammond, 27, was due to take up her new role on March 24, 2021, but quit before she had even started after her “totally inexcusable” past posts mocking Asian people came to light.
In 2011, McCammond tweeted asking how not to wake up with “swollen Asian eyes”.
She also shared that she was “outdone by an Asian”, and in another said “thanks a lot stupid Asian” after a teaching assistant gave her a low score on a chemistry test.
The tweets were shared in a now-viral Instagram post by Diana Tsui, an editor at the website The Infatuation, who wrote: “I’m tired of big media organizations pretending to give a damn about diversity and inclusion.
“This especially is a slap in the face given what’s happened to Asian Americans in the past year.”
In the shared statement by Teen Vogue employees, Davitt said: “In a moment of historically high anti-Asian violence and amid the on-going struggles of the LGBTQ community, we as the staff of Teen Vogue fully reject those sentiments.”
McCammond first apologized for the tweets when they circulated in 2019.
She apologized again to staff members in an email shared with The Washington Post.
She wrote: “I apologize deeply to all of you for the pain this has caused. There’s no excuse for language like that.”
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Alexi explained that her past statements had overshadowed the journalism she wanted to do to “lift up” vulnerable communities.
She added that these were “issues Teen Vogue has worked tirelessly to share with the world,” which is why she has decided to resign.
“I should not have tweeted what I did and I have taken full responsibility for that,” she wrote.
She explained she was “so sorry to have used such hurtful and inexcusable language” when she was a 17-year-old, adding “at any point in my life, it’s totally inexcusable”.
