Racist Tweet About Lottery Winner Quickly Deleted From Atlanta Newspaper’s Feed
‘40 acres and a whole lotta mules’
By David Griner
The past few years have seen many a regrettable tweet from supposedly professional companies, but this one just might be the most cringe-worthy of them all. This morning, the Atlanta Journal Constitution posted a tweet saying, “$1M GA Lottery winner Willie Lynch can get 40 acres and a whole lotta mules.”
The tweet linked to a brief article on lottery winners, which did not include any sort of “40 acres and a mule” reference. The phrase refers to a post-Civil War proposal to help freed slaves begin new lives by giving them land previously held by whites. Such proposals became a source of bitterness among black Southerners when the policies were reversed shortly after the war.
New York magazine’s website reports that the tweet was soon deleted and that “a spokesperson at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was unaware of the message and is now trying to figure out why it happened.” An apology has been posted, which you can see below.
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