New York Liberty guard Cappie Pondexter has apologized after causing an Internet uproar with comments on her Twitter account that were deemed insensitive toward victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
On Saturday, Pondexter tweeted: "What if God was tired of the way they treated their own people in there own country! Idk guys he makes no mistakes."
She later tweeted: "u just never knw! They did pearl harbor so u can't expect anything less."
Pondexter also used the racially derogatory term "jap," when referring to someone who was offended by her comments.
Cappie Pondexter drove right into controversy over the weekend via Twitter.
On Monday morning, Pondexter issued an apology on her verified Twitter account "cappa23."
"I wanna apologize to anyone I may hurt or offended during this tragic time," the tweet said. "I didn't realize that my words could be interpreted in the manner which they were. People that knw me would tell u 1st hand I'm a very spiritual person and believe that everything, even disasters happen 4 a reason and that God will shouldn't be questioned but this is a very sensitive subject at a very tragic time and I shouldn't even have given a reason for the choice of words I used.
"The least thing I wanted was to hurt or offend anyone so again I truly apologize. If you've lost respect for me that's totally fine but please don't let me or my words lose the respect of u the WNBA and what it stands for.
"I'm very strong woman evn strong enough 2 admit an apologize when I'm wrong. Twitter is a voice and wth tht I wanna apologize again."
I fimd myself wondering if Cappie believes that God sent the hurricane to destroy Katrina because the US lets gays into the military, as I believe Pat Buchanan suggested at that time.
Then of course Buchanan felt that Haiti deserved what it got - the earthquake - because they'd made a pact with the devil in order to throw off their slave shackles, and have been poor ever since. (It didn't seem to occur to Buchanan that they've been poor because even though they won their freedom, they were presssured by governments, including the US, to have to pay indemnity to people in other countries who had had them as slaves! In other words they had to buy their freedom from their slavemasters, at such onerous rates that they hadn't paid off the debt until after World War II!
Anyway, the fact that anyone these days believes that their "just and loving god" would kills tens of thousands of people to "send a message" is just obscene.
here's the rest of the article.
The Anti-Defamation League in New York issued a statement on Pondexter's remarks.
"Cappie Pondexter's words show the endurance of long-held bigoted and prejudiced attitudes toward the Japanese, even from young Americans in today's society whose only knowledge of the Second World War comes from history books and popular culture," Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham H. Foxman said.
"While it is encouraging that Pondexter felt enough remorse to apologize for her insensitive and prejudicial words, the apology did not go far enough. The notion that God would punish an entire country because of some assumed moral or spiritual defect is, in fact, another form of intolerance. Pondexter needs to understand why her words were so painful, and why it is prejudiced to suggest that one people may be inferior to another in the eyes of God."
For myself, I don't see why the word Jap is racist. "Nip" - yes, that's offensive. But Jap? Saying 1 syllable instead of 3? Just saves time, particularly on Twitter.
But as for the rest of it, to calmly say "God doesn't make mistakes" and to apparently believe that earthquakes, tsunamis et al that kill tens of thousands of people are "acts of God" - events sent by God to punish the human race - for some transgression that is never clear (why kill 1,000 people and destroy New Orleans if you hate gays? Why not send a bolt of lightning to destroy a gay nightclub, and have only that night club burn. That would be clear proof of what you're trying to say, eh, God?) that's kind of sick.
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