Carlton Davis, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defender, posted on Twitter – then quickly deleted – an anti-Asian insult on Sunday night, prompting him to write a second tweet later to apologize.
The third-year player wrote on Twitter, “We must stop leaving g-ks in Miami,” a derogatory term often used against those of Asian descent – especially the Vietnamese, Filipino, and Korean people.
Davis deleted the tweet, then wrote another insisting that it refers to a different use of the word and did not know that it is used in a racial connotation.
“I would never offend a group of people,” Davis wrote. “You reporters can look for another story to explode. The term was directed at a manufacturer who claimed to have “run Miami”. That being said, I will withdraw this word from my vocabulary, providing the hard times our Asian family is enduring. ”
One the second tweet a few minutes later, Davis wrote: “I used a term that, where I come from, always meant ‘lame,’ but I didn’t realize it had a much darker, more negative connotation. I have learned a valuable lesson and I want to apologize to anyone who has been offended by seeing that word, because we need to focus on helping each other in these difficult times. ”
The tweet comes at a time when anti-Asian racism has seen a disturbing rise in America. In New York alone, there have been a number of violent incidents in the past week, including a woman who was brutally assaulted in Midtown.
The Association of Asian American Journalists issued a statement condemning its tweet, “especially at a time when Asians in the United States are facing a sharp rise in anti-Asian hatred.”