Being a journalist in the digital age can make a person an inevitable target of hatemongers. HuffPost Senior Political Reporter Amanda Terkel got a gust of hate blown in her direction last night. In this case, the reader dinged her for using the phrase “African American.”
Reader tells me I’m dumb bc I write “African Americans” instead of “lazy blacks.” Adds: “What part of Asia are you from?…GO BACK” Nice.
— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) December 10, 2013
The Mirror sought further comment from Terkel on the matter.
She said it’s par for the course of being a journalist. “I’ve been getting racist, sexist, or just generally hateful emails ever since I started writing online (in addition to nice messages as well!),” she said. “Some of them are anonymous, but quite often people use their real names and/or work accounts, which is amusing. At this point, the vitriol isn’t even surprising — just something that comes with the job these days.”