On Friday, Old Navy tweeted out an ad featuring an interracial family to promote its Thank You Event.

Oh, happy day! Our #ThankYouEvent is finally here. Take 30% off your entire purchase: https://t.co/nGQ9Pji1pN pic.twitter.com/vq4mIczm6A

— Old Navy Official (@OldNavy) April 29, 2016

The ad quickly drew fire from racist trolls who discussed plans to boycott the franchise while criticizing the company for promoting “miscegenation.”

Miscegenation, for those of you scratching your head, is an archaic term defined as the marriage and/or procreation of people considered to be of different racial types.

Many of the racist tweets have since been deleted, however, Jezebel managed to acquire several screenshots before they could be taken down.

The twitter user @RousetheMasses tweeted, “Absolutely disgusting. What’s next? Gender neutral bathrooms? Pedophilia acceptance propaganda?! Never shopping here again.”

She was joined by the user @CulturalCombat who wrote, ” I will never step into an @OldNavy store again. This miscegenation junk is rammed down our throats from every direction.”

The user @marylovefreedom also accused the ad of having a hand in “white genocide,” a theory that alleges immigration, integration, interracial marriages, low fertility rates and abortion in predominantly white countries is a conspiracy to deliberately cause white people to go extinct (even though she mistakingly tagged the post #WhiteGeocide.)

Clearly Old Navy’s message struck a nerve. The retailer, which typically receives likes and retweets in the 1-100 range, earned a huge boost in impressions after publishing the post.

Despite the hate, the overwhelming majority of responders supported Old Navy’s decision to portray a mixed race family in its ads. Several interracial couples and families began thanking the company by sharing photos of themselves and tagging the posts with the hashtag #LoveWins.

Hey @OldNavy, my family and I thank you for the diversity in this ad! #LoveWins, no matter the color pic.twitter.com/TjgYUPMGu4

— KHARY PENEBAKER (@kharyp) May 1, 2016

.@kharyp @OldNavy Thank You Old Navy! Interracial families are beautiful and we appreciate the representation! pic.twitter.com/kVNuGHfAB9

— Noelle Devoe (@Noelle_CD) May 2, 2016

.@OldNavy Props on this ad! My family and I appreciate it. #RepresentationMatters pic.twitter.com/ZXQ8YbT0QS

— Austin Null (@thenivenulls) May 2, 2016

Thank you @OldNavy for finally representing us #thankyouevent #oldnavy pic.twitter.com/x1d1TAifOY

— Chris Blackburn (@photoblackburn) May 2, 2016

Thank you @OldNavy for featuring interracial families in your ads! #oldnavy #LoveWins pic.twitter.com/o7oMQErZPp

— Stacey Valley (@staceyvalley) May 2, 2016

Hey Old Navy, love your new ad! I don’t shop there regularly but will definitely be going this week! #lovewins pic.twitter.com/iDohUc7pmy

— Deirdre (@deirdreshavon) May 2, 2016

It’s surprising that this particular ad would drum up so much conflict, since Old Navy notably has consistently featured a diverse cast of models in its marketing.

Old Navy doesn’t seemed phased by the controversy though. Spokeswoman Debbie Felix said Monday, “We are a brand with a proud history of championing diversity and inclusion. At Old Navy, everyone is welcome.”

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Old Navy Fends Off Racists After Store Features Interracial Family in Ad appeared first on Law Street.

I was heartbroken last month to hear that Jon Stewart would be leaving his seat on “The Daily Show” for presumably bigger and better things after an impressive 16 plus years as the show’s host. Even though I was so sure that my girl Jessica Williams was primed to take Stewart’s spot, I was both impressed and excited when Comedy Central announced yesterday that South African comedian Trevor Noah had been awarded the coveted position. The world appeared to be geared up to embrace Noah and his international spin on politics, until fans of the show began to comb through his Twitter account and found some old tweets that have been deemed offensive to both women and Jews.

.@Trevornoah, new ‘Daily Show’ host, faces criticism for tweets http://t.co/K7QeoYNGQz pic.twitter.com/CWa34wcgI2

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 31, 2015

Some of the tweets in question include:

South Africans know how to recycle like israel knows how to be peaceful. — Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) June 2, 2010

So she gets fat? RT @missdanibagel: When a woman is loved correctly, she becomes 10 times the woman she was before

— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) July 18, 2014

Almost bumped a Jewish kid crossing the road. He didn’t look b4 crossing but I still would hav felt so bad in my german car! — Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) September 18, 2009

This one is a gem.

A hot white woman with ass is like a unicorn. Even if you do see one, you’ll probably never get to ride it.

— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) November 28, 2011

His comments have been called both anti-semitic and anti-feminist, but we need to take a second to remember one thing–Trevor Noah is a comedian. He’s not a politician, school principal, or “real” news correspondent. He makes a living telling jokes and making people laugh, and while humor is in fact subjective, these tweets appear to have been intended as jokes.

He’s not the first comedian to have his social media taken out of context, and he won’t be the last. As a top source for televised comedy, Comedy Central likely understands this and doesn’t seem to be putting too much stock in the controversy. I doubt Noah will lose his new position over this, but how he handles the situation will be telling.

Noah seemingly acknowledged the controversy Tuesday, sending out a tweet just before 9 a.m. Eastern time that read, “Twitter does not have enough characters to respond to all the characters on Twitter.” The tweet was deleted shortly after. Maybe he’s already learned his first social media lesson, at the very least: don’t fuel the Twitter trolls.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Trevor Noah: First and Foremost a Comedian appeared first on Law Street.

The internet has a remarkable way of showing you the worst that humanity has to offer, most notably so in the form of user generated comments. When you ask someone their opinion on something and replace a pen and paper with a keyboard and computer screen, the results may shock you. People truly get nasty. Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling became blatantly aware of this fact after sending this tweet congratulating his 17-year-old daughter on her college acceptance.

Congrats to Gabby Schilling who will pitch for the Salve Regina Seahawks next year!!

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) February 25, 2015

Who could have predicted that this one little congratulatory tweet would unleash an internet storm of tweets full of gross profanity, referencing rape and bloody underwear (possibly a reference to when Schilling played a game with an injured ankle, and had a “bloody sock” at the end)? The whole mess now has Schilling rushing to his daughter’s defense and taking legal action.

I’m going to spare our readers by not embedding a ton of the offensive tweets into this post, but most of them went something like this:

@WhatsLIAMdoing @Cubb_E@beth_lee@richiereiss This tweet? Or the one on the left you favorited? pic.twitter.com/Qwh9TmOrMH

— Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) March 2, 2015

Shocked, Schilling took to his “38 pitches” blog to confront his daughter’s cyberbullies. He speaks about being in sports his entire life, knowing “guys will be guys,” but points out that he never spoke with his friends about women in this way. After doing some online digging of his own, Schilling then proceeded to share information about specific bullies in his post writing:

The Sports Guru”? Ya he’s a DJ named Adam Nagel (DJ is a bit strong since he’s on the air for 1 hour a week) on Brookdale Student Radio at Brookdale Community College. How do you think that place feels about this stud representing their school? You don’t think this isn’t going to be a nice compilation that will show up every single time this idiot is googled the rest of his life? What happens when a potential woman he’s after googles and reads this?

The other clown? He’s VP of the Theta Xi fraternity at Montclair State University. I gotta believe if Theta Xi is cool with a VP of one of their chapters acting like this I’d prefer to have no one I know in it.

According to USA Today, Nagel has since been summarily suspended by his college and will be scheduled for a conduct hearing for further disciplinary action. “The other clown” is Sean MacDonald, who has since been fired from his part time ticket sales jobs for the New York Yankees.

Schilling concluded the post in a the kind of frantic rant you’d expect from any father protecting his daughter. He then took to Twitter responding to many cyberbullies with some choice words and tweets about “friends in the special forces.”

According to Schilling, so far nine trolls have faced consequences. As a result, many of the offensive tweets have been deleted, but that hasn’t stopped more from popping up in their place. Schilling appears to be going after the truly persistent.

According to CBS, Schilling says some of the tweets were more than just offensive–they were against the law. He says he’s seeking legal recourse, he’s been speaking with the FBI and local police, and is currently discussing the possibility of filing criminal charges. This man’s personal vendetta to hunt down each one of these cyberbullies is a warning to anyone thinking about posting hateful comments on social media, and more importantly proof that you should never mess with a man and his daughter.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Curt Schilling Seeking Legal Action Against Daughter’s Cyberbullies appeared first on Law Street.