Tweet
In a tweet that has resulted in swift and furious blowback online, The Washington Post chose to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 mission by framing the "giant leap for mankind" as racist and sexist.
“The culture that put men on the moon was intense, fun, family-unfriendly, and mostly white and male," The Washington Post declared in a tweet promoting an article published in June on "the hard-charging space program" featuring "breakthroughs," "breakups" and a "breakneck" atmosphere.
Back then, in the ’60s, rocket scientists were the badass dudes of innovation. Just the title was about the highest brainiac accolade that could be conferred. As in, he’s smart, but he’s no rocket scientist," begins the piece written by Karen Heller. "As NASA worked relentlessly to fulfill John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the moon by decade’s end, it turned to the nation’s engineers. Many of them were fresh out of school, running the gamut from mechanical to electrical engineers, because that’s mostly what was taught in universities, and almost exclusively to white men."
"In archival Apollo 11 photos and footage, it’s a 'Where’s Waldo?' exercise to spot a woman or person of color," Heller writes.
The response to the Post's tweet on the anniversary of the historic mission has been overwhelmingly negative. Twitchy summarized critcs' take: "It wouldn’t be a celebration of American ingenuity without the Washington Post finding a way to crap all over it." A few examples from the flood of mocking responses:
"Toxic masculinity!" wrote one critic. "God damned heroes," added another. "Just like the WaPo newsroom at the time," noted another. "Is this satire?" asked one guy. "Have you looked at the moon? It looks white. White bad. Moon bad," mocked another. "What is wrong with y’all?" asked The Daily Wire's Josh Hammer.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/49574...-james-barrett
“The culture that put men on the moon was intense, fun, family-unfriendly, and mostly white and male," The Washington Post declared in a tweet promoting an article published in June on "the hard-charging space program" featuring "breakthroughs," "breakups" and a "breakneck" atmosphere.
Back then, in the ’60s, rocket scientists were the badass dudes of innovation. Just the title was about the highest brainiac accolade that could be conferred. As in, he’s smart, but he’s no rocket scientist," begins the piece written by Karen Heller. "As NASA worked relentlessly to fulfill John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the moon by decade’s end, it turned to the nation’s engineers. Many of them were fresh out of school, running the gamut from mechanical to electrical engineers, because that’s mostly what was taught in universities, and almost exclusively to white men."
"In archival Apollo 11 photos and footage, it’s a 'Where’s Waldo?' exercise to spot a woman or person of color," Heller writes.
The response to the Post's tweet on the anniversary of the historic mission has been overwhelmingly negative. Twitchy summarized critcs' take: "It wouldn’t be a celebration of American ingenuity without the Washington Post finding a way to crap all over it." A few examples from the flood of mocking responses:
"Toxic masculinity!" wrote one critic. "God damned heroes," added another. "Just like the WaPo newsroom at the time," noted another. "Is this satire?" asked one guy. "Have you looked at the moon? It looks white. White bad. Moon bad," mocked another. "What is wrong with y’all?" asked The Daily Wire's Josh Hammer.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/49574...-james-barrett
Comment