Last night February 24, 2013 was Oscar night and once again the stars were out to see who would walk away with the coveted golden statue that is fought so hard for every year.
A beautiful actress stepped onto the Oscar red carpet. Take a long look at the gorgeous little princess in the amethyst gown, and what do you see? You see her hair done in pretty little tendrils, as she is obviously going someplace fancy. You see her signature puppy dog evening bag, and is that not the cutest little girl look ever? And you also see an Academy Award nominated actress!
This adorable little girl is having the whirl wind career at 9 years old that actors and actresses may work their entire lives to achieve and yet may never get more than a glimpse of. This should be a beautiful thing, something that is cherished and celebrated! Hooray for little 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis right? That’s what all reasonable people would think, but then, they would not be those who were live tweeting for The Onion last night.
Let’s be clear.
When you call a 9-year old girl the sort of vile, disgusting, perversion of all things reasonable name that the author of The Onion tweet did last night and call it satire or entertainment, then I for one shudder to think of what that author could possibly have found amusing or remotely legitimate about what he or she said.
But it runs so much deeper.
This little girl isn’t even old enough to be explained to what that term even means. Dig that for a second. Let that marinate. How does a parent sit their little one down and explain that her hard work will be diminished in comparison to what some loser thought he should say to get a laugh at her expense. There is no sorry good enough.
Google will now be filled with her name and his tweet no matter what anyone says or does from this point on. And even if you are going to send a new pony, a check for her paid college tuition and all the puppy dog handbags she could ever want for the rest of her life to her home today, I still can’t see how saying I’m sorry will ever be enough.
The author should meet swift punishment and be man and or woman enough to take the heat for what they said about an innocent little girl who was showing up to an event to be honored. This person took away what should have been something wonderful that she would be remembered for. But now her name will be synonymous with something awful which is lasting, and stinging, and forever. Her grand kids will know about what this idiot had to say. Google is forever.
So what is the solution?
I don’t know, but in the meantime, my wish is that all who read this editorial will tweet #WeLoveYouQuvenzhanéWallis often and every time you think of it. And if people continue to do that, maybe as things die down about this event, we can do some good in burying this story so that when she Googles her own name she sees messages of love instead of the hateful, reckless, immature, flat out disgusting message that appears now.
This is the open letter that The Onion posted in response to the controversy:
Feb. 25, 2013
Dear Readers,
On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive—not to mention inconsistent with The Onion’s commitment to parody and satire, however biting.
No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire.
The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again.
In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible.
Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry.
Sincerely,
Steve Hannah
CEO
The Onion