Out soccer star and social activist Megan Rapinoe is facing backlash for a recently resurfaced 2011 tweet in which she appears to be mocking her teammate for being Asian.
“u look Asian with those closed eyes!” Rapinoe wrote a decade ago to her teammate Natasha Kai. The comment seems to have been made in response to a tweet from Kai that has been deleted.
Related: Soccer star Megan Rapinoe testified before Congress & she spoke truth to power
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The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you.@tasha_kai00 u look asian with those closed eyes!
— Megan Rapinoe (@mPinoe) May 19, 2011
Rapino’s tweet has caused many to call Rapinoe’s values into question. She has been a warrior for equal pay in women’s soccer and has been vocal in supporting Black Lives Matter, trans rights, and other liberal causes.
Now, some are calling her a racist and a hypocrite and are asking Subway and Victoria’s Secret, with whom she has marketing deals, to drop her.
Racist. Get cancelled. pic.twitter.com/uR7Zo7Tgub
— Erkut (@Erkut_Denizer) June 17, 2021
Does @VictoriasSecret stand for anti-asian hate???
— broski (@hyperoverdrive) June 17, 2021
Others on social media feel the tweet was a long time ago and say Rapinoe might deserve the chance to have grown.
So what you are saying is that in 10 years no one can change. No one can learn from anything they do. No matter what. If someone says something offensive, that’s what they are. They can’t realize, and learn, and change. Got it. *I eat Jimmy John’s*
— Dawn Holdren (@TitanicMafia05) June 23, 2021
Rapinoe has not yet commented on the controversy.
The soccer player recently made headlines for becoming one of the new faces of Victoria’s Secret, a revolutionary move for the lingerie company attempting to salvage its image and diversify its definition of sexy.
Time will tell whether the company will respond to the calls to cancel Rapinoe.
