Former Times Reporter McNeil Says Students’ Racism Allegations Are ‘Recovered Memories’: Report
Former New York Times science and coronavirus reporter Donald G. McNeil, Jr. has reportedly dismissed allegations that he used racist and derogatory language while leading a student trip as “recovered memories,” according to a report Tuesday from The Daily Beast.
McNeil left the Times following an earlier Daily Beast report about McNeil’s alleged use of the n-word and other racially insensitive language on a 2019 Times-led student trip to Peru, and an internal backlash from Times staffers to executive editor Dean Baquet’s initial handling of the issue.
On Tuesday, the Daily Beast reported that it had obtained and reviewed an email McNeil sent this week to “close friends” about the allegations.
“I’m amazed at what’s happening,” the email reportedly said, according to the Beast. “I feel like I’m facing students ‘recovered memories’ from two years ago. And other papers are eating it up. I said ‘racism is over?’ Huh?”
“I said ‘ghetto’? I don’t think I’ve said ‘ghetto’ except 1. about Warsaw or 2. ironically, with air quotes, since Elvis released that ridiculous song,” McNeil continued, according to the Beast. “A teenager ‘corrected’ me and was upset that I failed to apologize to her/him? I don’t even know how to respond to that. Somehow I think I’d remember it if it had happened.”
On Friday, Times media columnist Ben Smith reported that while on the trip, during a conversation with student Sophie Shepherd, McNeil said that “Black Americans keep blaming the system, but racism is over, there’s nothing against them anymore – they can get out of the ghetto if they want to.”
According to the Beast, other students on the trip had complained that McNeil had made sexist remarks, disrespected local customs, and stereotyped Black teenagers while on the trip. After the Beast report, McNeil admitted that he had used the n-word, but in a descriptive context.
McNeil’s emails, as reported by the Beast, strike a different tone from his previous apology to his Times colleagues.
“I should not have done that,” McNeil wrote, according to the Times announcement that McNeil was leaving the paper. “Originally, I thought the context in which I used this ugly word could be defended. I now realize that it cannot. It is deeply offensive and hurtful.”
“For offending my colleagues — and for anything I’ve done to hurt The Times, which is an institution I love and whose mission I believe in and try to serve — I am sorry,” McNeil’s email also said. “I let you all down.”
In his email to friends, McNeil also said that he has been “writing out long answers to everything,” and promised to have those answers on March 1 (the same day he’s leaving the Times), according to the Beast report.
