Was one apology good enough to forgive Michael McCauley?
Last month, McCauley joined a group of models for a new campaign by Abercrombie & Fitch. The fragrance campaign, titled “Face Your Fierce,” was created to celebrate “body positivity, self-empowerment, determination, LGBT+ equality, gender equality, overcoming obstacles, and more.” To show that, models of varying body types were hired for the campaign. This includes soccer star Megan Rapinoe, Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy, NFL veteran Ryan Russell, and McCauley.
Unfortunately, the extra spotlight on McCauley after being interviewed by Queerty led the way for controversy. As we’ve seen many times before, old social media posts can come back to bite someone on the butt. It just happened to be McCauley who got that bite this time.
As Metro Weekly writes, several racist social media posts once written by McCauley began circulating online. In one of the posts, McCauley labeled the Black Lives Matter movement as “a group of extremists.” In another post, he blamed the group for blocking the streets and making him late for a “crucial meeting” by saying, “Thank you for making your point – I’m glad your life matters more than mine.” McCauley also mocked the #OscarsSoWhite movement by posting a Facebook video with the message that he’d be boycotting the Grammy Awards for not having “enough white people.”
https://twitter.com/nowlifesadream/status/1240068463726596102
After facing backlash for his earlier comments, McCauley posted an apology video to Instagram saying that he realized how insensitive his earlier comments were.
He added:
“It’s really shocking to see myself say those kinds of things. And I want you guys to know that is no way the person I am today. I really hope you guys can see past these comments and know I’m doing my part to make this right. I’m reaching out to my local Black Lives Matter chapter here in L.A. and I’m going to make sure I am educated as much as I possibly can on everything their movement is about, and if there is any way I can make this right and apologize directly to them, and potentially use my platform to make sure that other people don’t think this kind of language is OK, and understand why what I said is so offensive, and so hurtful and racist…because that’s not the world I want to live in and I don’t want to ever put that message out there.”
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B97RinypDQW/?utm_source=ig_embed
Despite that apology, many on social media are criticizing McCauley of a “half-assed” attempt at getting on the internet’s good side. In addition, Abercrombie & Fitch have fired him from the campaign and any future work.
Sources: Metro Weekly, PinkNews
