Arizona Woman Tweets N-Word, Social Media Erupts

After Arizona State University student Erika Escalante tweeted three photos of herself and a friend picking cotton under the caption: "Our inner n***** came out today," social media erupted in outrage:

"You are racist. Ignorant," one woman posted on Twitter.
"Ur so ignorant its painful," tweeted another.
"That's like us saying 'Making tamales. My inner wetback just came out.' Like how ignorant and racist would that be?" added another.

Then, her post got picked up by #BlackTwitter and really went viral — so Escalante went back on Twitter to confront her critics.

Here's a sample of the barrage of Tweets she unleashed earlier this week, beginning with an attempt to justify her actions:

Suffice it to say, social media users were having none of that and let her know. Then, Escalante tried apologizing:


Her apologies were seen as insincere and relentlessly mocked: 



A few hours later, Escalante tried to change the discussion by pointing a finger at her critics:
At some point during the Twitter battle, someone discovered where Escalante interned and promptly contacted her employer, Isagenix, a Chandler-based company that markets dietary supplements.

According to Fox News, who spoke with an Isagenix employer named Kevin Snyder, Esacalante was fired almost immediately. 
Freshly unemployed, Escalante took to Twitter once again:
Twitter responded with a loud, "Nope!"
And then, perhaps in one final attempt to "to put this incident behind [her]," as she explained in a Tweet, Escalante agreed to an interview with Fox News:

"I apologize fully, I take full responsibility for what I have done, It's just not okay," she told the reporter. "I want to apologize to whoever I offended, I am sorry if you took this to heart. I am so sorry. I didn't mean it at all. It was a mistake; that's all I can say."

Asked if she has ever been warned about the dangers of posting posting things online, the 20-year-old said, "Yes, people have been telling me that, and my parents tell me 'you need to watch what you post.'"

But apparently she didn't heed those warnings: "It was a lack of my better judgment at the moment," she said.

"I was just not thinking at all."

In the end, Escalante temporarily deleted her Twitter account and Black Twitter claimed victory:
Watch her interview courtesy of Fox News: