An Olympic athlete from Greece, Voula Papachristou, has been suspended from her country's team after making an offensive comment on Twitter about African immigrants in Greece, a spokeswoman for the Greek Olympic team said Wednesday.
Papachristou apologized on her Facebook page for making an "unfortunate and tasteless joke."
"I am very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights," she wrote. "My dream is connected to the Olympic Games and I could not possibly participate if I did not respect their values. Therefore, I could never believe in discrimination between human beings and races. I would like to apologize to all my friends and fellow athletes, who I may have insulted or shamed, the National Team, as well as the people and companies who support my athletic career. Finally, I would like to apologize to my coach and my family."
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What was her tweet?
“With so many Africans in Greece… At least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food!!!”
"with so many Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitos will be getting home food!!" she tweeted. People are making this into an American Blacks vs. Whites thing, when it is actually an internal Greek "far right support" issue. I think this could have been mentioned in the article if the actual re-tweet was not tasteful.
"With so many Africans in Greece, the mosquitoes from the West Nile will at least be eating some homemade food,"
Well? What did she say?? She sounds sincerely desperate. Almost groveling.
I guess they didn't want ot repeat it.
She learned the hard way, as a lot of people do. THINK before you speak (or tweet in this case). Too many people are willing to share every thought as they think about because of social media. Learn to filter your thoughts people!!
She could not bring herself to apologize to the Africans she insulted... telling.
What Africans did she insult?
Its always the wrong time to try to be funny the Olympic is a time when all people from all different place are coming together as the best of the best ib their country and sports and when people start acting racist joke or not it just no fun. Hey she should of kept her joke to her dam self I don't feel sorry for her goodbye.
I agree darquarious. Jason sounds a bit sour to me...hmmmm
I agree with the decision. She should pay the price for her actions. She would be furious if a black person said something about Greek`s.
She didn't say anything about blacks, let alone anything racist. Her tweet wasn't insulting to anyone anywhere.
First of all, who said that the comment she made was about black Africans? I have many friends from South Africa who are white.
Second, I never understand the justification "I'm a comedian so what I say is just a joke." Any time anyone says anything, just start off with the caveat, then.
I think if she apologized she should be forgiven.
If you make offensive statements, you need to be punished whether or not you apologize.
Her apology is not sincere She apologized to everyone except the people of african descent that she insulted. She should have also apologized to the african and afro-hellenic people living in Greece that are also going through a tough time dealing with racisim in addition to a bad economy. She's only sorry because she now loses sponsor money and benefits from the corporations. The Grek Olympic Committee did the right thing. People need to remember that Facebook SHARES information with the WORLD. If you want to keep private thoughts private, DON'T GO ON FACEBOOK.
Got news for you, she probably wasnt allowed to write the apology. Does that really sound like it's in HER words? She probably wanted to do it differently but the P.R. people jumped on it and issued a statement FOR her.
Why bother to apologize if they already kicked you off the team?
You blew it....just go home and get a job.
Norm, there has to be an apology when your name is out there.
wow she made a bad joke, she still earned her place and it is f'd up that she can't compete. no wonder that country is in chaos. people can't have an opinion. didn't the nazis compete in the olympics?
There is no mention anywhere of black people protesting. It was the Greek gov't that decided to axe her.
That was canned statement, obviously coerced. I'm sure she IS sorry, but that definitely was written by the Olympic administration. So fake. And to suspend someone after they put FOUR YEARS into training is stupid. A comment is a comment, the apology was sincere we hope, so move on and let her compete. It's not the end of the world if someone flubs up, and it spotlighted that this kind of thing isnt okay. But it's' not worth throwing away four years of work.
She didn't say anything racist. She said Africans. Many non-black people live in Africa. Not the brightest thing to say, but not suspension worthy.
The article did not mention her actual tweet, so I don't know whether it was suspension-worthy. Suspensions can happen for any number of reasons - overt racism is only one way.
In the early 1900's, a famous ice skater was suspended for drinking during the Olympics. What this Greek athlete did was arguably worse than public drinking...
as a former conservative, and now an obama supporter....she did not say anything mean or nasty. In fact it could even be considered funny. There are many real problems and real racist to worry about...but this...only an effin lunatic would fret over this.
Sorry, folks, she was wrong to say this. The right to free speech does not apply here. Your rights end where other people's feelings begin. If something you say or do will hurt someone's feelings, you have no right to say or do those things.
Tell that to the KKK, The Westboro church, the US government, The Catholic Church, Chik-a-fila and all the other organizations that are able to say what they want. The right to free speech applies, there just happens to be consequences that can be applied for once.
What kind of fairy tale world do you live in?
Your name ObamaForever is offensive to me. You have affected my feelings negativelty are therefore infringing on your own right to free speech by referring to yourself as such. You have no right to post that as your name and I demand you take it down...
Wait... what?!?!
Incorrect. If I wanted to walk up to you and call you a fat pig on the street, I can. I fear a government where people's feeble emotions are litigated... over-sensitivity can cause just as much ruin as collective hatred.
No offense, but this is the dumbest thing I've ever read. Are your feelings hurt? Get over it.
Your comments hurt my feelings. So your should lose your job obama lover.
Johnny Orlando: freedom of speech does not apply the same in Greece as it does here. But more significantly, this is not an issue of freedom of speech. The Organization (in this case, the Greek Olympic Committee) is absolutely within its rights to suspend someone who does not represent the organization in a favorable way.
The woman is not being arrested or anything. She is merely being suspended from her role in the company because she caused it PR damage. Freedom of speech does not apply to employment or membership in a group... at all.
Hate to break it to you but the 1st amendment protects offensive speech. However you are not guaranteed those rights outside of the USA so the argument is invalid anyway.
wrong i have a right to say i think someone is an idiot and should not be punished for it. just as someone has the right to say they think i am idiot for what i think. if no one could speak out the world would be wayyyyyy different and not in a good way. more of a nazi germany wwii way
By that standard, you can hardly say anything, since practically any substantive comment (or even non-substantive, in the case of this tweet) will offend someone. You have a pretty weak idea of "freedom of speech." There is no such thing as a "right not to be offended."