Grazia sacks new diversity champion after apology for Auschwitz jokes
Plus-sized blogger Stephanie Yeboah let go by the magazine after she was found to have made fun of Jews and Holocaust Memorial Day
Grazia has sacked one of its senior writers after she apologised for making “ignorant and antisemitic” comments about the Holocaust.
The fashion and women’s magazine announced that Stephanie Yeboah would “no longer be writing as a Contributing Editor”, following an internal review and discussions with Jewish groups.
This comes after the writer, charged with championing diversity, said sorry to the community over comments made online about the Holocaust, arguing “there have been bigger and more horrific genocides”.
Yeboah, a “plus-sized style blogger” who joined the magazine last month to “fight for diversity, inclusion and women’s rights” was found to have written a series of questionable Tweets in recent years, Private Eye reported last week.
Grazia UK issued a statement saying the magazine has “spoken at length with Stephanie Yeboah and the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Following an internal review, we have agreed that Stephanie will no longer be writing as a Contributing Editor of Grazia, we will continue to support her as she further educates herself in collaboration with the Jewish community. Grazia continues to champion diversity and inclusion of all kinds and stands firmly against antisemitism.”
Among them was a joke from Yeboah that, “Every Jew has an attic, but not every attic has Jews,” while in another she wrote: “AUSCHWITZ Gas Chamber Music LMAO SMH [laughing my arse off, shaking my head]”.
As recently as January this year, which marked the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, Yeboah wrote: “There have been bigger and more horrific genocides. They happened to brown people though, so I guess it doesn’t matter, huh?”
Yeboah later added: “I know what the occasion is and I’m doubling down on what I said. Of course it’s tragic, but the erasure of brown trauma is a real issue.”
She continued: “Lol of course it matters when Jews are killed. Nothing else matters more. We learn about it in school. It’s *THEE* most important thing. But it also discounts the other absolutely despicable things that have happened. So pls don’t play the oppression card here.”
Following the publication of Private Eye’s article, the Board of Deputies (BOD) spoke directly with Yeboah and called the discussion “positive”.
The organisation tweeted: “We’ve spoken to @StephanieYeboah following the @PrivateEyeNews article, as to why her tweets abt the Holocaust + other issues were so hurtful to the Jewish community.
“The call was very positive. Stephanie has now deleted all the tweets, has assured us she is currently working to address all the concerns in full, and we will meet her soon to discuss all these issues further.”
Yeboah then issued her own apology for her “ignorant and antisemitic comments about the Jewish community”.
She wrote:”I want to first and foremost sincerely apologise, but also address some of my tweets that have been brought to the attention and made public.
“In these tweets, I made very ignorant and antisemitic comments about the Jewish community, as well as quoting lines from a variety of TV shows, including quotes that upon reflection, were extremely offensive and hurtful.
“To plead ignorance is no excuse, I should have known better than to make these kind of comments about events which remain a source of unimaginable trauma for the Jewish community.”
Addressing the comments she made in regard to Holocaust Memorial Day 2020, she explained that she wanted to highlight how “the massacre/tragedies of black and brown bodies weren’t given as much visibility due to the colour of our skin,” but that as the result of her words she “ended up diminishing the seriousness of the tragedies that the Jewish communites have faced.”
She added: “I was pitting these two marginalised communities against each other, and for that, I am extremely sorry. I can’t express nor apologise enough for the hurt and harm my tweets have caused.”
Yeboah pledged to meet in-person with the Board of deputies to “begin this journey of educating myself further.”
Actress and antisemtisim campaigner Tracy-Ann Oberman, who initially called the Tweets “unacceptable” and a “blatant horror”, thanked Yeboah for apologising and offered a face-to-face meeting with the Holocaust Education Trust, “to show where unchecked Jew hate ends up.”
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