Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Carlton Davis said he “would never offend any group of people” after tweeting an anti-Asian slander on Sunday night, which prompted a quick reaction.
Davis tweeted “I have to stop leaving g —- in Miami” before deleting the message, according to ESPN. He wrote that he thought the insulting part of the message meant “lame”.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
“I would never offend any group of people,” wrote the 24-year-old in an apology. “You, reporters, can look for another story to blow up. The term was directed at a producer claiming that he ‘ran Miami’. That said, I will remove that word from my vocabulary, explaining the difficult times that our Asian family is facing.
The first tweet came with an internet definition.
“I used a term that I always come from means ‘lame’, but I didn’t realize that it has a much more dark and negative connotation. I learned a valuable lesson and I want to apologize to anyone who was offended by seeing that word because we need to focus help each other in these difficult times, “he added.
EX-JOHNNIES ‘STAR QUARTERBACK JACKSON ERDMANN WORKING FOR THE NFL DREAM WITH MINNESOTA PRO DAY APPEARANCE
Attacks against Asian Americans have increased in recent weeks. Nearly half of the hate-related incidents targeted at Asian Americans since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic have occurred in the state of California, according to a report by the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center, according to a March study.
The organization said it received 3,795 first-hand reports of hate incidents across the country from March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021. Of that total, 68.1% of the incidents were classified as verbal harassment, while 20.5 % were cases of “evasion” by Asian Americans and 11.1% were cases of alleged physical aggression.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
States across the country reported an increase in violence and incidents related to hatred against Asian Americans during the pandemic. Of the reported incidents, 1,691, or about 45%, occurred in California. Another 517 attacks, or about 14%, occurred in New York and 158, or about 4%, occurred in Washington state. No other state was responsible for more than 3% of reported incidents.
Thomas Barrabi of Fox News contributed to this report.