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Buccaneers cornerback Carlton Davis used an anti-Asian slander on Twitter on Sunday night, then apologized and also suggested that there was nothing offensive in using the term.
On Sunday night, Davis tweeted, “I have to stop leaving g – ks in Miami,” using an offensive term that refers disparagingly to Vietnamese, Koreans and Filipinos.
Davis later deleted the tweet and posted an apology insisting that he didn’t know what the word means.
“I would never offend any group of people,” wrote Davis. “You reporters can look for another story to blow up. The term was directed at a producer claiming that he ‘ran Miami’. With that said, I will remove that word from my vocabulary, giving an account of the difficult times that our Asian family is facing. I used a term that where I come from always meant “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 took offense at seeing that word, because we need to focus on helping each other in these difficult times. “
The Sports Task Force of the Association of Asian American Journalists released a statement calling the group “disappointed in their sentiment, especially at a time when Asians in the United States are experiencing a sharp increase in anti-Asian hatred, which has resulted in harassment and attacks “.