The Vanderpump Rules world has been rocked after a new castmember’s racist tweets were exposed. That topic brought up another man’s bad tweets.
Lisa Vanderpump is wading into the fray and condemning these "heinous" statements in the strongest possible terms.
In 2011 and in the years surrounding it, Max Boyens was apparently a huge fan of the n-word.
We know this because it surfaced in a number of his tweets. And no, ending it with an "a" does not make it okay.
When this came to light after he was added to the cast, fans also took aim at Brett Caprioni, who had tweeted his own share of n-words.
While the early 2010s were a period of "shock" tweets as everyone tried to be a Twitter comedian, the use of slurs pushed things way too far.
Nobody wants to embarrass their boss — especially when that boss is Lisa Vanderpump.
"I do not condone any of the heinous comments made in the past by Max and Brett," she says in a statement.
Lisa continues: "and I am glad they understand the severity of their offenses."
She says that they acknowledge the gravity of their wrongdoing "and have shown the utmost remorse and contrition,”
“I embrace a community of diversity," Lisa says, referring to her personal life and also to the passion projects that she supports.
She then affirms: "and [I] do not tolerate bigotry of any form within my workplace."
"Max and Brett are both appropriately ashamed of their past obnoxious teenage arrogance," she announces.
Continuing to verbally skewer them, she adds: "and casual use of unacceptable terms."
"While both have not matured as adults," Lisa says.
Goodness, she’s not giving laying off of them for even a moment. That’s probably the right call.
She shares "they have shown remorse for their prior reckless defamatory statements."
We are sure that they have. At the very least, they wouldn’t want to lose their jobs over this.
"I do sincerely believe both have learned the power and impact words can have," Lisa opines.
She concludes: "and I have every hope this will be a lifelong lesson for them as we move into this new decade."
Previous reports had suggested that Lisa was expected to fire these two idiots.
The tone of this public message, however, suggests that she may allow them to remain employed, even if they are on thin ice.
Social media is only a little over a decade old. Until now, everyday people did not have a written record of their words and activities.
As a society, we are all going to have to take time to process the ways in which people change as human beings.
On the one hand, a tremendous amount has changed, culturally, since 2012.
And before 2013, it was considered normal and usually acceptable to post "shocking" humor — joking about ethnic cleansing or pedophilia — on Twitter.
Fortunately, those days are behind us. But even then … non-black people using the n-word was crossing a lot of lines.
It’s up to Lisa to determine whether these blundering manchildren get to keep their jobs or not.
It’s up to our society to determine if dropping n-bombs left and right on social media is something that a person can "grow out of."
And frankly, that particular ruling pretty much has to come from the African American community. The rest of us don’t get much of a say.
