NFL player backpedals after tweet with Asian slur: ‘I have learned a valuable lesson’

Tampa Buccaneers cornerback Carlton Davis apologized for using an anti-Asian slur in a tweet that later got deleted.

On Sunday night, the 2021 Super Bowl Champion tweeted, “Gotta stop letting g---s in Miami.” The word used is a pejorative term — primarily used against an Asian person or person of Asian descent.

When social media users immediately flipped out in the comments section, Davis contended that he didn’t know the word was offensive because he was raised in the 305.

The 24-year-old Carol City native then referred his followers to the Urban Dictionary’s definition of the word, which may be familiar to some South Floridians. The g-word is indeed listed as a synonym as an adjective for “lame” or as a noun, for “fool.”

As some sympathetic commenters pointed out, the g-word is also the title of a 2016 rap song by fellow Carol City native Denzel Curry. There’s another song released that year called “G---ed Out” by local talent Kodak Black and Koly P, with lyrics containing the derogatory term, which can also mean putting too many accessories on your car, as per Urban Dictionary.

“I would never offend any group of people,” Davis continued in another tweet after the first was deleted. “You reporters can look for another story to blow up. The term was directed towards a producer claiming he ‘ran Miami.’ With that being said I’ll retire that word from my vocabulary giving the hard times our Asian family are enduring.”

It’s unclear to whom Davis is referring, but the Miami Norland Senior High School alum added that he is now educated about the hurtful term.

“I used a term that from where I come from has always meant ‘lame,’ but I did not realize it has a much darker, negative connotation,” read Davis’ post. “I have learned a valuable lesson and want to apologize to anyone that was offended by seeing that word because we need to focus on helping each other during these tough times.”

The country has seen an escalation in attacks on Asian Americans in recent months.

According to Stop AAPI Hate, which tracks hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander community, more than 3,800 anti-Asian incidents were reported between March 2020 through February. The group, which tracks incidents of discrimination, hate and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S., said that number is “only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur.”