Mike Purzycki was forced to delete a retweet that showed white nationalist views.
During the St Patrick’s Day weekend as President Trump continued his attempt to solve all his problems via his Twitter account, one Delaware politician found himself creating more problems for himself on the social media platform, retweeting an incorrect belief held by white nationalists that the Irish were slaves.
The Mayor of Wilmington Mike Purzycki claims that it was an “innocent mistake” and that he had “inadvertently tweeted” the screenshot of the offensive tweet.
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A screenshot of the original message.
“Shout out to all of the Irish people who's families were enslaved, came to the US for a better life, worked in factories and then got called 'privileged' & blamed for slavery by beta male, soy drinking hypocrites & depressed feminists,” the screenshot read.
Thank you to everyone who came out to enjoy the 44th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade today #inWilm! #ItsTimeWilmDE #StPatricksDay #WilmDE pic.twitter.com/TKpyJBeNrE
— Mike Purzycki (@MikePurzycki) March 16, 2019
The false view that Irish people came to the US as slaves is prominent with white nationalists. While Irish people were indentured servants, they had rights and a contract that was not afforded a slave.
“Someone not associated with our office intentionally set out to connect the mayor to an offensive post. Our office retweeted the original tweet not knowing that the offensive post was attached,” said a spokesperson for the Mayor’s office.
Read more: Immigrants remembered by joyous Grand Marshall at NYC St. Patrick’s Parade
I had nothing to do with the offensive post. We unintentionally compounded the problem by RTing the original post unaware that an offensive screenshot was attached. It's disturbing how social media can be manipulated.
— Mike Purzycki (@MikePurzycki) March 18, 2019
They confirmed that the retweet has since been deleted and that the account’s password has been reset. The account is believed to have been run by a social media manager over the weekend.
'I had nothing to do with the offensive post. We unintentionally compounded the problem by RTing the original post unaware that an offensive screenshot was attached. It's disturbing how social media can be manipulated,” a tweet from Purzycki’s own account later said.
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