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Bucs' Carlton Davis Apologizes After Using Anti-Asian Slur in Deleted Tweet

Joseph Zucker@@JosephZuckerFeatured ColumnistApril 5, 2021

Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Carlton Davis (24) in action during the first half of the NFL Super Bowl 55 football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021, in Tampa, Fla. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9. (AP Photo/Steve Luciano)
Steve Luciano/Associated Press

Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Carlton Davis apologized after using an anti-Asian slur in a tweet he has since deleted.

Davis wrote "Gotta stop letting g--ks in Miami" before taking down the post. The Carol City, Florida, native suggested the word carries a different regional connotation but that he will "retire that word from my vocabulary giving the hard times our Asian family are enduring."

C-Murda ™ @Carlton_Lowkey

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. 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

In a follow-up tweet, he said he "did not realize it has a much darker, negative connotation" and had "learned a valuable lesson."

As the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading in the United States, the FBI warned in March 2020 that hate crimes against Asian Americans could climb. Politicians including former President Donald Trump were blamed for stoking the hatred by calling COVID-19 the "China Virus."

Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit that logs incidents of hate, violence, bullying, discrimination and harassment against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S., subsequently reported a rise in the documented cases of anti-AAPI hate. The group logged 3,795 incidents between March 19, 2020, and February 28, 2021.

On March 16, Robert Aaron Long allegedly shot and killed eight people at three Atlanta-area massage parlors. Six of the victims were of Asian descent.