After posting a problematic tweet on Valentine’s Day to its Twitter account, UN Women sparked outrage on social media. The tweet has since been deleted, and the UN Women account has since apologized.
“We posted an illustration on Valentine’s Day, depicting love in all its diversity. We listened to what you said in the comments & decided to take it down. UN Women works for gender equality&empowerment of all women & girls regardless of age, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation,” the tweet read.
The organization was accused of bolstering stereotypes of Black women being unworthy of love after showing an illustration of a lone Black woman among several couples.
The global organization posted the image to celebrate various forms of love on Valentine’s Day, including interracial lesbian, gay and straight partners.
Black women rallied together on social media to call out the troublesome tweet and the non-apology.
A spokesperson for UN Women emailed an obtuse response to The Independent.
“We hope that our social media channels continue to be an open and welcoming space for conversations,” the statement said.
OK.