Over 150 NYT authors sign angry letter over alleged racist behavior

On Wednesday afternoon, more than 150 people on staff at The New York Times signed and delivered a letter to Dean Baquet, the executive editor, expressing their dissatisfaction with how the paper handled top reporter Donald McNeil Jr.

"150 NYT reporters say the intent of speech doesn't matter. 'McNeil’s intent was 'irrelevant,' the irate staffers wrote in the letter, adding that the paper’s own harassment training "makes clear that what matters is how an act makes the victims feel"'

"We, his colleagues, feel disrespected by his actions. The company has a responsibility to take that experience seriously," states the letter, which goes on to state that the company's own training "makes clear that what matters is how an act makes the victims feel; Mr. McNeil’s victims weren’t shy about decrying his conduct on the trip."

"Our community is outraged and in pain,. Despite The Times’s seeming commitment to diversity and inclusion, we have given a prominent platform—a critical beat covering a pandemic disproportionately affecting people of color—to someone who chose to use language that is offensive and unacceptable by any newsroom’s standards. He did so while acting as a representative for The Times, in front of high school students."

McNeil is a veteran reporter with the Times who has become very high-profile lately. This particular controversy has to do with a 2019 trip to Peru where he was chaperoning high-school students. Many students reported afterwards that he used racial slurs during the trip, and made other racist and stereotypical comments.

Baquet himself said, "I authorized an investigation and concluded his remarks were offensive and that he showed extremely poor judgment, but it did not appear to me that his intentions were hateful or malicious." He also said that he was planning to fire McNeil before the investigation, but changed his mind due to what was found.