Phoenix councilman apologizes for posting meme on social media
Aug 16, 2017, 2:30 PM | Updated: Aug 17, 2017, 8:14 am
(Twitter Photo/@keithlaw)
PHOENIX — A Phoenix councilman apologized Wednesday for posting what he thought was a funny photo on social media that others viewed as insensitive.
DiCiccio posted the meme on Twitter about 6:15 a.m. Wednesday but quickly deleted it. However, some people took a screenshot before it could be removed.
oh, looks like @Sal_DiCiccio deleted his tone-deaf post, good thing i saved it! pic.twitter.com/KpkIX0CqGj
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) August 16, 2017
DiCiccio’s post came just days after violence broke out during white supremacy riots in Charlottseville, Virginia. The councilman said his post was intended to use humor to break up harsh online rhetoric but that backfired.
“I did so because so many people have spent the last few days exchanging hatred, calling each other fascists and Nazis, that I thought a little laugh at ourselves was in order,” Sal DiCiccio wrote in a Facebook post.
“Instead, the post generated even more of the same hatred and vile name calling that has overtaken our society.”
While DiCiccio wrote that he had zero tolerance for white supremacists or “anyone else who puts the race of an individual before the character of that individual – period,” he did say Americans needed to get a sense of humor.
“We need to stop conflating policy disagreements with personal attacks,” he wrote. “Stop accusing our fellow citizens of hatred simply for holding different beliefs. Stop making every problem worse, and start working together again on solutions.”
DiCiccio also said he takes the matter of white supremacy personally because Nazis invaded his father’s town in Italy and killed dozens of people.
After initially aligning with Nazi Germany, Italy changed sides in World War II and was subsequently invaded by German troops.