Student Government Association presidential candidate Winni Zhang came under fire on social media Monday as racially-charged tweets from her personal and campaigning account, @infinity_winni, resurfaced in the form of screenshots from her private account.
Political science alumnus Shea Smith tweeted “So let’s discuss this little tidbit from @infinity_winni, @UHSGA candidate, from the @UHSpiritRed_ party….” accompanied by screenshots of the tweets Zhang posted in 2013 and 2014. Smith declined to comment further.
So let’s discuss this little tidbit from @infinity_winni, @UHSGA candidate, from the @UHSpiritRed_ party….. pic.twitter.com/y4ZBzStLxS
— Smith, Shea Jordan (@shea_jordan) February 28, 2017
Smith says the tweets were sent to him but declined to detail who exactly captured the screengrabs.
Zhang issued an apology on Twitter a few minutes later saying, “First and foremost: I am sorry. I understand the gravity of my words, and four years later I am still learning every day.”
First and foremost: I am sorry. I understand the gravity of my words, and four years later I am still learning every day. (1/1)
— Vote for Spirit RED (@infinity_winni) February 28, 2017
Zhang said she does not plan to suspend her campaign.
The SGA electoral ballot opens midnight Monday on Get Involved.
Y’all are real petty, I don’t know Winni but she was in high school this was FOUR YEARS AGO. We were all young and dumb but clearly you guys still are to make something out of nothing. Y’all trying too hard to make the election interesting, you should focus on the candidate’s ideas/platform not their drama. This is a bad representation of UH and it has Daily Cougar all over it – you trying to make us have national attention again?
This has nothing to do with the Daily Cougar. This has to do with the parties involved with this elections. They are the ones that have been causing controversy. Look at all the supporters of the REDvolution party. They have been trying to spread garbage and purposefully throw Spirit Red under the bus.
You have proof of this?
If you’ve been on Facebook, you have seen several people (most active I have seen are Avery Love and Matt Wiltshire) be the main supporters of the REDvolution party and constantly calling out Winni and the Spirit Red party.
Before the Winni drama, Davis Darusman (one of the candidates apart of the REDvolution party) attempted to throw Jordyn under the bus for a dumb lyric on his campaign mixtape or whatever.
And if you go to @shea_jordan ‘s twitter profile (guy who leaked the info about Winni), he got it from someone named Samir that was on the REDvolution party.
If I were a voter, I would either go with House of Innovation or Vote for meme. Both Spirit Red and REDvolution show poor character.
Being called out, I guess I’ll respond.
I have made it abundantly clear that I am disgusted by these tactics. Winni should not be having this happen to her.
Of course I support REDvolution–I have a dozen friends involved in that campaign.
If you had paid attention to what Shea said later on the person who claimed to be from REDvolution was catfishing.
Also, I’m more than willing to say these things with my name attached to it. I don’t need to hide behind an anon tag.
Such a nasty woman.
Despite my MAJOR disagreements with Winni, this is not how we should be campaigning.
Let me be very clear: despite Winni trying to make my life VERY hard last summer, I completely despise the way she is being treated on Twitter for comments she made long ago. This is not how we elevate debate.
Some people in different cultures use that word when joking around with friends. This does not look like she is directing this in a racially charged manner towards anyone. It looks like a high school girl who was joking with her friends. It is now inappropriate by our standards, but back then, it was common among those in her age group. I think that journalists covering this election should stick to the issues and cut with the smear campaign. She has my vote.
The fact remains she used a word that is deeply troubling to many people in he African American community. You can try and dodge and say this was three years ago, but most people don’t speak like this at 17 years old, at least they should still be harshly judged for it.
Since she is a hot Asian … and she should be forgiven. As long as she promises like Madonna with promises oral servicing … for everyone that forgives her.
This is actually very similar to what the Wall Street Journal did to the YouTuber guy, PewDiePie. Someone goes back and digs up information like this and then writes an article without any regard for the intent of the speech in question. This was clearly some immature joking around. Some better judgement would have prevented her from posting those, but I’ll bet she knows now considering it was years ago. Holding this against her is ridiculous.
This is nothing like the Pewdiepie scandal. This is direct proof of her using racial slurs. Pewdiepie’s scandal involves taking clips of videos directly out of context. In both of those videos, Felix is trying to convey a different message/lesson whereas this is just Winni using a racial slur ignorantly and irresponsibly
Really disappointed with this ridiculous article. Im voting for Winni and you should do. (just look at the actions she’s taken within the past year to better the lives of UH students compared to the other candidates)