A senior staffer at South Carolina’s government-run utility Santee Cooper has been fired after she allegedly posted several racist tweets earlier this week about protesters at the John Calhoun Statue in Charleston, S.C..
Two of the racist messages were posted in response to tweets from Live 5 News reporter Rob Way showing protesters spray painting the monument yesterday evening.
Sources sent us the following tweets sent by an account allegedly owned and operated by Linda Wilcox – a senior engineer at the utility.
Take a look …
The account – which is now deleted – also tweeted at other reporters’ coverage of protestors demanding that the John C. Calhoun statue be removed after weeks of simmering racial tension across the country. Calhoun, a prominent figure in South Carolina politics, was an outspoken proponent of slavery.
Multiple complaints about Wilcox’s tweets were made to Santee Cooper, and on Thursday afternoon the utility acknowledged that Wilcox is no longer an employee.
This news outlet has previously called out Santee Cooper for its lack of diversity among senior executive leadership as well as its governing board.
“Of the agency’s seven (now six) top executive staffers – all are white and only one is female,” FITSNews founding editor Will Folks wrote. “And of the agency’s ten current board members – all are white and only one is female.”
“In other words, out of seventeen (now sixteen) leadership positions – fifteen (now fourteen) are currently occupied by white men. The remaining two positions are occupied by white women,” Folks wrote.
Shortly thereafter, the agency added general auditor Monique Washington to a list of senior leaders pictured on its website.
Diversity issues aside, Santee Cooper faces increasingly difficult economic headwinds as its leaders seek to block state lawmakers from considering its offloading to the private sector – something this new outlet called on lawmakers to do more than a dozen years ago.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR..
Mandy Matney is the news director at FITSNews. She’s an investigative journalist from Kansas who has worked for newspapers in Missouri, Illinois, and South Carolina before making the switch to FITS. She currently lives on Hilton Head Island where she enjoys beach life. Mandy also hosts the Murdaugh Murders podcast. Want to contact Mandy? Send your tips to mandy@fitsnews.com.
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