Doreen St. Félix, a New Yorker staff writer, vanished from X this week after decade-old tweets revealed a troubling pattern of racial animosity, as Breitbart reports. Her sudden exit raises questions about accountability in media circles. The incident underscores the tension between personal views and public roles.
St. Félix, employed by The New Yorker since 2017, deactivated her X account after tweets from 2014 and 2015 resurfaced, exposing derogatory remarks about white people and claims of racial superiority tied to her ethnicity. These posts, now a digital ghost, have sparked debate about her professional standing. The timing of her deletion suggests an attempt to dodge scrutiny.
In December 2014, St. Félix tweeted, “I hate white men,” slamming them as the “worst” and urging them to “leave the earth” to others. Such venom, cloaked in casual social media banter, reveals a mindset that clashes with the inclusive ideals often preached by elite publications. It’s a stark reminder that even celebrated writers can harbor divisive views.
By April 2015, St. Félix doubled down, admitting that “whiteness fills me with a lot of hate.” This wasn’t a one-off rant; her posts consistently framed white people as inferior, even blaming them for historical diseases. The irony of such generalizations from a writer at a prestigious outlet is hard to miss.
Her June 2015 tweet claimed white people “started a plague” due to poor hygiene, a baseless jab that echoes old stereotypes repurposed for modern outrage. A month earlier, she wrote that she’d be “heartbroken” if her future children didn’t share her ethnic appearance. These statements, while personal, fuel a narrative of division that’s tough to reconcile with her role at The New Yorker.
Remarkably, just a year after these tweets, The New Yorker hired St. Félix, seemingly unbothered by her online history. Her career flourished, landing her on Forbes’ "30 Under 30” list and a stage at the 2022 New Yorker Festival alongside Quinta Brunson. Success, it seems, swept her past under the rug—until now.
The tweets, which stopped around the time her career took off, suggest St. Félix knew their toxicity could jeopardize her rise. Yet, when they resurfaced, she offered no comment or apology, opting instead to erase her X presence. Silence in the face of accountability speaks louder than words.
Her recent New Yorker piece critiquing Sydney Sweeney’s ad campaign as “trashy” and “zombie slop” shows her knack for sharp cultural commentary. But the piece’s snarky tone feels hypocritical given her history of inflammatory remarks. Pots calling kettles black rarely end well.
The lack of consequences for St. Félix is telling. No public reprimand from The New Yorker, no statement addressing the tweets -- just a deleted account and business as usual. It’s a pattern that fuels distrust in institutions that claim to champion fairness.
St. Félix’s case highlights a broader issue: selective outrage in the media. If a conservative writer had made similar comments about any other group, the fallout would likely be swift and severe. Double standards erode credibility, plain and simple.
Her 2015 claim that white people’s “lack of hygiene” caused diseases like the bubonic plague is not just wrong -- it’s a lazy stereotype dressed up as history. Such rhetoric, unchallenged at the time, helped her blend into a media culture that often winks at divisiveness when it suits the narrative. The hypocrisy stings.
The New Yorker’s silence on the matter is deafening. Hiring someone with a public record of racial animus, then ignoring it when exposed, suggests a troubling tolerance for bias when it aligns with certain ideologies. Readers deserve better from a publication of its stature.
St. Félix’s deletion of her X account isn’t an apology -- it’s a dodge. Erasing evidence doesn’t erase the past, and her refusal to engage leaves questions unanswered. In an era where words linger forever online, accountability shouldn’t be optional.
The tweets, though old, reflect a worldview that clashes with the values of unity and reason many expect from cultural critics. That she faced no pushback until now suggests a media bubble insulated from scrutiny. It’s a wake-up call for those who value integrity over ideology.
This saga isn’t about canceling St. Félix—it’s about consistency. If media outlets like The New Yorker want to lecture on morality, they must hold their own to the same standard. Anything less is just noise in a world already drowning in it.
