Problematic Past Tweets and Their Repercussions: Where Do We Draw the Line?

Another popular influencer bites the dust...

Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash

During the first week of this month, Brooke Schofield was riding high as TikTok’s LA influencer it-girl. Fresh from a well-deserved and supremely executed takedown of her bizarre ex-boyfriend Clinton Kane, the Arizona native unanimously won over the internet. The bubbly brunette was also basking in the success of a very successful podcast, ironically called Cancelled, with reformed problem child Tana Mongeau.

That same week, Schofield was, in fact, cancelled.

In a case we’ve seen so many times before, Schofield’s racist tweets resurfaced—and they were bad. Denouncing Trayvon Martin’s innocence was destructive enough (click HERE to revisit the 2012 case of racial profiling that led to innocent murder). But just as TikTok users chattered over whether or not Schofield could have truly changed since then, they found something even more incriminating.

In her second of two apologies, Schofield claimed she was a public health major who wrote her college thesis on racial disparities. This didn’t fare well when her Tweet from 2016 was uncovered, stating, “I started faking liberal views when writing college papers and it’s so concerning how much my grades have improved since.”

The scenario was a punch to the gut for her fans, who viewed her with a squeaky-clean internet image up to this point. And 2.2 million followers on TikTok certainly backs up her popularity. Even more so, how did Mongeau fail to encourage the budding social media star to delete her Tweets?

Brooke’s case was severe—and based on reactions from the Black community on TikTok, she’s rightfully lost a chunk of her fan base.

I’m not here to argue whether or not Brooke deserves forgiveness. In fact, it’s not my place to even consider. But I want to incite the general conversation of redemption on the internet. What can be forgiven? How is a person supposed to approach new fame with a problematic past they regret? To what extent can we blame age, upbringing or the Wild Wild West of 2010s internet? What if someone really has changed?

Twitter’s Problematic History

Brooke isn’t the first public figure to get cancelled for her Tweets, and she certainly won’t be the last. We saw Christina “Tinx” Najjar go from “TikTok’s big sister” to falling off after past xenophobic and fatphobic Tweets resurfaced from as recently as 2020. Even so, she still has a SiriusXM podcast, brand deals, a few recent magazine articles and 1.5 million followers on TikTok. The app, however, has taken a noticeable step back from pushing out her content on the FYP, and I rarely hear her name.

And who can forget Chrissy Teigen’s massive Twitter scandal? The context of her Tweets were universally atrocious, regardless of the year or time of the internet. She was a very grown adult making death wishes upon Courtney Stodden, fetishizing young children, and making ruthless jokes about Lady Gaga, Lindsay Lohan, Mariah Carey and more. Those were fully grown, adult beliefs. Chrissy has bounced back just fine, but she’s no longer in our faces posting daily pick-me content that the internet used to eat up with a spoon.

In a much lesser-known cancelation before she was even able to take off, a very talented rising singer named Sabrina Claudio was caught in 2018 with a whole secret account devoted to racist Tweets. Coincidentally enough, she just released a song with fellow problematic music artist Tyga.

We also had the famous Rachael Kirkconnell Bachelor scandal, during Matt James’ season of ABC’s hit show. Old social media posts resurfaced of the contestant dressed in Native American attire as a costume, while attending an antebellum plantation-themed ball when she was in college. Kirkconnell apologized profusely, which led to getting back together with James, who she is still with currently.

Hani Anis, CEO of Kahani Digital Marketing, told me that Kirkconnell’s case is an example of someone who has seemingly bounced back from a problematic resurfaced past.

“It had briefly taken a toll on her and Matt's relationship, as well as her in the public eye,” says Anis, the founder of a marketing and PR firm dedicated to amplifying the voices of diverse founders and their brands. “But now, post-apology and years later after she's really worked on connecting with her audience and showing her personality, she’s grown a true authentic personality, and it seems people have moved past [her scandal].” 

Anis, who has worked on many accounts, including Marriott, South Asian Bride Magazine and Malai Ice Cream, says she personally believes in forgiveness in these situations, if “the apology and reasoning is sincere,” adding, “The recovery will take time, and the talent needs to be committed to authentically almost rebuilding their trust and relationship with audiences again, but it can change and can happen. Continuing to stay educated and updated on what's going on in the world helps. I don't think you necessarily constantly have to ‘prove’ you've changed, but you have to work really hard to authentically build trust back with your audience.”

The Internet Was a Crazy Place

In the case of Schofield, time will tell if her short presence on the internet has made enough of a cultural dent to get through this like her problematic predecessors Mongeau and Trisha Paytas. Both women have a storied digital footprint that anyone can uncover in a few quick clicks. They’ve been on the internet so long with such a devoted fanbase that they’ve been deemed “uncancellable” by internet-goers. While the version they present in 2024 is much more educated, self-aware and less unhinged, they’ve said some extremely toxic, hurtful things that have been aimed at many minority communities. In the case of Schofield—who rose to digital fame during the pandemic—white supporters are proudly accepting her apologies in the comments, casually telling her, oopsies, we all make mistakes.

And to their point, we all do. But to what extent are they considered ignorant and regrettable versus cancellable and appalling? As an elder millennial, I can say I distinctly remember the Wild Wild West of the internet. After all, I started my career as an entertainment reporter who looked up to Perez Hilton. Calling Khloe Kardashian names was commonplace. I can wholeheartedly say, with regret, the internet and TV got away with a lot during those days and there was no one telling anyone otherwise. I mean hello, you had Tyra Banks assigning blackface to her Top Model contestants. You had Ellen DeGeneres cornering Mariah Carey into admitting she was pregnant very early on in her journey (Surprise! She miscarried shortly after that appearance). And let’s not even get into comedians of the moment. It was truly a crazy time to be alive.

All of this said, there was a fine line between mocking a celeb or calling out Lindsay Lohan’s addiction-driven arrests, versus using racial slurs. I certainly haven’t been grade A+ perfect on the internet - I take accountability for using AAVE at times in the past, but I’ve never mocked a race, religion or culture, nor have I used any kind of slur. The thought never even slightly crossed my mind. It was always just something I knew not to do. Perhaps it stemmed from the fact that I was made fun of for being Jewish during my upbringing in Orange County, CA. I knew that was wrong, so I guess I knew the rest of it was wrong, too.

Regardless, I am not the same person I was 10 years ago, five years ago, a year ago. So I can relate to progression and evolution. My views on particular matters have changed over the years, my reactivity and behavior has also changed. My eyes have been open to things they didn’t always see. I’ve been extremely cringe at times, and I own it. So, I’m in support and belief of growth. It’s not an actuality for everyone, but I do believe it’s possible.

The Internet Reacts

Following Schofield’s takedown, Black TikTok creator Amanda Butler (96K followers) spoke out on the app about her issue with cancel culture, explaining to more than 400K viewers, “I know for myself, personally, I change and grow every single month. I am learning from every single lesson and opportunity that presents itself in my life. I know when I was younger, I said some disgusting things.”

Butler goes on to reference the internet in 2012, saying that problematic rhetoric was passable because “that was the world that we lived in.”

“There were so many words that we do not use in 2024 that were part of my daily language in 2012,” he continued. “I was 22 and calling things ‘gay’ all the time, I was talking about fat people all the time. I was Tweeting some wild things … I am a Black woman, and unfortunately I grew up in a very conservative small town in Missouri, with a very conservative family that instilled horrible things in my mind … It took years of unconditioning and unlearning to see these things, because that’s what I grew up with. I am a Black woman. It took me leaving my small town and being around people who were different than me, who looked different than me—or, who even looked similar to me, for me to see what was wrong with the teachings that were taught to me.”

Butler—who says she grew up so Republican she didn’t even vote for Obama—went on to say, “Everyone needs room to grow. Everyone deserves a second chance.”

The internet understandably has mixed feelings.

“Brooke didn’t give 17-year-old Trayvon Martin the benefit of the doubt,” said TikTok user @cowboybri25 in a video seen 64K times. “He was 17-years-old and he was murdered because he was holding a pack of Skittles and had a sweet tea in his hand. She didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt. Why the hell should I give her the benefit of a doubt? Y’all will excuse a white person’s violence and racist actions simply because they were young, but don’t give that same grace to Black kids or other kids of color … She knew what she was doing, she knew what she was Tweeting.”

Whether or not Schofield deserves to be forgiven is, once again, not my place to determine—but I will say this: I hope she does the work, speaks to the right people, and reflects on her decision-making to become a better person in the future. In the meantime, click HERE to learn more about the Trayvon Martin Foundation, which helps parents victimized by senseless violence, while providing scholarships to inner city youth.

Please share your thoughts on any of this in the comments.