Buccaneers cornerback Carlton Davis used an anti-Asian slur on Twitter Sunday night, then offered an apology while also suggesting there was nothing offensive of the use of the term.
On Sunday evening, Davis tweeted, “Gotta stop letting g–ks in Miami,” using an offensive term that refers to Vietnamese, Korean and Filipino people in a derogatory way.
Davis later deleted the tweet and posted an apology insisting that he didn’t know what the word means.
“I would never offend any group of people,” Davis wrote. “You reporters can look for another story to blow up. The term was directed towards a producer claiming he ‘ran Miami’ With that being said I’ll retire that word from my vocabulary giving the hard times our Asian family are enduring. I used a term that from where I come from has always meant “lame” but I did not realize it has a much darker, negative connotation. I have learned a valuable lesson and want to apologize to anyone that was offended by seeing that word because we need to focus on helping each other during these tough times.”
The Asian American Journalists Association Sports Task Force released a statement calling the group “disappointed by his sentiment, especially at a time when Asians in the United States are experiencing a sharp increase in anti-Asian hate which has resulted in harassment and attacks.”