After Ebony released its powerful September covers to pay homage to Trayvon Martin, whispers of a boycott by members of the Tea Party began surfacing on Twitter. As The Root reported yesterday, the Ebony staff took to their own Twitter account to address the reports with a rather witty response, and "Black twitter" joined in the fun with the hashtag #whitepeopleboycottingebony.
But according to Gawker, the reports of an Ebony boycott by the Tea Party could be nothing more than rumor.
The first mention of any proposed boycott of Ebony (limited to today) appeared in a single comment on Breitbart.com. A few hours later, this was passed off with complete credulity byU.S. News & World Report. But the very first mention of some sort of organized boycott appeared on the Twitter account of a Tom Head, a freelance writer living in Jackson, Mississippi.
When asked, Head refused to explain where he saw these "Tea Party lynching apologists" (note: plural) threatening to boycott Ebony.
Ebony released four different covers as a tribute to 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, whose killer, George Zimmerman, was found not guilty of second-degree murder and the lesser charge of manslaughter. The covers feature actor Boris Kodjoe with his son; NBA star Dwyane Wade with his sons; filmmaker Spike Lee with one of his sons; and Trayvon's family: mother Sybrina Fulton, father Tracy Martin and brother Jahvaris Fulton.
Read more at Gawker.
Jozen Cummings is the author and creator of the popular relationship blog Until I Get Married, which is currently in development for a television series with Warner Bros. He also hosts a weekly podcast with WNYC about Empire called Empire Afterparty, is a contributor at VerySmartBrothas.com and works at Twitter as an editorial curator. Follow him on Twitter.