Ousted Denver Post reporter Terry Frei says people can call him an idiot or a moron for his tweet expressing discomfort at a race driver from Japan winning the Indy 500. Just don’t call him racist.
“If you want to call me an idiot, or if you want to call me a moron, for saying what I did, that’s fine,” he said to Westword. “But the idea that it’s based in racism is quite unfair, in my view, and I defy anyone to find any pattern of that in anything I’ve done in my life.”
Frei says he still hopes to return to the Post someday, and says it would be unfortunate if a 140 word tweet defines him.
Frei explained he had planned to visit the grave of his father, a World War II veteran, and was caught up in the emotion of the Memorial Day weekend.
Among his most intense critics was Gil Aswakawa, a journalism educator and former Post staffer who raised the heroism of the many Japanese American troops who lost their lives fighting for the 442nd Regimental Combat team and 100th Infantry batallion.
“The most jarring responses, and the ones I took most to heart, are the ones that talked about the heroic contributions of Japanese American troops during the war,” Frei said. “To me, they weren’t Japanese American troops. They were Americans to me. And I would have said the same thing [on Twitter] had a German won the race on that day.”
Since winning the Indy 500, Takuma Sato has visited the Dallas Cowboys, the Empire State Building, and the Nasdaq stock exchange. He expressed sympathy for Frei in an article in the Washington Post which quoted an interview with Reuters.
“To be honest, it was very unfortunate (he) lost the job,” Sato said. “I respect the Denver Post decision and the people … nowadays this generation of people thinking that was not an appropriate thing. I appreciate that positive support.”
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RE: Denver Post reporter Fired for Offensive Indy 500 tweet says He’s Not Racist:”Frei says he still hopes to return to the Post someday, and says it would be unfortunate if a 140 word tweet defines him.”
What’s unfortunate is that he believes a war that happened more than 70 years ago defines all people of Japanese heritage. And now he’s denying that his tweet was racist and playing a victim.