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Who is Nikole Hannah Jones? NYT staffer doxxes reporter after Donald McNeil Jr is fired over using racial slur

An internal war has broken out at the NYT after longtime science reporter McNeil Jr was fired over using a racial slur during a Times sponsored educational trip

New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones is on the wrong side of Twitter for the last few days. First, she garnered attention for reportedly being one of the staffers who 'went after NYT veteran reporter Donald McNeil Jr'. Following which, she found herself in yet another scandal for posting the personal contact information of a Washington Free Beacon reporter who was seeking comment about the newspaper's latest internal issue. 

On Saturday, Hannah-Jones tweeted an email from Washington Free Beacon associate editor Aaron Sibarium, which also contained his private phone number. The journalist had reportedly contacted Hannah-Jones regarding tweets where she used the "n-word," in spite of the newspaper's own guidelines against using racially charged language, regardless of context and/ or intent. 

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Hannah-Jones was apparently aware that she had posted Sibarium's phone number to her more than 518,000 followers, and even left up it up for more than a day before deleting it. "@aaronsibarium is apparently trying to scour Black NYT employees Twitter accounts to find them using the N-word in response to Don McNeil's resignation, which is asinine on its face but also, homie, I don't use the N-word causually [sic] so this is all he came up with. Keep trying tho," she had written. 

Doxxing is when someone posts another person's private information without his or her permission, and is a violation of Twitter's terms of service. 

McNeil was earlier relieved of his duties at the publication after being ousted for using a racist slur on a 2019 educational trip to Peru. In his resignation, he would later explain that the "n-word" was said in a context during a conversation with college students about the word, but would apologise for using it nonetheless. He also added that "the context in which I used this ugly word could be defended" but "I now realize that it cannot". 

Before doxxing the information of the journalist, Hannah-Jones was reportedly one of the staffers who "went after [Donald McNiel Jr]".

Former Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse reportedly defended McNeil writing in a "private" Facebook group made up of current and former Times employees, "What ever happened to the notion of worker solidarity … to giving a fellow worker the benefit of the doubt? And why didn’t the NewsGuild do far more to defend and protect the job of a long-time Times employee, one who at times did tireless, heroic work on behalf of the Guild to help improve pay and conditions for all NYT employees?"

In its Monday's report, The Washington Free Beacon wrote, "Greenhouse argued that the staffers who went after McNeil, including [New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole] Hannah-Jones and race reporter John Eligon, had their priorities backwards," the Free Beacon wrote. "Many of them, he wrote in the Facebook group, were 'far more willing to sympathize with these privileged 15- and 16-year-olds than with a long time colleague who has done much great work for the Times over the years.'"

The paper's executive editor Dean Baquet was also slammed in the discussion. Times finance reporter Lawrence De Maria wrote, "We do not tolerate racist language regardless of intent’ might be the most racist statement I’ve ever read. It demeans ALL races." When the publication wanted clarity on the 'intent' point, they placed their inquiry with Hannah-Jones' asking 'whether intent made a difference in her case'. She had, in a pair of 2016 tweets written by herself used the n-word while defending Larry Wilmore's use of the term during that year's White House Correspondents' Dinner. 

And then Hannah-Jones, the reporter behind the widely-disputed '1619 Project', doxxed the reporter's email, his phone number to 518,000 followers. She deleted the tweet after more than a day. Soon afterwards, she wiped her entire Twitter history. Twitter is shocked by the turn of events. "A @nytimes reporter gets fired for saying the N-word, yet @nikolehannahjones can literally incite violence and keep her job. If that’s not privilege, I don’t know what is. #MSM," one wrote. "Nikole Hannah-Jones does outrageous shit all the time yet remains in a privileged, influential role. Must be all that racism against her (sarc). Sarc aside, obviously racism is real, but her outrage feels inauthentic coming from someone who seemingly used her identity to rise," another user added. 

The debate rages further as many users hope for a resignation but know it is not coming. "Donald McNeil was fired for saying a racial slur once, in context, when someone asked him about a hard csse involving that slur. Nikole Hannah Jones doxxed @aaronsibarium , a reporter from the Washingtonn Freee Beacon and joked about it publicly. She still has a job," one user took to Twitter to write, adding, "I am *NOT* advocating that Nikol Hannah Jones be cancelled. That's not what we do here. I *AM* pointing out that the rules are enforced along political lines and Nikole Hanmah Jones will never be fired the way Donald McNeil was because she has the right politics."

Some users did not care to mince their words. "If there is one person who doesn't belong in the Times is Nikole Hannah-Jones. What an utter fraud" "I am. Fire her. She violated the same rule repeatedly and then did something even worse (read: actually bad) in the aftermath," another said.