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Parag Agrawal: New Twitter CEO slammed as 'anti-White' tweets resurface

"Why should I distinguish between white people and racists?" he wrote in his past tweets that came back to haunt him.

Jack Dorsey has stepped down as the CEO of Twitter, making way for Stanford-educated Parag Agrawal to fill the position. He graduated to the post after serving as the Chief Technical Officer for the platform since October 2017. Agrawal first started working at Twitter in 2011 as a distinguished software officer, a position he held till the time he became the CTO. Agrawal assumed the top position on Monday, November 29, and a few hours into office, he was slammed by Republicans as a racist over a tweet he made more than a decade ago. "If they are not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists," he wrote in quotes, attempting to mock Islamophobia and racism in the country. Agrawal did not attribute the quote to Aasif Mandvi when he published the tweet all those years ago. Mandvi said the line while appearing on an episode of 'The Daily Show' during a segment pitting Black people against Muslims. 

Right-wing publication Breitbart published an article on Monday and the right-leaning publication reported that Agrawal had “uncritically repeated a quote in 2010 suggesting that there should be no need to distinguish between white people and racists.” Republican leaders were quick to comment and pick on Agrawal through tweets. Daily Mail reported, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, shared the tweet and wrote, "This is Parag Agrawal, Twitter's new CEO and the person who's going to be deciding what kind of speech is allowed on Twitter."  Quote tweeting another tweet by Agrawal from 2010, Blackburn wrote, "Twitter’s new CEO called religion a pyramid scheme. This is who is going to be controlling your speech online." The Independent reported, Colorado’s Ken Buck tweeted, “This is the new CEO of Twitter. How can users trust him to treat everyone equally?” 

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Agrawal was slammed as a racist shortly after the Breitbart article went live. "You'll have to excuse my periods of absence from Twitter coming up. A full on racist in Parag Agrawal has just taken over as CEO from the peyote head, Jack. I don't think I'm going to tolerate it. One group is a religion (a choice), the other is a race, @paraga APOLOGIZE NOW," a tweet read. "Ok, Dorsey's out. Twitter's new CEO? Meet Parag Agrawal, a blatant racist. Wonderful!" another tweeted. "Jack Dorsey leaving Twitter. Racist, Communist Parag Agrawal @paraga taking over as CEO. The purge of the Right will soon Commence," opined another. Agrawal addressed the backlash he was receiving and explained his tweet from 2010.  

Agrawal wrote in response to a tweet criticizing him, writing, "I was quoting Asif Mandvi from The Daily Show.” In a separate tweet, he wrote, "I am amused by people that pass judgment on people for passing judgment. I was attempting to do the same to amuse myself.” Agrawal was also slammed for retweeting questionable jokes on his page related to the male anatomy and for fawning over Indian singer Shreya Ghoshal on the platform.