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French Magazine ’Le Point’ Apologizes for Racist Column Targeting Government Spokesperson
Thursday 2 April 2020, by
Le Point published, on Monday, a column by humorist Bernard Mabille on the coronavirus in which Sibeth Ndiaye, government spokesperson, was attacked. Faced with the anger of Internet users who deemed it racist, the weekly was forced to apologize.
In his column titled "The humorist has a field day" published in Le Point, Bernard Mabille harshly criticized government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye. "Fired tomorrow, she can always recycle herself. Amadou is looking for a partner to replace Mariam and take over ’Sunday in Bamako’," Bernard Mabille mocked, thus alluding to the Malian duo Amadou and Mariam.
This sentence provoked outrage on Twitter, who deemed it racist, leading Le Point to delete it and subsequently apologize to Internet users. "The passage on Sibeth Ndiaye has been deleted. With our sincere apologies," wrote Etienne Gernelle, editor-in-chief, on Twitter and on the weekly’s website.