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Oscar 2013: The Onion comes under fire for calling 9-year-old nominee Quvenzhané Wallis the C-word
Quvenzhané Wallis was the target of an offensive tweet from The Onion's Twitter account Sunday night.
Satirical website The Onion has made it’s name walking the line between the questionable and objectionable in its content. But the Sunday night tweet during the Oscars calling 9-year-old "Beasts of the Southern Wild" star Quvenzhané Wallis a ‘c--t’ obliterated that line as it drew outrage from social media users across the twitterverse.
"Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a c--t, right? #Oscars2013,” it read.
Apparently the Onion wasn't keen on owning up to the outrageous claim as well, as the tweet was hastily deleted after negative reaction started pouring in.
"The Wire" star Wendell Pierce saw it, and called for the Onion staff to identify its culprit tweeter.
The use of the offensive word was met with shock and outrage from social media users.
"@TheOnion Identify the writer. Let him defend that abhorrent verbal attack of a child. You call it humor I call it horrendous," he wrote. "It doesn't matter what the intent was, it was offensive and they should apologize to Quvenzhane."
Pierce’s sentiment echoed around Twitter.
"Assumed I heard wrong," wrote news pundit Keith Olbermann. "No; they DID wrong. Retract, apologize, dismiss."
"Quvenzhane Wallis is a nine year old woman of colour [sic]," one offended user wrote. "Let's let what @TheOnion did sink in and remember that Dakota Fanning never had this."
On Monday, the website's CEO Steve Hannah apologized on behalf of his organization via Facebook.
"On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive," he wrote.
"In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible.Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry."
Ever since the spunky 9-year-old burst on the scene with "Beasts of the Southern Wild," her name has been making headlines. Not only for her work, but because critics and TV personalities have struggled to pronounce her moniker correctly.
With such a heralded young actress, many people think simply bowing out of learning to pronounce “Quvenzhané” correctly is just as offensive as hurling an insult. The Twitterverse also chastised E! host Kelly Osbourne on Sunday for opting to call her "Little Q," instead of attempting to say her name during red carpet coverage.
'It is rude, unprofessional and borderline racist to not even try to pronounce her name properly," one user wrote.
"Aren't you paid to be a host?" wrote another, "Do your research and practice her name. Stupid Kelly Osbourne."
Her name is a hot commodity in Hollywood these days. Wallis scored a hefty role in the upcoming Brad Pitt flick "Twelve Years a Slave," and just yesterday it was announced that she is the new lead in the upcoming "Annie" movie-musical remake.
The attempts to make the nine-year-old a palatable part of Hollywood have only led to more people rallying in support of her uniqueness. Much like Mia Wasikowska and Gabourey Sidibe, whose names previously stumped red carpet reporters, Wallis’s rising star will make for plenty more opportunities to practice name pronunciation.
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