People look at old problematic tweets in two ways.
Some say the person was young and they should have the ability to grow and change. Others say that no matter how old you are, you know what is racist and homophobic. If you felt that comfortable saying it back, then you have just gotten smarter about not saying in the present where it can affect your job.
I did some digging, and from the best I can tell, these racist and homophobic Tweets from photographer Kelly Smiley took place between 2013-14 when she was a college student at San Diego State University. That would mean she was around 18-19 years old at the time. Definitely old enough to understand what she was saying, but back during those times on Twitter, it was the Wild Wild West, and cancel culture wasn’t a thing.
She would be in her late 20s now, and no one would even know about these Tweets, but alas, she was in the news for all the wrong reasons.
NFL photographer Kelly Smiley will have her hospital expenses and the replacement of her damaged camera gear covered by the Los Angeles Rams and quarterback Matthew Stafford and his wife, Kelly, following a fall that fractured Smiley’s spine on Wednesday while she worked at the Rams’ Super Bowl parade.
“We have been in communication with Kelly Smiley since yesterday’s incident and we are sorry for what happened,” the Rams and Staffords said in a Thursday statement. “As we told Kelly, we will be covering all her hospital bills and replacing her cameras. We wish her a speedy recovery.”
Smiley fell from a stage while taking photos during the Rams’ victory parade three days after they won Super Bowl LVI.
Smiley later said on social media that she fractured her spine and broke each of her cameras.
There has also been a GoFundMe set up to aid in Smiley’s expenses.
Here GoFundMe ended up with $46k on top of whatever the Staffords and The NFL give him.
Smiley deleted her Twitter account after the Tweets were exposed, but I was about to collect the screenshots. Once you again, you have to interpret her intent in the Tweets. For some, intent doesn’t matter. For others, it means a lot in determining how they look at the person going forward.
Smiley has not responded to requests about the problematic tweets.
Flip the pages for all the old Tweets from Smiley and some of the Twitter reactions.