A person believed to have sent a racist text message to Dearica Hamby of the Los Angeles Sparks late last month lost their job, the person\u2019s former employer confirmed to The Athletic on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Acclaro Medical, a medical device company in Smithfield, R.I., issued a statement alluding to a \u201cdeeply disturbing situation on social media.\u201d The company followed with a statement Wednesday that said, in part, \u201cThe matter has since been resolved by the company\u2019s HR and Legal teams, and the employee is no longer with Acclaro.\u201d<\/p>\n
The situation began Aug. 24, when Hamby posted<\/a> a screenshot of the offensive text message to her verified X account. It read, \u201cDirty ass n\u2014\u2013. They should put you in a zoo. Animal,\u201d and included an image of a monkey.<\/p>\n In her post with the image, Hamby asked, \u201cAnyone know this number?\u201d<\/p>\n Within an hour of her post, people replied with biographical details of someone evidently linked to the number on the screenshot. Acclaro Medical was identified as the texter\u2019s possible employer.<\/p>\n On Aug. 25, USA Today reported<\/a> that Acclaro Medical said an employee had been suspended while an investigation was ongoing. When asked for the former employee\u2019s name, Acclaro told The Athletic, \u201cWe have no further information at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n The Athletic reached out to the Sparks for comment but has not received a reply.<\/p>\n A WNBA spokesperson issued the following statement: \u201cThe WNBA stands unequivocally with Dearica Hamby and condemns the racist abuse directed at her in the strongest possible terms. We are committed to holding anyone who engages in such abhorrent behavior accountable, and this individual will be permanently banned from all league games and events.\u201d<\/p>\n WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association leaders met before the All-Star Game to discuss the rise in vitriolic online messages<\/a> that players receive. It came in response to multiple players sharing racist and harassing text messages they\u2019ve received this season.<\/p>\n A person who allegedly sent Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray a racist slur in a social media message was fired by Hilton Grand Vacations<\/a> in July. Like Hamby, Gray posted a screenshot of the message and other online users seemingly tracked down the messenger.<\/p>\n Alyssa Thomas, a veteran with the Phoenix Mercury, and her teammate and partner DeWanna Bonner also revealed they had received racist messages and death threats<\/a> through social media following Thomas\u2019 flagrant foul<\/a> on Caitlin Clark during a game against the Indiana Fever in June.<\/p>\n Mercury guard Kahleah Copper, Minnesota Lynx guard Courtney Williams and Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud have also spoken about receiving hateful messages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A person believed to have sent a racist text message to Dearica Hamby of the Los Angeles Sparks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-881669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}