On Sunday morning, the New York Times published a bombshell story about internal turmoil at ESPN over the past year after Rachel Nichols insinuated in a leaked conversation from the Orlando bubble that Maria Taylor was being given NBA Finals responsibilities over her because ESPN was so concerned about diversity.
It was a stunning story and one that led to many discussions about race, allyship, and issues within ESPN’s power structure, many of which were needed and important. It also led to people tweeting angrily at Nichols and in support of Taylor, but as so often happens in these instances, folks weren’t always keeping a close eye on the handle they were tweeting at.
There are two Rachel Nichols’ with large, verified Twitter accounts. ESPN’s Nichols has the @Rachel_Nichols handle, while actress Rachel Nichols has @RachelNichols1. You can probably guess where this is going, but on Monday, the latter Nichols awoke to check her Twitter after the weekend and found her mentions in absolute shambles, as she tried her best to explain that people had the wrong Rachel Nichols.
https://twitter.com/RachelNichols1/status/1412089343791886337
https://twitter.com/RachelNichols1/status/1412093347343179787
https://twitter.com/RachelNichols1/status/1412089654405304322
https://twitter.com/RachelNichols1/status/1412093618945359875
https://twitter.com/RachelNichols1/status/1412098918918221827
https://twitter.com/RachelNichols1/status/1412127490814844928
It is a highly unfortunate circumstance for the actress to find herself in, and surely scrolling through countless mentions of people calling you racist is probably a startling thing as you try to figure out why that’s happening. It’s surely not the first time this mixup has happened, but usually it’s probably getting yelled at about some basketball thing and easy to figure out that they’re mad at the wrong person. This time was far worse, though, and it’s a product of how Twitter has handles pop up to autofill as you type them, with people just clicking on a verified Rachel Nichols and assuming that’s the ESPN one. As always, double check the handle and bio before you send that tweet, because you might send someone into a spiral of confusion otherwise.
[h/t Awful Announcing]
