Dutch fashion magazine editor Eva Hoeke stepped down this week because of controversial article about singer Rihanna in which her magazine, Jackie, called Rihanna “the ultimate n**** b****,” the Associated Press reported. Rihanna tweeted to Hoeke about the article, calling her “disrespectful and rather desperate.” She added that the article is “degrading an entire race.” See picture of the article here on Parlour Magazine, which noted Jackie has a reported monthly circulation of about 57,000 copies in the Netherlands.
While the AP reported she was fired, the Wall Street Journal, the Montreal Gazette and others reported that she resigned. Jackie posted a Dec. 20 note to readers on Facebook announcing Hoeke’s resignation.
In the letter, Jackie noted that Hoeke originally said the article was “a joke” and apologized. She apologized again later and then announced her resignation. Jackie published a statement from Hoeke in which she says:
“I realize that my first reaction through Twitter, in which I indicated that it was a joke, has been an incomplete misrepresentation what me, and also the author of the article, meant.”
Hoeke added that the term was being used to label Rihanna’s “style of dress” and that while she originally planned to “rectify” the situation in a later issue, she decided her resignation is the best “rectification.” She wrote that the article had “no racial motive” but that the situation has damaged her credibility.
The magazine added that it “will invite Rihanna to share her feelings and thoughts on the article in the next issue.”
Parlour Magazine also published an apology from Hoeke that Hoeke published on Facebook. In that apology, Hoeke said that the article was “intended as a joke — it was a bad joke, to say the least,” and it “slipped through” her fingers in editing.
The New York Daily News noted that the article also called Rihanna Jamaican. Rihanna is from Barbados.
We have written to Jackie asking if it will be publishing a correction to the article for misidentifying Rihanna as Jamaican. We are also asking if the magazine plans to publish a printed apology in its next issue and about the discrepancy between the AP’s report that Hoeke was fired and other reports that she resigned. We’ll update with any response.
UPDATE: 12/21/2011 6:05 PM EST: Added information about Jackie and its circulation.
UPDATE: 12/22/2011 8:50 AM EST: We heard back from Christien de Vlam, the communication manager for Jackie‘s publisher, Gijrath Media Group. de Vlam sent us a copy of the “official statement about the matter,” which is also published here on Jackie’s Facebook. He added that Jackie plans to correct its incorrect statement claiming that Rihanna is Jamaican.