The owner of Swan City Bagels has closed her business due to backlash over comments she posted on her Twitter feed.
"The decision was based on a combination of factors but it was mostly because of my past social media," says Racine Richman, Swan City Bagels owner. "My old personal Twitter was filled with awful, crude and inappropriate jokes, and obnoxious, insensitive tweets, retweets and trolling between 2012-2018."
Richman opened the bagel shop inside Eola General, a local market and café serving food and drink from different companies, in July 2019.
The tweets in question range over topics from hate and homelessness to religion and politics. In 2015, Richman tweeted, "If you don't want to be homeless don't do drugs! Duh" and "Why are people shocked when drug addicts die." In 2016, she tweeted, "I only have Twitter so I can follow @realdonaldtrump." In another tweet from July 2013, Richman uses the N-word to refer to a friend.
Richman has since deleted her Facebook and Twitter accounts and taken down her business website. She says the tweets are something she deeply regrets and that she has grown over the years.We welcome readers to submit letters regarding articles and content in Orlando Weekly. Letters should be a minimum of 150 words, refer to content that has appeared on Orlando Weekly, and must include the writer's full name, address, and phone number for verification purposes. No attachments will be considered. Writers of letters selected for publication will be notified via email. Letters may be edited and shortened for space.
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