Dutch magazine editor resigns after racist Rihanna headline

With their love of speed skating and willingness to eat human meat on television, I already knew that the Dutch were pretty wacky. But, following Dutch fashion magazine Jackie's unbelievably offensive article about Rihanna, I now know that Jackie's Editor-in-Chief — well, now former Editor-in-Chief — Eva Hoeke is not wacky but crazy — crazy racist and crazy stupid.

If you don't happen to be up on the latest RiRi news (yeah I get Google Alert emails about Rihanna, so what?), here's a breakdown of the surreal series of events. Earlier this month, Jackie published an article titled "De N***abitch", referring to pop singer Rihanna and her style of dress. The text accompanying "Rihanna-inspired merchandise" translates to, according to Parlourmagazine:

"She has street cred, she has a ghetto ass and she has a golden throat. Rihanna, the good girl gone bad, is the ultimate n***abitch and displays that gladly, and for her that means: what’s on can come off. If that means she’ll be on stage half naked, then so be it. But Dutch winters aren’t like Jamaican ones, so pick a clothing style in which your daughter can resist minus ten. No to the big sunglasses and the pornheels, and yes to the tiger print, pink shizzle and everything that glitters. Now let’s hope she won’t beat anybody up at daycare."

"Ghetto ass"? Mentioning Jamaican summers when Rihanna is from Barbados? "Shizzle"? In a manner of days, the article was met with a well-deserved worldwide outcry. Editor-in-chief Eva Hoeke's first reaction was to tweet a non-apology apology to all those who felt offended, calling the author's choice of words a "bad joke". At one point she even used the time-honored phrase, "my bad."  Hoeke later offered to rectify the situation in the next issue of the magazine. Tensions reached a new high when Rihanna issued her own response to Hoeke via Twitter: 

@evajackie I hope u can read english, because your magazine is a poor representation of the evolution of human rights! I find you disrespectful, and rather desperate!! You ran out of legit, civilized information to print! There are 1000′s of Dutch girls who would love to be recognized for their contributions to your country, you could have given them an article. Instead, u paid to print one degrading an entire race! That’s your contribution to this world! To encourage segregation, to mislead the future leaders to act in the past! You put two words together,

@evajackie with the intent of abasement, that made no sense…”N***A BITCH”?!….Well with all respect, on behalf of my race, here are my two words for you…FUCK YOU!!!

Well, the kerfuffle has come to its inevitable close with Hoeke resigning from her position at the publication. In a press release from both her and the magazine's publisher, Hoeke apologizes for her errors, which were "not intended maliciously," and, like all great journalists, blames the debacle on America. "This word is used in America as slang," the press release reads, "The term 'n***abitch came from America and we solely used it to describe a style of dress."

Now, I may just be a small town girl, living in a lonely world, but I have never heard anyone throwing around the term "n***abitch" like it was the newest, hottest catchphrase. News flash, Netherlands — racial epithets are so totally not rufus. (Spread it like wildfire.)