Opinions & Editorials

MC Madness Goes Viral: Maino’s Inappropriate Manhattan Madness Tweet Is a Social Media Wake-Up Call

Students were not the only ones who got caught up in Manhattan Madness. Maino did too.

The rapper performed onstage at the rally as a surprise courtesy of Student Activities. While his performance was a fun way to end the evening, what Maino tweeted about the event afterwards used inappropriate language.

Giving license to different guest performers and lecturers to tweet about Manhattan College after their respective events on campus may be a new tradition, but ultimately presents a huge risk that the performer will tweet something about MC to thousands of followers that puts the school in a bad light. The college should revisit its policies on why and how it lets celebrity guests promote MC on social media outlets. Is the risk of an inappropriate tweet worth the 15 minutes of fame?

Student Activities has a practice of interacting with guest performers and speakers over Twitter after their events by following them and tweeting at them. In response, these guests typically tweet about their experiences at MC. Until Maino’s tweet from his account @mainohustlehard, a majority of the guests in recent memory have been positive in how they represent the school in their tweets.

Maino, pictured above, performs at an event. His tweet serves as a reminder that MC needs a social media overhaul. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.
Maino, pictured above, performs at an event. His tweet serves as a reminder that MC needs a social media overhaul. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.

The biggest flaw with Maino’s tweet was not even that it used simply inappropriate language, but that it used racially charged language. While the tweet did not directly attack MC or Maino’s experience at MC, it put a heavy word associated with centuries of racial tension in the same 140 characters as the name of our school.

A scroll through @mainohustlehard’s account gives his tweet adequate context. Anybody who was responsible for establishing Maino’s contract should have noticed that he uses that racially charged word colloquially and casually in almost every other one of his tweets. Simply addressing that issue in his performance’s contractual stages and asking Maino to refrain from the use of that word might have avoided this entire dilemma.

Ultimately, there is nothing MC can do to have that tweet removed from the internet and must now deal with any negative public relations consequences that could result. Maino’s tweet is a reminder that social media marketing and interaction at MC at the institutional level is far from perfect. Should MC reevaluate its guest contractual policies? Should MC use more caution on social media outlets? Should the college look into new avenues to interact with its celebrity guests?

All the above.