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New SNL Cast Member Melissa Villaseñor Has Come Under Fire for Now-Deleted Tweets About Race

Never tweet. Photo: Joseph Viles/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Melissa Villaseñor, Saturday Night Live’s first Latina cast member, has come under fire for several tweets about race that she has since deleted. Critics — including writer Aura Bogado, who first brought to light some of the years-old comments — have called out Villaseñor for her material, which includes lines about being scared to date black men, and constitutes, at the very least, failed jokes about race, or, simply, racist statements. Villaseñor had set her account on private before joining the cast of SNL, likely fearing that users would dig through her old tweets, as they did with former featured player Jon Rudnitsky in 2015. She also deleted much of her account’s history before making it public once again, which is when people found the offensive material. Villaseñor deleted the tweets highlighted by her critics soon after being called out.

New SNL Cast Member Deleted Offensive Tweets