Meghan Mangrum fired for calling mayor ‘bruh’ on Twitter

A Dallas journalist has claimed that addressing the mayor as “bruh” on Twitter has cost her her job.

Dallas Morning News education reporter Meghan Mangrum said she responded to a tweet from Mayor Eric Johnson on Feb. 11 that claimed the local media had “no interest” in writing about a drop in violent crime.

“Bruh, national news is always going to chase the trend,” she wrote in the since-deleted tweet. “Cultivate relationships with quality local news partnerships.”

She said she was sacked three days after she sent the tweet for violating the newspaper’s social media policy.

In an interview with D Magazine, Mangrum, who is white, said the paper’s executive editor, Katrice Hardy, who is black, as is the mayor, asked if she still would have used the word “bruh” if the mayor were white — to which Mangrum said yes.

Mangrum says she’s used the word frequently and has directed it toward a variety of Twitter accounts, including hockey fans and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife.

According to Dictionary.com, the word has become somewhat common, noting in its definition that “while bruh has been recorded in black English dating back to the 1890s, bruh spread as an interjection variously expressing surprise or dismay since at least the 2010s.”

“I would never tell a person of color, ‘Oh, it wasn’t racist. You shouldn’t feel that way,’” Mangrum told the magazine. “But I know my intent, and it was not at all about race. I use that word with my friends and when I tweet about hockey. It’s just part of my vernacular. I grew up in Central Florida, and, you know, I’m a millennial.”

Mangrum said she responded because she felt compelled to defend her colleagues.

“He was going after local media for their coverage of crime,” Mangrum told the magazine, noting that she saw some of her other colleagues also responding to him over Twitter, telling him his accusations were unfair.

“Standing up for my colleagues and the work that we do, when I know we’re doing good and honest work, is something I pride myself on and something that I look for in my colleagues and in my workplace as well.”

Mangrum’s firing coincided with a Dallas News Guild protest that she helped to organize. The union later filed a complaint on her behalf with the National Labor Relations Board.

When reached by The Post, the mayor’s chief of staff Tristan Hallman said the mayor’s office did not have contact with anyone at the Dallas Morning News on the matter.

“We are not going to comment on personnel decisions and social media policies of a private-sector business. We wish the reporter the best of luck in her future endeavors,” Hallman said in a statement.

Hardy told The Post that The Dallas Morning News does not comment on personnel matters. Mangrum did not return a request for comment from The Post sent on Thursday.