Sliding into DMs is all fun and games until someone ends up in tears.

This week, Atlanta television reporter and CNN veteran Valerie Hoff resigned after using the n-word in a Twitter exchange with a black viewer, Curtis Rivers.

Hoff, who is white, didn’t actually use the word in spite, but used it to refer to herself.

She messaged Rivers looking for his permission to use a video he had of a police beating, asking him to “please call this news n*gga.”

Rivers typed back “LMFAOO,” but soon realized he was speaking with a white woman, and grew angry, publishing his back-and-forth with the reporter.

Photos: Curtis Rivers/The Atlanta Journal Constitution

“I just think it wasn’t right for her to use that word in regards to a person who is African American on herself or use that word period,” Rivers said to The Atlanta Journal Constitution. “If she is bold enough to say it to me being an African American then I’m pretty sure this isn’t the first time she has used that word.”

Defending herself, Hoff she she “was quoting something the gentleman said in a public tweet,” but noted that she understands that that fact doesn’t make her usage of the slur “any less offensive.” She added that she now believes doing using the word “was incredibly stupid and reckless.”

Rivers had previously tweeted that an overwhelming number of “news ni*ggas” were trying to track him down so that they could use his video.

Hoff was originally put on a two-week suspension, but as community pressure built up, Hoff says she “offered to resign immediately.”

11Alive, her former employer, took her up on her offer. Rivers, for his part said, “I honestly don’t want anyone to lose their job, but if you’re representing your company and not just yourself, then yes I do.”

Hoff says she believes this whole incident has been for the best, and that she plans to become a blogger and stay-at-home mother.

Valerie Hoff

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