Gigi Hadid was thrown into yet another ring of racial controversy after a Snapchat video of her mocking Asian people started to float around social media earlier this week.
In the video, Gigi squints her eyes in attempt to mimic the laughing Buddha she holds up. Although her intentions were probably not meant to harm anyone, it’s never cool to mock a race for your own humor, whether it be thoughtless or not.
this is y'all woke palestine queen? Gigi out here mocking Asian people. i would say she's cancelled but she never started. rat @GiGiHadid pic.twitter.com/b6wj5k1sXE
— . (@hvrrystime) February 5, 2017
Zayn stepped in to defend Gigi with the logic that she can’t be racist because she’s dating him, someone from Asian descent.
trust me.. she likes asians 😉 ??
— zayn (@zaynmalik) February 7, 2017
This pushed Twitter’s rightfully understood outrage even further.
https://twitter.com/omgarsal/status/828845761190313984
https://twitter.com/quietzjm/status/828837694293766144
https://twitter.com/bbybluniall/status/828832062610214913
As if it couldn’t possibly get any worse, Zayn responded back on the issue:
People’s nerve to call me ignorant, when any chance they get I’m a terrorist!! to be a racist goes against my very existence..
— zayn (@zaynmalik) February 7, 2017
So please don't try to educate me ??
— zayn (@zaynmalik) February 7, 2017
Zayn is validating his point by saying he’s not racist because he’s oppressed as a South Asian Muslim, as if being a PoC erases the ability to be racist towards other races (excluding white). He ends it with a close-minded statement of “please don’t try to educate me” instead of listening to what his fans are trying to tell him and reasoning with them.
The problem is, Zayn preaches about racism only when it’s an attack on him personally, ignoring other minority groups and being so sure of himself and his beliefs that he ignores the input of others.
Sadly this happens often, where celebrities — or just people in general, but especially people with a large platform and high following — mess up, don’t realize they are wrong, showcase signs of close-mindedness, and suddenly forget how to move their thumbs to type out a simple (yet effective) “I apologize.”
We all get it. People mess up, mistakes are made and that’s how you learn. It’s normal. It becomes a problem when you become so set on the fact that you’re right and you’re as educated as you can be. You can never learn if you don’t realize there’s room for more education, acknowledge you’ve made a mistake, learn why it is wrong and sincerely apologize for doing so.
All of this could have simply been avoided if Zayn had done just that.
Thank god he changed the subject to let us know he can tie dye, though.
Here's me doing tie dye ?? pic.twitter.com/teuiggfCdw
— zayn (@zaynmalik) February 7, 2017
