Filipino actress and singer, Isabelle Daza was recently called out by fans and more after posting a racist and offensive caption on one of her pictures on Instagram story. The image features a mirror selfie of the actress, whilst vacationing in Africa, wearing a floppy hat with the caption,”Buy this hat for my Africa looks? [O]r FEED children in Africa for the same price? What would Angelina Jolie do?!”, along with some racially diverse emojis. If you didn’t already know, Angelina Jolie was the Goodwill Ambassador, now diplomat, for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; she is constantly receiving awards and recognition from the countries of where she has generously given her time and help in eradicating different issues like poverty. To say that Angelina Jolie and her work are amazing would be an understatement.
As for the conditions in Africa, just this year, a joint statement by the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) was released. It stated that 100, 000 people were currently (February, 2017) being affected by a man-made famine and was expected to reach another million in the next months and an estimated 5.5 Million by July if nothing was done about the food crisis. “A formal famine declaration means people have already started dying of hunger. The situation is the worst hunger catastrophe since fighting erupted more than 3 years ago.”
Overall, the Instagram post was, in three words, offensive, insensitive and racist. Although Isabelle Daza has apologized for and taken down the post, saying that it had not come off the way she had planned and that she takes full responsibility for her actions. Calling her own post a “lapse in judgment” does not make an excuse for her racist statement. She had also promised to be more mindful of what she posts on the Internet, but that does not necessarily mean she won’t express these thoughts to her friends or her family. Getting called out is a learning lesson for everyone, but there is always a difference in apologizing for getting caught and genuinely apologizing because you understand the depth of your mistakes. No one but her knows where she falls in between the two categories.
If everyone was simply able to apologize with an Instagram post for their lapses in judgment, then does social justice really exist?
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