'Please do better': Fans slam Billie Eilish's 'tone-deaf ' selfie following her apology for using racial slur
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Just days after apologizing via an Instagram story for using a racial slur in a resurfaced video, Billie Eilish is in hot water again for "cavalierly" sharing a selfie when she is "not out of the woods yet."
The "Bad Guy" singer took to Instagram on Thursday with a close-up selfie for her 87.2 million followers, captioned: "hiiiiiiiiii miss u."
Her post was met with criticism and accusations of being "insensitive."
"Billie, you know I love you. But it is TONE DEAF and INSENSITIVE as f—-,"said one fan. "To cavalierly post a meaningless selfie saying you miss us days after getting caught using a racial slur. I get that you apologized, but sh— doesn't just do away overnight. You should honestly lay low, or do something for the Asian communities you offended. But posting a selfie? Does that feel like the right move? Read the room."
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"I love how she’s just ignoring everything lmao," another commented. "Ms. Billie, please stop avoiding the situation. We need a real explanation."
"We didn’t forget what you did," added someone else. "Don’t act like nothing happened."
"You're a racist, Asian-hater," wrote another. "Why are you still posting like nothing happened?"
One person called Eilish out for only apologizing in an Instagram story and not in a permanent feed-post.
"Why post the apology in the story that disappeared within 24 hours? Is this a sincere apology? Completely disappointed in you! I've admired you for a long time before," they wrote.
While there were many disappointed fans dragging the 19-year-old's post, many chimed in to defend her as well, claiming that her apology should suffice and spare her of any residual backlash.
"Didn’t she like already address it and apologize? What more do y’all want? Her to be homeless?" one person asked.
"Can everyone stop attacking her?" questioned another. "She has every right not to address anything. Y'all just thirsty as f—- for anything you can get."
"I’m sorry but Billie does not need to explain herself to anybody, she is a human being just like everybody else, leave her alone, she isn’t commanding her fans to address their lifestyle choices is she? No. So leave her alone," another user wrote.
"Can y’all shut up? She already apologized for using a slur," commented someone else. "She's literally 19 years old. Relax. People make mistakes, especially teenagers."
Eilish's aforementioned Instagram apology came earlier this week after a resurfaced video showed her mouthing an anti-Asian slur while lip-syncing to Tyler the Creator's 2011 song, "Fish."
“I love you guys, and many of you have been asking me to address this. And this is something that I WANT to address because I’m being labeled something that I am not," Eilish wrote via her story.
She explained that in the video, she was likely "13 or 14" years old and did not know what the word even meant when she used it.
“There’s a video edit going around of me when I was 13 or 14 where I mouthed a word from a song that at the time I didn’t know was a derogatory term used against members of the Asian community,” she continued.
“I am appalled and embarrassed and want to barf that I ever mouthed along to that word. This song was the only time I’d ever heard that word as it was never used around me by anyone in my family. Regardless of my ignorance and age at the time, nothing excuses the fact is that it was hurtful. And for that I am sorry.”
“The other video in that edited clip is me speaking in a silly gibberish made up voice… something I started doing as a kid and has done my whole life when talking to my pets, friends, and family. It is absolute gibberish and just me goofing around and is in NO way an imitation of anyone or any language, accent, or culture in the SLIGHTEST,” she wrote.
“Anyone who knows me has seen me goofing around with voices my whole life. Regardless of how it was interpreted, I did not mean for any of my actions to have caused hurt to others and it absolutely breaks my heart that it is being labeled no in a way that might cause pain to people hearing it," Eilish added.
She concluded her statement by encouraging her fans to “continue having conversations, listening and learning,” and said that she only wants to use her platform “to fight for inclusion, kindness, tolerance, equity, and equality.”
