I went this long without watching the clips in question from Billie Eilish. Last week, various media outlets claimed that there were clips from her IG Stories or other people’s social media where she uses a racial slur (the c-word for Chinese people) and mocks Asian people’s accents. I didn’t want to watch that sh-t and I managed to avoid it until now. Here’s a short TikTok:
tw racism
u guys know even if u dont think billie eilish is queerbaiting she is literally l racist and u shouldn’t support her right????? pic.twitter.com/pIZ5QpYBx1
— ceo of makoann (@choerriluvr) June 15, 2021
So… yeah. That’s extremely offensive. The use of the racial slur, but the “accent” is… gross. That stuff came out last week, as I said, and Billie didn’t say sh-t about it until now. She issued an apology and explanation on her social media:
Billie Eilish is speaking out after videos of her using a racist slur as a young teen resurfaced last week. On Monday, the “Lost Cause” singer, 19, posted a statement on her Instagram Story, addressing an edited compilation video that appeared to show her saying an offensive term used in Tyler the Creator’s 2011 song “Fish.” The clip spread on social media, leading to many of Eilish’s fans to request a response – something Eilish said in her statement she was eager to do.
“I love you guys, and many of you have been asking me to address this. And this is something I WANT to address because I’m being labeled something that I am not,” Eilish began. She then addressed the video, writing, “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. I am appalled and embarrassed and want to barf that I ever mouthed along to that word.”
“This song is the only time I’d ever heard that word as it was never used around me by anyone in my family,” Eilish continued. “Regardless of the ignorance and age at the time, nothing excuses the fact that it was hurtful. And for that I am sorry.”
The video, which was shared on TikTok, also showed Eilish using an accent that was interpreted by many as mocking Asian people. Eilish spoke out about that as well, but said the claim that she was mocking Asian people with an accent was “gibberish.”
“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 have done my whole life when talking to my pets, friends, and family,” Eilish said. “It is absolutely gibberish and just me goofing around, and is in NO way imitation of anyone or any language, accent, or culture in the SLIGHTEST. 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 now in a way that might cause pain to people hearing it.”
The “Bad Guy” singer went on to encourage fans to have uncomfortable conversations in order to learn.
“I not only believe in, but have always worked hard to use my platform to fight inclusion, kindness, tolerance, equity and equality,” the 19-year-old said. “We all need to continue having conversations, listening and learning. I hear you and I love you.”
I believe that Billie wants to be woke, inclusive and surrounded by peace and love. If she says that the part about her mouthing a song lyric when she was 13 years old is what happened, there’s no way to dispute that. But come on – even a 13-year-old kid knows that word, and knows that word sucks. As for the “gibberish” accent… I’m not so sure about that either. It very much sounds like she’s doing a massively offensive accent mocking non-native English speakers. Gross.
Photos courtesy of Billie’s IG.
She was 13 just six years ago. Obviously we do stupid things as teenagers, but like…in 2015 this was beyond unacceptable too. It’s not like it was 30 years ago.
Agreed!
Plus, why issue an apology on a temporary platform? It literally expires in 24 hours and then is that it?
If you’re apologising for racist behaviour it shouldn’t be done on something with a time limit.
This – why do we keep giving the “I was a teen” thing a pass. I get that teens are all edge lording but also…DON’T DO THAT. Its not like this behavior was acceptable in 2015 and its not like she wouldn’t have know it was racist and she did it on camera. Its bad enough that she said it but ON CAMERA like she had no shame.
Its this instance that “she was a kid, its just a song, its fine” that lets it keep perpetuating and in 2-3 years there’ll be someone else in this same avoidable racist scandal with more folks willing to excuse it.
This is what drives me crazy. There are PLENTY of people who simply are not racist, and do not use racial slurs or derogatory accents, at any age! If people feel the need to excuse that sort of behavior because “they’re just a kid” then I don’t really want to know what you were doing and saying as a teen because it feels racist as hell!
Word! Her “apology” was full of excuses. BS that she didn’t know better in this day and age even at 13.and I can’t even with the outright denial of the obvious mocking of the Asian accent. Once again Asian racism is downplayed. You can bet your ass if this was against black people or any other ethnic minority there would be outrage and rightly so. How is she any different from that Camilla Cabello creature?
Creature?
My bad. Apologies to all creatures great and small for the association.
30 years ago we knew it was offensive, come on!
My aunt used to use, and I mean repeatedly use (she was a very hate-filled, vicious person) an Asian slur. Not the c one but another. I remember hating it early but I honestly don’t know if it was at 13. I feel like I was a couple of years older before I realized. But my point is, our culture might have known it was offensive, a lot of us grew up in households or families that used slurs as a matter of course. So we had a little work to do, I know I did.
My dad frequently traveled to Asian countries for work throughout my childhood and would make stir fry for dinner frequently. He called it c***k chow. Imagine my surprise when I asked my mom if we had alk the proper ingredients for dad to make c***k chow in public and her subsequent freak out. And that’s when I learned it wasn’t a term of endearment as he made I out to be. I was also probably six when this happened.
I think a lot of the people excusing what she did in the comments have never been on the receiving end of some of these taunts. No matter who it’s done by (and I’m side-eying this 13 yo bs), it can still be really hurtful to hear. Sometimes impact is greater than intent and that needs to be addressed.
She SHOULD be made to apologise for this, and acknowledging microaggressions are more important than “overt” racism as they more often than not get a pass. Does she need to go away forever? No, but she should face up, own it and take it as a lesson – that’s how society learns, especially for someone like her with such a big platform of young followers.
Huh. Having a hard time understanding the age argument when in Canada we had people tripping over themselves to apologize for Trudeau in multiple blackface instances when he was 29. 29!!
It seems to me that whether or not we “forgive” a public figure comes down to how much we personally like that person and their public persona.
she was 13. Thank god there wasn’t social media when I was a kid.
Me too. I grew up in a small, rural town that was very white. It was basically Trumpland. While I did not use racial slurs around the age of 13, I remember hearing other kids say these words. It made me uncomfortable but I wasn’t knowledgeable enough about racism to understand how bad those words are.
Billie is a lot more worldly and privileged than I was, and by now I’d expect her to know better. But I can see how, as a sheltered 13 year old, she might not.
I’m not about to go after 13 year olds. This is a parenting-related topic.
I agree. I was a dipshit when I was 13, and also much of what I said and did were values reflected at home. I began to diverge as I got older and learned more. So as you rightly said – this is a parenting related topic.
Undercover racist behavior? I never heard of the racist slur mentioned so that is clearly wrong. At 13 I question what was discussed in the home and her circle of friends. I mean really all of this mocking of other cultures must stop and than we get the “but but I was a kid” BS
I was thirteen once. Racism hit me often. Stop with that “She/he was a teen/child” bullshit. I swear the energy ya’ll put into excusing terrible behavior baffles me. No. It doesn’t. Protecting the status quo is a mindset driven into many people.
I think most of us were 13 once. People forget that 13 can be a legit bubble. Your parents are much less of an influence than your friends and the media are and even then, it’s a teenage echo chamber. I’m not excusing the c word, goodness gracious that’s awful, but teens hear things that are incorrect and WHO is going to tell them it’s wrong? They would have to have enough personal insight to ask, or someone would actually have to catch them and call them out.
My daughter told me a couple months ago that I am not light skinned because I’m not biracial. Something dumb someone or someones said on the internet. It was good that it opened up an entire conversation about colorism. But she’s 14. I can’t expect her to have known.
So yes, we can give a 13 year old some grace
ITA. If you look at virtually all movies or comedies from the 80’s and 90’s they are littered with micro aggressions, racism, misogyny, and as-backwards cultural stereotypes. “Woke” was not a thing even 10-20 years ago, and most kids were inundated by racism and misogyny in tv, video games, and movies since the 1970’s-80’s. She should have known better but she grew up as a sheltered, very privileged, white kid and she was 13. I don’t think you’re fully capable of understanding how damaging racism truly is at 13… maybe kids today are because their peers are getting killed by the police and they know about it, hate crimes get national coverage and criticism now, but this was not the case even in the 90’s-00’s, sadly.
“I not only believe in, but have always worked hard to use my platform to fight inclusion, kindness, tolerance, equity and equality,” the 19-year-old said.
Ummm…those aren’ t things you’re supposed to fight.
Lol, Olivia. Perfect example that the child prodigy image is manufactured. As is her image morph from sullen, quirky teen prodigy into your typical blonde pop starlet. Now she can add unapologetic racist too.
She wrote “…fight for inclusion…” on her apology. People magazine misquoted her and that was reprinted here.
No it’s not right, but good lord she was 13 and singing along to rap lyrics. When I was a teenager in the ’90’s, most of the rap songs I listened to were littered with offensive slurs (the n-word, the f-word, calling women btchs and ho’s) and everyone recited them when we sang along like the clueless morons we were. As a grown woman, now I know better. But imagine being held to everything you said and did as an idiot teenager?
The bigger question should be is, where is the outrage at Tyler the Creator for using that word in his lyrics in the first place, when he was already a grown ass man when he wrote that.
I am so with you here. I said things I knew were “bad”, but I didn’t know why. For lots of the people I went to school with, racial slurs and curse words were in the same category. They’re “not allowed” but nobody ever really explained to us why. My (both white) parents sure never told me. Meanwhile we know parents with kids of color are having conversations about race every day, when they shouldn’t have to.
Then I got to high school and especially college, where I learned waaaaay more about the history, intent, and impact of these words. And was horrified by my own stupidity at age 13 and 14, to have no idea what those words around me meant.
It’s not a 13-year-old’s job to educate themselves. Schools exist for that exact reason. We don’t expect kids to learn chemistry on their own. Why do we expect that they understood race issues? In my opinion, it’s the adults who bear responsibility for educating people THAT young. Our accepted culture of racism and the adults who let it happen failed them.
We should be teaching kids (in age-appropriate settings) where these words come from and why they’re so damaging. And that they’re not just “bad words” like “shit”, they are harmful, racist and dehumanizing. And white parents need to step it the fuck up and take responsibility for educating their kids, because parents with children of color have been doing it for hundreds of years.
I was a teen in the 90s and definitely knew better than to say the n or gay slurs in songs
@Jess
Well that’s great for you, really and I’m not trying to be sarcastic. But where I grew up, the ignorance ran rampant and lots of offensive terms were part of teenager’s vocabulary on the regular. Which is why lots of those terms made it into the music we listened to in the first place. Most of those songs you heard on the radio were being written by the artists who were our peers, living in my city at the time, the birthplace of the genre.
Same. I always knew those words were wrong and I grew up in white suburbia.
I can’t even be mad about a 13 year saying stupid, offensive sh_t. They’re basically babies and dumb as hell no matter their intelligence level.
I would be furious if my 10 year old said that or any other racial slur. Thirteen is young but not so young that you aren’t educated on racism.
Thank you.
This was overt racism against Chinese people, in my estimation. It somehow is still slightly forgivable in some circles, I guess, to be racist against Chinese people. I don’t forgive it, though.
Would she have done this in front of a Chinese person who would have slapped her into the following week? Or if she knew it was going to cost her money? Or if some young Chinese kid would look at her sadly and ask, “Why do you think this is funny?”
She’s seeing some mild consequences now, I guess, but a lot of people are defending her or excusing this due to her age.
I think it’s rotten. And I’m not impressed by her at all. Nope. And her hasty “apology” is boring and uninspired.
Zài jiàn!
Exactly. IMO people who excuse blatantly racist behavior in teens “because they’re young!” don’t realize that no, not everybody does it and yes, it was awful and racist when you did it, too.
I think many people would be surprised to discover that there are plenty of us who simply never went around making racist remarks or using slurs. Imagine that.
This wasn’t an innocent doe-eyed child asking “Mommy what does ____ mean?” It was repeated, documented racist behavior. Sure, she’s not an adult, so it says a lot about her familial environment, friends, etc., but the apology made it all worse IMO by simply feigning ignorance. I’m not calling her a supremacist or anything, but it has big gaslighting behavior similar to when alt-right clowns swear that they just did the OK symbol for funsies, or that Laura Ingraham just had to stretch her arm out at the convention and wasn’t actually doing what you think she was.
Thirteen year olds aren’t babies. Thirteen year olds can be socially aware and absolutely know right from wrong.
I hate when people excuse bad behavior on “well you know, TEENAGERS.” No. There are plenty of well-behaved, smart, kind teenagers. Yes hormones are tough at that age but it doesn’t excuse a-hole behavior, that’s down to their values and the parenting they’ve received.
Exactly. My oldest is ten and she knows what racism is. At 13 you know when you’re saying or doing something that isn’t right.
I would have gotten in so much trouble if I used that language in front of my mama when I was growing up.
It also doesn’t sound like a genuine apology. She could have used this as a moment to talk about the hate crimes being committed against the AAPI community.
I realise the wording of this is a PR move. However promoting a positive charity or organisation wouldn’t radically change the tone of her ‘apology’.
I’m white so it’s not my apology to accept but yeah. It doesn’t feel genuine.
I think a 13 year old should know better. I could understand if it was say a 6 or 7 year old who literally didn’t know what the word meant, but not a middle/junior high aged kid.
Nope, not getting a pass. I am Asian and I find this highly offensive. This is not gibberish nor “immaturity”. Any 13 yr old who does this is clearly mocking Asians. This was done with malice or intent to mock.
Unpopular opinion, but I don’t like her. There’s an arrogance about her that I can’t get on board with.
Yeah, she recently called fans “embarrassing” for calling out her racist, homophobic, gross bf. I feel like this is why teens shouldn’t be famous.
I don’t either. I’m not trying to pit people against each other, but I thought it was maybe just a generational misunderstanding until I got into Olivia Rodrigo’s music — Olivia acts her age and seems so sweet and down-to-earth. Billie always seems to have a chip on her shoulder and comes across as quite smug.
Smug and having a chip on her shoulder is a great way to explain why I don’t care for her.
And yet Olivia and her team “came for” an Asian group. Even buying taunting ads in South Korea, until BTS bumped her ass out of the #1 spot. Her racial hostility was straight up and she has issued no apology whatsoever. I guess if you do your shit across the Pacific it doesn’t count. I have no interest in anything that clout chaser produces.
I don’t like her either. I tried listening to her songs, was not impressed. And something about her just really annoys me.
Same. I don’t understand the hype AT ALL. Also she is even more full of navel gazing angst than the average teen. A year ago she did an interview where she said she had never really felt wanted by a man. Honey you’re 18 give it time. She really believes all her own press and it’s just ridiculous. As someone who came from a crappy poor rural family at 19 all I could think or was escaping. All these woe is me nonsense rants she goes on give my eyes whiplash from rolling so hard.
I think she’s talented, but I am also leaning towards not liking her as a celebrity. At first she was a breath of fresh air, but not she’s morphing into the typical teen star.
The frontal lobe of 13 year olds is not even fully developed. And then when it is fully developed they still have to exercise it to maximize its potential for execution decision making and other higher level cognitive functions. This is why teenagers are kind of dumb. But yeah, let’s humiliate her in public and shame her into apologizing. Thanks but no thanks.
That said it is good that she is acknowledging her past mistakes because she can be a good example for others. I am just not cool the internet lynch mobs.
+1
Thank you!
“Lynch mobs” is not what’s happening here. That term in this country DOES NOT refer to white women. Nor “humiliation.” She’ll be fine. She has to issue an apology for past stupid racist actions and words? That’s not humiliation. An apology is appropriate.
The casual use of racist slurs in our society is the problem — that makes it possible for a racist song to be popular or a kid or teenager or adult to be ignorant enough or uncaring enough to be racist. Racism is so pervasive that a lot of the commenters even here refuse to see this as an issue because (I guess) she wasn’t literally violent, yet it is a micro-aggression, one among many, that supports the broader scaffolding of anti-Asian racism that leads to helpless old people being attacked and brutalized in our streets. It’s not okay. It’s not about her age, etc. It’s about the broader society that is enabling this.
Thank you, Elizabeth, for being a lot calmer in your response than i was going to be.
Very well said Elizabeth thank you.
Completely agree, Elizabeth.
Lynch mob was the wrong choice of phrase, absolutely.
But I’m not going to burn a 13 year old at the stake, either.
Elizabeth, Billie issued an apology. What’s going on here is folks deciding whether or not the apology is acceptable. As a woman of color, I choose generosity and accept the apology. She is an adult now and, as many (Cough Crissy T) are discovering on these internet streets, the truth will out.
13 is a child
she’s homeschooled. So 13 in homeschooled years is like, 8.
Disgusting behavior by Billie BUT I really think someone is leaking this to sabotage her new album coming out in July. She has pissed off someone. For the past two weeks, she’s been in some type of scandal in which someone leaked on her. Just recently, she trended ‘BE is over’ party a whole day. Something is up with these stories.
I’m sorry, but I remember being a 13-year-old, and (a) NO, I didn’t pop off at the mouth using racial slurs and derogatory accents, ever, period and (b) YES, teenagers know what those words are. She’s listening to (often problematic) Tyler the Creator and yet “doesn’t know” what the lyrics are despite being filmed singing along? I mean come ON.
I heard about the videos and thought it was gross, but this apology makes it much worse IMO because it’s so obviously BS. “I’m just a sweet little innocent girl, I would NEVER make fun of anybody……” Pairing that with the anti-Asian mockery that is wayyy too popular coming out of the western US, yea, Billie knew what she was doing. I’m sick of who receives the benefit of the doubt, always, without question.
Yes.
I know I’ve done a lot of micro-aggressions when I was younger. My parents are racist, and since I wasn’t saying the n word I didn’t view myself as racist. I’m pretty touchy about things like this with my own children. I think several times a week about the people that I hurt around me well into my college years. They were probably inundated with messages of hate and I just piled right on not realizing how awful it really was. I didn’t understand back then, and there is absolutely no way to make up for it now. I think I knew what all the slurs were and didn’t use them, but I can’t be certain I didn’t mouth along to lyrics. I don’t know the point of this. I’m not for giving people a pass. No one deserves one, I’m just saying it’s possible she really didn’t quite know at that age and that she really is very aware now of the hurt that she caused.
Bravo for being mature for your age.
Give the girl a break, she was 13 ffs
100% And to everyone saying that 13 years old is a child, and too young to know better, etc… 13 is old enough to know what racism is. It is more than old enough to be educated on even just a little bit of what it means to be racist.
I truly cannot recall what I knew and didn’t know at 13. I personally wouldn’t judge a 13 yo by adult standards. And no I don’t feel that way only about white 13 year olds, and yes I am very aware that black teens are viewed as adults by white America. But not by me.
People here seem to be very certain they were wonderful people as kids. Rose tinted glasses! Kids are arseholes, full stop. To those of you who didnt grow uo with social media, don’t be casting stones on those of us who did. You’d be horrified by the casual flippant comments you made as a kid, even if you consider yourself a decent person now. If it wasn’t racism it was homophobia or transphobia or disablism or just generally bullying of anyone ‘other’. It’s how kids are. She apologised. Move on. Focus on adults with power who continue to spout this nonsense, not children who were silly once and said sorry.
I think of a 13-year-old as a child who is still learning right and wrong. When you are younger you are learning the basics of what is right and wrong(no hurting others physically, no stealing, no lying, no swearing, etc…) and when you are a teen you learn why some things are right or wrong and how to apply that in society outside of your immediate family. Yes, it’s disgusting that she was using racial slurs, but at that age, I’m willing to forgive a 13-year-old who might not be aware that that is a slur or why it’s offensive. I think we take for granted that all parents explain to children what racism is and all its nuances and shapes and forms and that is not what really happens, unfortunately. But definitely, that apology should be up somewhere and not in a place where it expires in 24 hours.
She was 13. I can completely believe that she said these things with no understanding of their true weight and meaning.
I do too
When I was a kid I wouldn’t have known what that word meant either. I was rather sheltered and no one I knew would have used slurs against asians. (Most likely because there weren’t many asians around the area). But then we didn’t have google back then either. She could have looked it up but being “young and dumb” she probably couldn’t have been bothered to do so.
I have no idea what word we are talking about here. I even googled and still can’t figure it out.
The word is literally written on the screen as she says it in the video.
Thank you. I watched it again and caught it. I honestly cannot recall every hearing anyone use that term which must be why it went over my head at first.
“it absolutely breaks my heart that it is being labeled now in a way that might cause pain to people hearing it”
Ok, Karen Eilish.
You can tell her PR team sat down with her and tried their hardest to come up with a wording that somehow cops to what she did, without saying what she did and without outright admitting that SHE was wrong and stupid to do so.
The pain is caused by the words she used, not by the label given to her actions.
Btw, can we talk about how she posted this apology on IG stories, meaning it disappears after 24h?
Real genuine.
Oh boy. She was wrong but also 13 years old. An actual little girl. They love to build you up so they can tear you down.
She tore herself down. We need to stop making excuses for racist behavior. It should never be excused. If a 13 year old walks into a school and kills should that 13 year old be excused because of his age?
Did you actually read what you wrote before you posted it? What did you actually mean by excuse anyways? A 13 yr old who walks into a school and kills should definitely be excused from the death penalty, but that does not mean the 13-yr old child goes free. There is a corresponding punishment to the crime. As it is in this case. Majority of the commenters here are not only sanctimonious celebitches but huge hypocrites as well. Am sure these very same commenters condemning a 13-yr old child will say they are for prison reform. I am POC and I experience racism everyday of my life. EVERYDAY. When a 13 yr old child and her friends shouted a slur at me, I was humiliated, I was embarrassed but my anger was towards the adults in her life that she learned this casual racism from and I hope that she learns as she grows up and become truly woke. Not ‘celebitchy woke’ and I will welcome her with open arms as an ally at whatever age she achieves this consciousness.
Ok I’m old, cos I don’t even know wtf that video even is supposed to be.
The hell?
Tryna give me epilepsy.
Thirteen is old enough to know better. Some of you need to stop making excuses. It’s funny that it always seems to be White kids that don’t know better. How often do you see vids of children of color mocking other ethnicities? These White kids know better, they just don’t care. As a kid who was tormented by racist a$$holes through my entire elementary school years, I can assure you kids know what words are offensive and hurtful…that’s why they say them !!!
Welll…she was mouthing the word because it was a lyric in Tyler the Creator’s song… A grown ass man btw. I feel like this is a little perspective that is being largely missed. I have no idea what lyrics I wouldn’t have sang or mouthed at 13. I’m not going to claim I do.
TO be clear if it was my 13 yo, I would have thrown that isht out and spoken to them about why it’s so offensive, unkind, and racist.
Don’t know the song, never heard it before…but Tyler the Creator should know better ! Everyone should know better. No excuses. I’m glad you’re one of the good parents who would teach your kid why it’s wrong instead of just saying “they are just a teen, they don’t know better”. People forget children can be victims of racism too…imagine what that does to them?
No, it’s awful, I agree.
Nobody is caping for Tyler the Creator at all. He’s a separate, different issue. That word was one part of the video, what about the rest of it? Derogatory accents are racist, too, and put together they show a pattern of behavior that you better believe is worth discussing publicly because this behavior is being perpetrated by a young celebrity with legions of young, impressionable fans. What’s more important, that we take the opportunity to reinforce that NO these words and actions are not okay, ever, no matter your age, or that we ignore anything that BE did wrong because …why? her feelings might be hurt? What about people’s feelings from the cultural backgrounds she mocked? Don’t those matter?
Of course Tyler is wrong too, nobody is saying he isn’t. But that doesn’t make the rest of her video ok, whether she was 13 or not.
Sunday, I don’t believe he’s a separate different issue at all. He’s the exact issue. It’s expecting a lot for any 13 yo who is seeped in this stuff, to know better right off. Our entire culture is racist and sexist and pinning that on a 13 yo doesn’t sit right with me. I do have a larger issue in that she is lying about the gibberish thing. Also, that part isn’t just going along with some popular rap song. She shouldn’t have minimized that, now, as an adult. She should have owned it. I also was not aware of her bf. So yeah, she does seem to have issues.
Exactly this. I’m sorry for what you experienced in elementary school, ME.
Thank you…so kind of you !
Thank you. As a white parent raising white kids it’s so important to teach them about racism at a young age. I would be horrified if my ten year acted that way to others. Mocking, making fun of, racial slurs, bullying in any form is not tolerated in this house.
“How often do you see vids of children of color mocking other ethnicities?”
Seriously? C’mon son. I’m a mixed race Latina who grew up in a minority neighborhood, primarily of African American, West Indian and Puerto Rican population. Kids did it when I was young and they still do it today. They drop the “r” word, the n-word, the f-word. Call everything weird “gay” use the c-word to refer to Asians, throw the Sp!c word around consistently as well as the term “wetb@ck”, WOP Guinea, J*w, K*ke. I have heard them all. I hear them on my block from out my window or on public transportation when the kids were going to school in-person. They just aren’t celebs or trending Tik Tokers so you don’t see their videos. The ignorance is astounding from teenagers in general.
I asked upthread why Tyler the Creator isn’t getting hit with any outrage when it was his song. Instead all of the ire is being directed at Billy.
I have yet to see any video of children of color mocking other ethnicities become popular on-line. I am sure it happens in real life as you mentioned…but I was specifically talking about videos on-line and more specifically celebs. Those types of words are taught and it’s horrible, no matter what. Also, many here are also saying Tyler is wrong for using that world…of course he’s wrong. NO ONE should be using racist words…regardless of age.
Often. I work with teens. The majority of which are Black and LatinX. They mock other races often. White, Asian, and themselves. I often have to point out to them when they are being offensive. I’m LatinX and they will even say offensive things about Latinos in front of me. Teens are notoriously problematic. All we can do is try to educate and guide them. We should also thank our lucky stars that our entire childhood and adolescence wasn’t documented to be used against us forevermore.
I’m 40 and didn’t know that word until cardi b’s sister used it and everyone made a big deal out of it. Also, when I was 13 I thought I would be married and a millionaire so that shows just how mature 13 year olds are.
Weak apology – too focus on herself as the victim of youth and not knowing better. I actually liked her first album and some of her songs too – a casual fan. Just because people demand an answer from Billie is totally separate from the original artists that produces this shit song and lyrics. It is sad to see her try to explain away or downplay the real implications of what she did. Immaturity and age contributed sure and but I can’t accept don’t accept the insincere apology with a time limitation; or how casual racism against Asian is seen as a minor thing in today’s climate and when we have daily attacks. Yes, this happened in the past but the point is people wanted to know if she has changed now. Her apology didn’t demonstrate it at all. If she would have just said: I am sorry for the mistake I made when I was 13 for my racist action; it was not my intention but I acknowledge the hurt I caused. I will prove to you that is not who I am now going forward and do better. End.
She was 13. Not ok but 13 is a kid. My 13 year old says stupid stuff all the time and she is a beautiful person, just young though she’s never said anything remotely racist
I am Asian and have been called those horrible slurs. I am sick of non-Asian making excuses for racism against Asian’s. We are people too. Raise your kids not to be racist or hateful.
Exactly !
Same. So so very tired.
Not every child has a full understanding or context or environment to a decent moral center at 13. They still don’t know themselves. So much of their understanding of the world, of social issues is framed by their family, their environment, their peer group, etc.
Watching till the end I have to say she’s mocking an Asian accent at the end yeah. So I think she’s lying about that, ugh.
13 is a child. And honestly that word isn’t as pervasive as it used to be (thank God) in everyday culture so I could conceived see her not knowing what it meant. As for the gibberish I don’t know…Im very suspicious of video edits like this. It’s a 2 second clip with no context.
This feels very…coordinated. And it happens a lot with celebs and politicians and so I take a very wary view of them. Now of it comes out that she’s done something absolutely awful that’s different. But yeah…this is SUS
After everyone just contorting themselves to justify Billie and her ish in the past on here, I just sit back and drink my tea.
Some people will never learn when people tell you who they are, believe them.
Tiffany, do you think you are who you will always be at 13 though? Putting Eilish aside, because I shouldn’t have commented until I watched the whole video. It’s very noisy and the lights flash and I’m too old for that, but after reading the comments I watched the whole thing. She’s definitely mocking an Asian accent at the end, so she’s lying about that, today, at 19.
But I feel that if we don’t allow for whites who grow up in racist households to educate themselves and grow how do we get anywhere? I never used slurs, even though I heard them a lot in my family, but i had some really I think racist ideas until I started reading black feminists, once I studied feminism. And then I had the epiphany that I didn’t know anything about feminism until I read them, and thought maybe the same thing can be said about history, and I started reading writers like Du Bois. No one taught me this stuff, believe me. I wouldn’t want to be judged for the stuff I thought in my teens. I know what an asshat I was.
I am of the view that we are ALL racist and sexist because we are raised in a racist, sexist culture. There are plenty of POC who are racist against other minorities too. And misogyny, well, come on. It’s ingrained.
I think one of the problems people are having trouble reconciling is that she said some unquestionably racist stuff but that she was also 13 when she did it, and a product of a white society she had probably not fully interrogated or questioned. I don’t listen to her or really care about ‘her’, but am interested in the scenario. I also usually roll my eyes at comments about ‘internet lynch mobs’ etc. because for the most part there are no consequences for racism.
However, I do think we should allow that a person may have evolved a bit after the age of 13 and that they aren’t necessarily a dyed-in-the-wool bigot. My main complaint about her apology is that she minimizes the ‘gibberish’ voice, which is def mocking and racist and that indicates she isn’t trying hard enough. White people are raised in a racist society and have to unlearn racism throughout their lives. A 13 year old didn’t learn those things in a vacuum and it had to have been normalized to some extent for her. Any white person here who thinks they would never have anything to apologize for from their past is full of it, tho.
Who? Why? is someone digging around in long-expired social media from when she was a child and was not famous? just to stir up sh*t? I get why people go through celebrities’ old sm and drag them for offensive stuff they said as adults but I mean this is kind of pushing it for me. No one would have seen this and been (rightfully) offended if this mystery digger had not made a tiktok of it and pushed it into mainstream media. I just feel like we don’t need more anti-asian racism floating around right now, even if the perpetrator denounces it.
Serious question: Why do we claim to want to hold teenagers accountable for bullying in general but not for racism? I think some of you are forgetting that there are also teenaged people of color who are exposed everyday to these morons who you are excusing simply because they are/were young. These micro aggressions are traumatizing to the kids who have to be around these young racists. I still remember many of the racist things that some of my white “friends” said when we were in school and it still hurts even though I’m now an adult.
These “She was only 13 she didn’t know” comments are SO irritating!! Guess what, children of color at 13 and much younger know these words are slurs and they’ve been verbally abused with them very early in life. It seems that white people are so stuck on “I don’t see color” that they choose not to have conversations about race and privilege with their children. And then we end up in situations like this where “I wasn’t aware” is enough to excuse blatant racism.
Nothing else should be said. Can we place this statement on billboards across America.
🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
If white people want to continue to listen to the sleepy slow-jazz-hip-hop music from a racist teen from California, okay. But just accept that she’s a racist teen from California. Y’all don’t need to contort yourselves. She’s done nothing to show or prove that she still doesn’t harbor anti-Asian sentiments.
Can celebrities earn the forgiveness of POC before POC are pushed into forgiving them?
She’s been appropriating from black culture for years and using a blaccent.
Yeah, why the hell is that never discussed? That accent she does all the time is appropriative af and offensive.
Speaking of which, Drake does the same thing.
It really feels like people have been waiting with bated breath to unload on this successful girl. Unquestionably a 13 year old can cause offense and pain and perpetuate racist behavior by their actions. Equally true that a 13 year old may not grasp the full import of their actions and can learn and grow. My own 14 year old does not sing the parts of songs with racial slurs and points out harmful racial stereotypes in things that her dad and I grew up with (see Warner Brothers cartoons, for example). However, a LOT of her peers do not yet have nuanced sensitivity or understanding. While people, particularly those that have been the recipient of this type of behavior, are understandably tired of hearing, “but x is only 13,” it doesn’t make the fact of immaturity any less relevant. And the fact that the slur was part of a song by an artist that is lauded is a huge part of the context. If we are ever to grow as a society, we need to give children, at a bare minimum, an opportunity to apologize and do better.
While people give white teens so much leeway for casual racism, kids the exact age who aren’t white end up on the receiving end of a gun pointed at them, slurs thrown at them, adults following them, or they lose their lives for “acting dumb.” Are those kids afforded the same excuses? They live their whole lives completely differently. Your comment gets a massive eyeroll from me (who at 13 was treated cruelly by white 13 year kids who knew their taunts caused pain). And that was 20 years ago. With the amount of social media exposure and non-stop education on race just 5-6 years ago, claiming ignorance is not gonna fly. Not in post 2010.
+100. Let’s be honest the same people will always find ways to excuse racism. There will always be a “but”
I’m so very sorry that happened to you. I think you would agree – as I do – that non-white kids should also not be treated as adults, because they are not.
That’s true milktoast. You make really great points.
Christy, while I agree non white kids should be afforded the same forgiveness white kids get for ignorance, the fact of the matter is, it’s just sentiment. Kids of color are treated terribly right now and we cannot continue to condone micro aggressive and casual racism to fly under the radar, just because white kids are “kids”. If the worst they get is berating for ignorance, you can’t imagine a kid of color being on the receiving end of that and having no one believe them (it happened to my sister and some friends). So white kids get a pass and kids of color get people gaslighting them. So no, I don’t believe in leniency. Because in the real world today, it ONLY exists for white kids.
Yes, I totally hear what you are saying and appreciate your thoughtful response. But I don’t hear you saying, as a basic premise, that you believe that 13 year olds as a rule have a level of maturity such that it is fair for them to be judged by adult standards. Rather, I hear you saying that so long as 13 year olds of color are judged by adult standards, white 13 year olds should be as well. And I can understand that feeling, particularly if you are part of the group that has been and continues to be treated unfairly. I just don’t think positive change will ultimately come from that. But, if I were a person of color, I might be so tired of waiting for that change I would simply prefer equal treatment for all, even if it was equal unfair treatment.
“ Rather, I hear you saying that so long as 13 year olds of color are judged by adult standards, white 13 year olds should be as well. And I can understand that feeling, particularly if you are part of the group that has been and continues to be treated unfairly.”
Well no, that’s not my message at all. Rather, this is why we need to nip casual racism and micro aggressive behavior in the bud. It didn’t happen when she’s 13, and at 19 she more than likely completely forgot about it until it got brought up. As a minority, I’m very skeptical when someone makes excuses and in her case, calls the mocking accent “gibberish”, but claiming ignorance does not shield a person from responsibility. It might explain their mindset or behavior but still doesn’t make it okay. Whether it was 5 years ago or now, course correcting is important. If a mindset goes unchallenged and uncorrected, it can escalate later on to something more triggering and violent like the Atlanta spa shooting that left 6 Asian women dead. The seed of othering was already planted. Some people may grow out of that mindset with age and experience, others do not. In the case of Billie, she has a HUGE following and their asking her to make a stance is important. This is her audience asking her to nip this mindset in the bud and not let it grow like toxic cancer.
I do not think white kids should be treated harshly like kids of color. That is false equivalency. I believe their problematic behavior should be corrected. That means sitting them down and teaching them why it’s wrong. How is that in any way the same as being treated harshly like kids of color? the fact that that’s the conclusion you reached is baffling. If anything I’d love for kids of color to get the same leniency and lecturing rather than harsh punishment for their ignorance. Second chances are less to non-existent for them. I’d rather all kids be treated the same. This is why critical race theory needs to be taught in school. Otherwise you have a whole generation of kids thinking everyone is equal but it isn’t true.
Sorry If I misunderstood your meaning with respect to wanting teens to receive equal treatment, even if inappropriately harsh for all. It was drawn from this statement of yours: “So white kids get a pass and kids of color get people gaslighting them. So no, I don’t believe in leniency. Because in the real world today, it ONLY exists for white kids.” I am trying to understand your perspective, not put words into your mouth. However, I seem to be failing – not surprising as internet is not the best medium – and so will exit our discussion. I do appreciate your comments. In any event I think we can agree that it remains to be seen whether Billie Eilish has learned and is prepared to use her platform in a positive way to advance racial equality and respect. Have a good evening.
I’m not even going to comment on whether or not a 13 year old should know better.
It’s the apology from her NOW that is getting me. First, she repeats that she ‘mouthed’ the word. Like, please, you mean you ‘mouthed it’ so you didn’t say it? That’s “but I didn’t inhale, depends on what the definition of is is” Bill Clinton level of parsing.
Second, that ‘gibberish’ totally sounds like someone making fun of an Asian accent, but she totally denies that’s what she did. OK, great, lets go with her explanation. She wasn’t mocking Asian accents. But why doesn’t she acknowledge that it still SOUNDS like an Asian accent and, yeah, that might make it hurtful to people? But, nope, she’s got to blame someone ‘labeling’ her ‘gibberish’ in a certain way that’s causing pain, not her actions. Like, girl, people can’t hear it themselves what came out of your mouth. You can call it ‘gibberish,’ but it sounds like what it sounds like.
Third, I think if she were really sincere, she wouldn’t post the apology on a platform where it’s not permanent. Ironic.
Stop with that “She/he was a child/teen” b.s.
Children of color don’t get an out in dealing with racism, so yours do not get an out for parroting behavior.
Disgusting!
It seems only posters of color (including myself) get the weight of this and no it’s not ok. I was taunted my entire childhood and teen years because I am Asian. At 13, everyone knew mocking accents is racist. That is why they do it. To torture kids of color. The people making excuses are just too privileged to get it and it shows. It’s always white folks who have the benefit of doubt.
Some kids do it to be cruel and some do it because they don’t get it yet. I don’t think anyone is saying it’s OK in any way, but it happened. So the question is what is the answer now, years later, if the person would not do such a thing anymore? I am not trying to justify the behavior or to be combative. I truly want to know what you believe a person could do, if anything, years later, that would be sufficient (even conceding that this apology is not it).
I don’t expect a perfect apology. Look up Drew Brees and his remarks on kneeling at games. It took the third apology to really show he listened to those suffering. And Roger Goodell also issued statements in 2020 in support of BLM allowing players to exercise their protest, whereas before he banned kneeling. That counts and its actions not just words, that show people of color are truly heard. When the person apologizing makes excuses or center themselves in the narrative, POC don’t see it was genuine. We see it as white folks inserting themselves on to topics they don’t understand and doing it without opening dialogue and listening. I’m sure she will continue to listen and learn but the defensive response won’t win a lot of people over, people who, at 13 decades ago knew better.
Thank you for that response.
@Christy & Milktoast, thank you for a very respectable dialogue. Brialle Ringer and livingroomconversations would support the exchange.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/life/2021/06/01/healing-family-division-trauma-2020-starts-listening/7140383002/
I will say, the age of 13, is not the age when people know better. The human brain is still developing until the age of 25?. As a little girl, certain pejorative words, have always not set well with me. I don’t know why, something inherent. I’m not special for that. At a State Fair years ago, I overheard a relatively innocent conversation, where my husband & myself were called crackers while waiting in line by non-white teenage boys. We weren’t doing or saying anything. The conversation had something to do with meeting up with friends when the crackers in front of them were done ordering. Didn’t turn around and say anything. Let it go. Teenagers of all colors say things to assimilate to the group they’re with or the popular crowd. It’s not okay. It’s done from all colors. Losing friends because you speak your beliefs when you’re a teenager is hard. Been there, still happens. It’s not a pass. There isn’t a one size fits all answer. If I’ve offended anyone, let me know. Course correction isn’t against my nature.
Honestly, everyone makes mistakes. I know i did. And i – because of my foreign name- was target of racist slurs that did not offended me because i am white (“but.. You are white ?” Is a sentence i heard often. Now it evolves un “so, you are married ?”). I never said anything. Only when people were very annoying. Our societies are racists you cannot expect tennagers to be perfect. If they own it, apologize and rise above. Nobody grows from endless shaming, if you only blame and blame. Let her be an ally now
Ithere are so many white (yes you white latinas on here I’m calling you out too) women showing their true selves in their comments on here. a lot of you are regulars too. there’s something so hypocritical about the commentariat on this site. A whole lotta fakery re caring about racism. A lot of posturing. Guess what ladies?
WE SEE YOU.
YOU ARENT AN ALLY.
YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.
Maybe so. I’m willing to examine that. But hypothetically what do you think should happen to a 13 year old who sings a song with racist words and mocks an accent in an offensive manner and then apologizes as an adult? Is there an opportunity for redemption or are they forever doomed to be a racist person?
I’m personally willing to accept that people can change, especially younger people. However, I give a massive side-eye to her apology that absolutely strips all blame from her. Rather than accepting that she did something stupid and ultimately hurtful, Eilish just brushes it off as something taken out of context. That’s what makes this icky and pretty gross to me. I’d be a lot more willing to forgive if the apology rang with a bit more sincerity and contemplation. That’s just me too.
(To be real here, I’m Chinese, and I can’t bring myself to be up and arms about everything. I’m just tired, you know? There’s a part of me that wants to brush aside incidents like this, however, it’s because we excuse and brush aside these small moments that bigger and more hurtful actions – such as harassing and physically harming our elderly Asian population – are allowed to flourish and occur. Tell me then, have people changed, are they more “woke”, if their apologies fail to acknowledge the very basic reality that their actions don’t exist in a vacuum and, instead, have real impact on people? Has Eilish changed, or is she just reacting without understanding?)
She was a 13 year old homeschooled child. I believe her when she says she didn’t know what it meant. I had a 26 year old coworker who was from a very small town in the Midwest who used racial slurs and genuinely didn’t understand they were offensive til I took her aside and explained. She was beyond embarrassed, and horrified that people had heard her use those terms and by what they actually meant. Her family had just always spoken that way. For a year afterwards she was always asking me if a certain phrase was ok or not. She was willing and able to learn. I think Billie is trying to do the same. If this was a pattern of behaviour continuing today, sure, that’s a problem. But from what I’ve seen from her she hasn’t behaved that way.
This is indicative of a couple of things happening simultaneously. Middle School Armchair diagnosis: 1) A teenager around 2015 would know certain words or wrong or bad but newer generations test the limits because some have different experiences with those words and it holds a different context for them. Unless someone else checks them over it, it becomes something they do as “Russian Roulette” fun for sport. (*She wasn’t raised right. As a teen in the 90s I knew certain words were wrong and I made a conscious effort to not be a hero even if I enjoyed art or entertainment from different eras and time periods.)
2) This apology is trash. She should have went for honesty and drew a hardline. She has a lock on teenager fans. She should have expressed that what she did was unequivocally wrong and harmful. That she was trying to be silly with a bad word but acknowledge it was wrong and harmful then and now. She should have then extended that no one defend her actions and that she should have done better then even as a teen but she continues to do better now. She should have encouraged teenagers to not engage in this type of behavior even for sport because of it’s long reaching impact.
I cannot get over her new look. The hair looks fried and it generally looks a mess. This whole thing seems so fishy to me.
Everything about her is fishy. She’s an untalented ordinary person masquerading as some kind of “teen prodigy”….Even though it’s her brother who writes her songs, plays instruments, and helps produce them (which includes using lots of Autotune on Billy’s voice—Ive heard her sing live on a Sirius XM broadcast of a concert and it was horrifyingly bad). She at least had that image of “I refuse to dress in a way that’s attractive to the male gaze”, wearing big baggy clothes.—It was at least a little bit positive for young girls to see. But now she’s done a complete 180 even on that, posing seductively for magazines in nothing but lingerie with her newly-dyed blonde hair.—Looking like the exact sort of thing that she had, not long ago, been supposedly completely against. She’s just a phony, and her music sucks.
Hmm, I feel like some people are excusing this because they used to do this at this age.
The thing is, the only way people will stop doing this – at any age (but pertinently from the age that they can tell right from wrong) – is when there are real and immediate consequences for doing it.
So no, the “she was only 13” reasoning doesn’t work for me because it just upholds tthe status quo. Those same 13 year olds also traumatise make the lives of other children of colour a living hell and drive some to suicide or self-harm. We’ve also seen some that segments of white society willing to infantilise each other well into advanced old age.
Honestly, though, I mostly want to know why white women have such a hard time just doing something as basic as admitting when their sistren are in the wrong without running to construct an elaborate victim narrative that they never utilise when it’s a WoC/child of colour.
I would agree if she were 13 NOW there should be real and immediate consequences, notwithstanding that she was a child. The problem is that that did not happen and now it’s years later. Is it appropriate to inflict consequences on someone for something that happened years earlier when the person was, yes, a child, and if we take her word for it, she has become educated as she matured into adulthood? I’m not invested in Billie Eilish per se, but think this dialogue is important.
I think the second part of her apology was weak. The “it’s just a silly voice!” excuse doesn’t cut it, because by now, she should be clued in to the fact that voices like that are usually an imitation of some type of accent. Those aren’t done with good intentions. Even if she didn’t mean it that way at the time, I would think that it would click as an adult, albeit a young one.
I’m also not invested in her in any way. I’m not denying that what she did was racist or xenophobic, or that non-white kids don’t have the luxury of not knowing what those terms are. But they say that the best apology is changed behaviour, so we will see if her actions reflect her words.
13-year olds can be victims of racism so they should also be held accountable.
It’s quite simple really. Ya’ll want to know if she’s sincere and deserves the benefit of the doubt? Look at her current racist boyfriend. Look at how she is still doubling down and denying that she mocked the Asian accent. Those saying she deserves a chance considering how young she was? She’s an adult now and is still making excuses instead of offering a real apology. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but even Camilla Cabello’s crap apology sounded more sincere.
As others upthread have said, why does this young white woman get the benefit of the doubt despite showing zero remorse as an adult? She can’t even admit that she did anything wrong, claiming ignorance. Well she’s an adult now and her boyfriend is racist and problematic AF. I’d rather save my sympathy for the Asian, Black, ethnic minority kids who have to deal with peers just like her every single day.
I didn’t know about her bf. I learned a lot about her on this thread, that’s for sure.
My boyfriend used to joke around and say the c*** word to me over 20 years ago. I mostly brushed it off, but eventually then told him to stop. I was annoyed, but not offended. It’s different in this day and age where I would have shut that down faster. Whether someone had the wherewithal to know or not what they were saying at 13 or even a couple of decades ago was racist, these acts are so minor in comparison to the physical attacks on the Asian community. I would not keep assigning the racist label if people are willing to listen, learn and change. This is purely my personal perspective as an Asian American.
both sides of my family are/were racist. somehow my parents didn’t pass that on to me and my brother. i was born in 1969, my brother in 1971. i remember telling my grandma to not use the n-word when i was younger than 13, so Ms. Eilish gets no pass from me.
I’m fine to say that she wasn’t thinking when she was 13 but to NOW say “It was gibberish”…no, it wasn’t and you know it. Part of growing up and knowing better / doing better is admitting (without reserve) that you made a mistake – even truly innocent mistakes age better when you say, “Yep…that wasn’t great and I know that now”. I got stuck at the “gibberish” thing.
This is where I’m at. Haven’t watched it but yes, she should own all of it and apologize. It’s the only course of action. I think it is an interesting question though, how culpable are teenagers and adolescents when they become adults for dumb things they’ve said or done, especially if it was a decade or more ago or they grew up in a toxic racist home (?)
I for a change think we need to be more forgiving. This outrage is making the whole thing look bad. Adolescence is a problematic ridiculous thing and 13 is soooo young. For perspective, in India the age at which a child is considered capable of understanding that he or she has committed a crime is 12. There is no legal culpability before that. 13 is young and messy, very very messy. An inoffensively meant racial slur is very very low on the list of problematic things teens can do. If we can’t be forgiving about this then something is broken. We are turning into something we despise. It’s borderline religious dogma.
So here’s a “what if”: Had she done a better job at the apology and really owned it and tried to pay it forward (charity donation, appealing to her base to educate themselves etc)..would we be more forgiving? I don’t pretend to have the answer but the apology to me is pretty terrible.
“She was only 13”….she’s 13 in the age of the internet. She knew it was racist, if she didn’t then there are two reason why: she’s either improperly socialized and that is definitely her parents fault or she’s a privileged and ignorant white girl that has never faced consequences for saying such words. I’m in West Virginia and I knew what those words meant at that age. She just didn’t care.
I consider it an outdated term, so it’s possible that she might not have known. I know about it, but I’m 33, and the first place I heard it was on an All In The Family rerun that I saw as a kid. I rarely encounter it online let alone in real life, and I’m in Canada, which is as racist as anywhere else. I couldn’t even figure out what the censored word was until I googled the lyrics.
Being any age in the age of the internet doesn’t mean you know everything all at once. If something doesn’t occur to you as problematic or suspect, you’re not going to look it up. To her, it was just another word, UNTIL it was brought to her attention that it wasn’t, at which point she acted accordingly and apologized. What else is she supposed to do? Turn back time?
If only we could all have been born perfect, and have never done anything ignorant in our lives, like you! *heart eyes emoji*
Here is the problem i have, as a chinese american: the ch-word is equivalent to the n-word. Why is SHE getting backlash to singing along at 13 years old? Tyler The Creator should be getting backlash for putting that word in the song to begin with.
Right?! Like, okay, she shouldn’t have repeated it, but she also didn’t write it. She was a kid who didn’t know what she was saying.
This is what is blowing my mind. A high standard of accountability is being applied to a 13 year old for mouthing a racist lyric. Meanwhile the creator of said lyric… we are saying nothing. That song is about drugging, raping, assaulting and murdering women. All the way through. He can record and distribute it without comment, but we’re horrified that a 13 year old would be so ignorant as to sing along with it? We permit casual racism then pikachu face when children copy it.
Thank you! I thought I was going crazy.
I take greater issue with the way that the original poster presented it as if we should’ve known about it. If this was just unearthed, how were we supposed to have known “not to support her”? I’m really sick of people taking this approach. They’re seemingly incapable of informing without shaming. They have to get a little jab in there and make themselves the moral center. They’re not really concerned with what she did, they just want to be the ones to bring it to everyone’s attention so that they can take credit for it turning everyone off of her. “I got Billie Eilish cancelled! What have YOU done?”
I try to avoid bringing age into discussions like this, but it does seem like an age and maturity thing, and I really don’t want to be lectured by a 19-year-old with an internet connection and a superiority complex. I don’t think anyone else does either.
Don’t even get me started on the queerbaiting claim…
Stop with the excuses bullsh*t.
I have a 13 year old daughter. She and all her friends know not to use those words. They know it’s racist and derogatory.
So yeah, this girl (Billie Eilish) knew what she was saying. Sick of all the excuses y’all give her.
A non apology apology oh okay..
At 13, I certainly knew what racism was. I’d experienced it most of my life.
Isn’t she some kind of role model where she’s supposed to be more intelligent than her peers? In this instance, I can see why being 13 wouldn’t help her argument. She has an image built on a certain kind of persona (I.e being kind of smart and slightly preachy, I thinK?).
She grew up in LOS ANGELES so she absolutely should have known better. She wasn’t some sheltered kid growing up in a rural area. All the excuses being made in here are amazing. I also really side eye all her excuses – never heard the C word before she said it?? While growing up in LA with so many Korean people everywhere? (And yes, racists aren’t stupid and use the C word for all Asians regardless of their ethnic origin.) She thought those accents she was doing were some made up cute voices? Ok Billie. 🙄 I wish people could just be honest in their apologies instead of feigning ignorance.
i was a super sheltered kid and didn’t know that word or what it meant when i was 13. billie has been sheltered in a different way…
Sorry but as black female at the age of 54 right now I knew what words were racist, derogatory, bias etc at the age of 12 that was in the 70’s so there is never an excuse of she/he was only _____ age that’s just your uncovered racist leanings thinking it’s excusable…. It’s not it just means you were brought up in a racist household were this kind of thinking was the norm.