On the night of May 22, the rapper became the No.1 trending topic on Twitter as a video of her in a chat with purported racists began circulating. As if matters couldn’t get any worse, a song of her using racist remarks and making fun of Sandra Bland’s death was brought to the light.
In the said Tiny Chat video, Doja, who is of South African and Jewish descent, is seen talking with several White men. The chat is said to be for members of the alt-right/incel community, an online subculture of White male supremacists who are "involuntarily celibate." After the video surfaced, social media users channeled their inner-Sherlock Holmes, rediscovering a song from Doja called "Dindu Nuffin”. The title of the song is actually a racial slur used by alt-right members against Black people who claim to be innocent after being victims of police brutality.
"How much nothing can a dindu do/If a dindu, dindu nothin'/How much money could a dindu make/If a dindu did all the things that you wish to," she rhymes on the track, which is believed to be from 2015.
Some are also accusing her of making light of the murder of Sandra Bland, a Black woman who died in police custody under suspicious circumstances in Texas in 2015, on the song. However, Bland's name nor the incident surrounding her death are directly mentioned on the track.Following a backlash over allegations of past racist remarks, Doja Cat issued a public apology on Instagram.
“I understand my influence and impact and I’m taking this all very seriously,” Doja states. “I love you all and I’m sorry for upsetting or hurting any of you. That’s not my character and I’m determined to show that to everybody moving forward.”
Doja attempted to give clarification on her reasoning for using the term saying “it was in no way tied to anything outside of my own personal experience,” but “was written in response to people who often used that term to hurt me.” She states that she hoped that she could flip the meaning of the term through the song but understands now that is was not the best idea.
When it seemed like she was somewhat in the clear, she took to her Instagram delivering her side of the story and somewhat of an apology in a nearly half-an-hour long livestream. She regards the people of the internet who tried to cancel her, which includes her own fans, when she says "If you're not an essential worker... and you're trying to make me look like sh-t on the internet, good luck motherf-cker. You have nothing else to do, I understand. You have fun. You do that sh-t.”
The rapper clarifies that the Tiny Chat she participated in was public. Admitting that there were racists people in the chat, she says it happened frequently as they came in and out of the chat. She then denies that she is "in no way into race play," directly calling out a video from YouTubers Aba & Preach who inferred she was into race-play— a form of racialized role-playing.
She re-iterates that her use of the term was in no way directed at Sandra Bland or any victims of police brutality but was meant “to kind of just take back” the word and use it to say “f-ck you to those people…”
She also addressed what appears to be a screenshot of a deleted Doja Cat tweet that contains racist statements about "Arab people," saying that she had "never made a tweet about Arabic people, Arabic culture." She also took this time to clear her name with the BeyHive and address the video where she referred to Beyoncé as “Beyonkey.” As heartfelt as one could, she cites Beyoncé as one of the "driving forces of who I am in my career.”
A portion of the live was devoted to her addressing number one hit “Say So” and the outrage over one of her tweets regarding the potential success of the track. This tweet in which she said that if her single hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, she would "show you guys my boobs really hard.” While the single did earn a number one on the chart ,Doja did not show her breasts, prompting some faux-angry edits, but real outrage as well. She also stated that while there is nothing wrong with an artist striving for number one, that is not one of her main goals.
"If I want a number one, I'm doing it because I f-cking want my fans to be proud of me, I want my team to be proud of me," Doja Cat said. "It's not because, 'god damn, I need a f-cking number one.’"
Doja ended her livestream with a heartfelt, lengthy message to her fans about her love for them and how they should not always follow the examples that she set.
"If you're a true fan of me, if you're young... my behavior isn't something that always needs to be followed. I'm not perfect. I shouldn't be doing dumb sh-t," she said. "But also, I need to stand up for myself instead of making a video that's diplomatically and politically correct... I just don't want to be the person who f-cking bullsh-ts you. Cause I know that what makes me happy is that you guys are happy and you know what the f-ck is real.”
Alaysha Maple
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