Doja Cat was recently canceled, and then un-canceled, over allegations that she participated in racist chatrooms.- The singer posted an apology on her Instagram account on May 24, but later took to
Instagram live to speak with fans more directly. - She said that the chatroom she participated in is not inherently racist and clarified that a controversial 2015 song she made was not in reference to police brutality.
- Doja Cat also addressed other allegations that arose against her on social media during the cancelation discourse.
Doja Cat was one of the most recent celebrities to go through the
"We have a lot of time. We're in quarantine," Doja Cat, wearing a shirt emblazoned with the word "hentai," the Japanese term for anime pornography, said in the livestream. "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."
Doja Cat addressed allegations that she participated in a "white supremacist chatroom"
Over the course of the nearly half-hour long livestream, Doja Cat, whose real name is Amalaratna Zandile Dlamini, addressed the accusations that had been made against her recently, ranging from the chatroom allegations to claims about her "dating white men." She kicked off the livestream by asking viewers to record her, later saying that the apology she posted on Instagram was "absolutely an edited piece from me and the people I work with," and that after recording 98 different apologies, she decided to tell people what was going on via livestream.
Regarding the allegations and videos that surfaced depicting Doja Cat in what some claimed were "racist chat rooms" on Tinychat, the singer clarified that the chatroom she participates in is public. "There are racist people who come in and out of the chat," she said. "They happen and they're banned. The idea that this chatroom is a white supremacist chatroom... I don't fully understand it in any way." She also clarified that she is "in no way into race play," directly calling out a video from YouTubers Aba & Preach that used the clip to infer that she participated in race play — a form of racialized role-playing.
The singer also addressed the other major facet of recent discourse, a 2015 song of hers titled "Dindu Nuffin," a racist term that, per Know Your meme, originated on 4chan's /pol/ board and is intended to mock victims of police brutality. People accused of her making the song in reference to the 2015 death of Sandra Bland, a black woman who died in police custody after she was pulled over for failing to use her turn signal.
"The term that I used in the song is one that I learned that day. People were calling me it left and right," Doja Cat said in the livestream. "I used it in a song and it was to kind of just take back and say f-ck you to those people... But that song is in zero ways connected to police brutality or Sandra Bland."
The singer 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
She also addressed her recent number one hit "Say So" along with outrage over a tweet
Doja Cat also spent a significant portion of the livestream discussing recent discourse about a tweet in which she said that if her single "Say So" hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, she would "show you guys my boobs really hard." The single did earn a number one on the chart, but Doja Cat did not show her breasts, prompting some faux-angry edits, but apparently real outrage as well. She also ruminated on the significance of a number one hit, saying that while she doesn't think there's anything wrong with artists striving for chart-topping hits, it's not her driving goal.
"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.'"
Ultimately, Doja Cat ended the lengthy livestream by saying how much she loved her fans and cautioning that they shouldn't always follow her behavior.
"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."
- Read more:
- Doja Cat was canceled, and then uncanceled, for what some are calling her 'racist past.' Here's a timeline of the Twitter drama.
- Doja Cat called Nicki Minaj stans 'scum' on Twitter, leading to backlash and the #DojaCatIsOverParty trend
- Doja Cat harnessed viral moments to reach no. 1 on Billboard, but her online past has also resulted in controversial moments for the 'Say So' singer