Ariana Grande has been slammed on Twitter, after she tagged a user who had the N-word in the heir handle, wishing them a happy birthday.
WATCH: Ariana Grande’s frizzy natural hair
“@n****luke happy birthday valentine,” she wrote.
It’s a debate between people who are highly offended over the tweet, and her fans who are defending the singer as they claim it doesn’t count.
“I can’t let a racist go away with it. She literally typed the n-word just because she started blackfishing??? Gives you no right @ArianaGrande,” one angry fan wrote.
Since the actual word is a person’s @ handle, can she be blamed?
“its an @. shes not responsible for that ? she has no control over it,” one fan wrote.
However, many fans have been accusing Ariana of ‘blackfishing’ for years, which Urban Dictionary has described in detail:
“BlackFishing is when someone who is not of Black culture, tries to tan themselves, paint themselves, take melanin pills or injections or basically finds any resource to bring a black skin tone upon themselves. This is something that’s majority of the time, done by European Woman and Man who are insecure about themselves, or sees the beauty of Black people and wants it. But doesn’t admit the beauty Black people have and tries to manipulate Black culture into thinking their ugly like society has done to Black people years ago.”
Ariana, who has changed her look, music and sometimes even language extensively to mimick black culture over the years, kind of fits into this definition. However, it’s important to note that the Twitter user may have changed their handle after she gave them a shout out, to make it look like she was tweeting the N-word.
The singer has not responded to the backlash, nor deleted the tweet.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Remembering Liam Payne: Special Tribute Issue
On sale now