Popstar Billie Eilish got called out for using anti-Asian slurs in an old video that has gone viral on the internet. The spliced clip shows her using slurs and talking gibberish, which people believe is her way of mocking the Asian accent. Billie apologized quickly after the video resurfaced online and said she is “appalled” to see herself.
In the video, she is singing along to Tyler, the Creator’s song Fish, and in the middle, she slips the anti-Asian slur while singing. After being under fire, the Ocean Eyes hitmaker took to her Instagram to release a lengthy statement to apologize and explain her point of view.
“I love you guys, and many of you have been asking me to address this,” she began penning down the apology on Tuesday. “And this is something that I WANT to address because I’m being labeled something that I am not. 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 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 that it was hurtful. And for that I am sorry,” she added.
As for the second part of the video, in which she is talking in gibberish, Billie denied the claim that she was being racist towards any language and added, “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. 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. Anyone who knows me has seen me goofing around with voices my whole life.”
At the end of the note, she thanked the fans for giving her the chance to explain herself and said she’s not “what she’s being labelled as.”
