YouTuber Liza Koshy has taken to social media and apologized after she came under fire from fans after old videos of her and ex-boyfriend David Dobrik seemingly mocking Japanese people resurfaced online.
“While we focus on systemic anti-black racism in our country, I’ve been hesitant to center my voice. My work has been within but I now recognize and take responsibility for the times I was not the ally I am becoming today. Being anti-racist requires a personal reckoning, and I can’t in good faith continue to use my platform for progress without taking accountability myself,” she wrote on Twitter on Sunday, June 28. “I am taking inventory, taking initiative, and taking note that my impact and influence will weigh greater than my intention. What I once thought of as ‘innocent jokes’ were actually tainted with implicit bias, and what might have been intended as ‘playful’ was actually to some, incredibly painful. And for that, I am so sorry.”
— Liza Koshy (@lizakoshy) June 29, 2020
She continued, “As a woman of color and a self-defined “little brown girl,” I have experienced the harm of prejudices in my own life. However, this really does not exempt me from the responsibility of acknowledging the times I’ve unknowingly perpetuated racist ideas.”
For those who missed it, fans slammed the internet stars after a TikTok user recently posted a video with clips of David and Liza trying Japanese candy and “foreign” candy in videos, which were posted back in 2016. Both of which included moments where David pretended to speak in a Japanese accent and claimed, “It’s not racist, that’s the sounds I hear when they talk.”
“Why is no one talking about this? It’s a clear example of the normalized racism against Asians,” TikTok user @callmesukiwi captioned their video.
They also added text within the video that read, “They’re trying Japanese candy and pretending to talk in Japanese as a joke. Isn’t that still… Racist?”
At some points throughout the video, Liza seemingly responded “no,” when David made a joke mocking the candy, but then added, “If you have candy from other countries, feel free to send [them] our way and we’ll make offensive jokes about them.”
Fans took social media and called out the former couple, which led to Liza’s apology. David has yet to publicly acknowledge the backlash.
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