After landing herself in hot water last week, Lana Del Rey is once again facing backlash,
this time for posting videos of violence and looting during last weekend’s protests,
as fellow celebs and fans urge her to stop.
What’s up y’all, it’s Emile Ennis Jr. with Clevver News, and as a celebrity, using
your massive platform can be a blessing, but in Lana Del Rey’s most recent case, it became
a major curse…
In wake of the nation-wide response to George Floyd’s death last week, Lana, like many
celebrities, took part in the protests happening around the world to support the Black Lives
Matter movement and seek justice for George Floyd and the MANY other victims of police
brutality.
It was then that Lana attempted to bring awareness to the recent events by sharing videos of
the protesting in real time to her Instagram page; however, she was immediately called
out for sharing videos of such poor taste that featured people looting and causing acts
of violence among the streets.
The first video she shared showed a man standing on a burned-out car while holding a sign that
read “no justice, no peace.”
The second video, which has since been deleted, showed multiple people breaking into businesses
and running out with their arms full as alarms went off.
Lana had comments disabled on both of the videos, but this didn’t stop a few of her
fellow musician friends to chime in with their thoughts via other social media platforms
for being in such poor taste and essentially exposing the protestors’ faces instead of
blurring them out.
In a now-deleted tweet from Kehlani, she begged Lana to delete the post, saying QUOTE, “.@LanaDelRey
please remove your instagram post.
It's dangerous as f--k and a very poor choice of moments to post.
By all means protest, but DO NOT endanger people with your very massive platform.
oh and turn your f--kin comments on man.”
In another tweet, she wrote, “it’s not about her, don’t make it about her.
It’s about further endangering the lives of black people.
it’s about responsibility.”
Tinashe also chimed in, writing, “@LanaDelRey why the f** are you posting people looting
stores on your page literally WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM.”
Other artists like songwriter Lindiwe Suttle expressed her distaste with Lana’s posts
as well, tweeting, “Lana has never been an ally.
#DearWhitePeople will our real allies...
PLEASE STAND UP!!!”
Others chimed in tweeting how disgusted they were with what she chose to share with her
16 million followers, like one user who wrote, “lana del rey posted a minute long video
of people looting stores for her 16.5 millions followers to see SHE EVEN ZOOMED IN???
I HAVE NO WORDS.”
Another user tweeted, “I’m sorry @lanadelrey but I’m done with you, I’m gonna be selling
your vinyls and highly sought-at coke necklace and merch and donating whatever I make to
Black Lives Matter.”
It didn’t take long for Lana to receive the messages via Twitter and delete only the
second video on her Instagram.
This then prompted Kehlani to tweet back and update fans that she, too, had deleted her
initial message to Lana since she had gone ahead and taken down the video, however, Kehlani
later said that Lana allegedly re-posted a version of the video in which protestors’
faces were still visible.
Kehlani wrote, “i was told the post was deleted and that was my point so i deleted
the tweet but i guess it’s not deleted it’s just reposted?
leaving it up on my story but hopefully if she gets enough dm’s she will take it completely
down.”
Many fans and celebrities have very little tolerance for Lana at the moment considering
she faced even more backlash just a few weeks ago when she announced her upcoming album
in an Instagram post, while calling out many female artists of color.
She said QUOTE, “Now that Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and
Beyonce have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f---ing, cheating,
etc -- can I please go back to singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being
in love even if the relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money – or whatever I want
– without being crucified or saying that I’m glamorizing abuse?”
Lana was immediately labeled ‘racist’ for calling out female artists of color in
her post, to which she attempted to clarify her remarks, saying, “This is sad to make
it about a WOC issue when I’m talking about my favorite singers.
I could’ve literally said anyone but I picked my favorite f--king people.”
She then attempted to clarify her thoughts even further in a six-minute video shared
to Instagram, stating that she’s “not the enemy” and that she’s “definitely
not racist,” but continued to run her mouth and bring down other artists with her…
Lana went on to state that, “You can call me whatever.
I’m sorry that I didn’t add one Caucasian, 100% Caucasian person into the mix of the
women that I admire.
It really says more about you than it does about me.”
Regardless of your stance on Lana’s video, right now more than ever, it’s so crucial
that we continue to speak out and educate ourselves and each other on the racial inequalities
that have been happening throughout the U.S.
We here at Clevver stand with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the many
other black people who have tragically lost their lives due to the color of their skin.
We’ve linked some resources and places to donate down in the description below and we
will continue to cover these stories and have these conversations because this is only just
the beginning.
Please share your thoughts on all this down here in the comments.
And if you want to hear about which celebs are demanding justice for George Floyd, click
right over here for another Clevver News video.
I’m your host, Emile Ennis Jr., bye guys.