'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' cast news: Chloe Bennett blasts model Gigi Hadid for mocking Asians
Chloe Bennet wrote an open letter to Gigi Hadid on Instagram
A video of model Gigi Hadid appearing to mock Asian facial features recently emerged online. This video was posted by her sister Bella and, instead of getting positive attention, resulted in the model being accused of racism for the second time in just three months.
The video first appeared in Bella’s Instagram account. In the short clip, which was automatically taken down after 24 hours (as is the nature of Instagram Story), Gigi was holding what looks like a cookie with Buddha’s face. Then, she squinted her eyes and smiled in an exaggerated way to make herself look like the cookie. Bella was quick to remove the clip of her sister, but not as quickly as her followers who captured it and shared it online. Some details are shared on YouTube via a Clevver News video.
People called out Gigi and called her an imitation racist. Her followers might also recall that just earlier, Gigi faced similar backlash for a Melania Trump impression during a comedic performance at the American Music Awards in November 2016, for which she apologised in a letter.
One of those who called out Gigi was “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” star Chloe Bennet. As a Chinese woman who was made fun of her looks while growing up, she claims that Gigi’s video struck a personal note with her, writes Seventeen.
However, instead of confronting the model head-on, she decided to write her an open letter through an Instagram post. There she explained in essence that what she did was not okay even if it was only meant to be a joke.
The post featured a childhood photo of her with some friends where the open letter was contained in the caption. Bennet explained how she was made fun of as a kid for being Chinese and for having Asian eyes. She would laugh it off back then since such comments were always made to be a joke. However, deep inside, those made her feel horrible. She had felt like just being herself was already a joke that was not meant to be taken seriously.
This led to her being embarrassed of who she was. At one point, she said she even dyed her hair blonde just so that she would look less Asian and she would feel worthy of the people who made her feel bad.
She then expressed her disappointment at the model and said that it hurts her heart to see someone like Gigi, a young and beautiful woman with so much influence, act in this kind of manner. She clarifies that this act does not make Gigi a bad person or a racist, but merely ignorant of the pain that her actions caused others even if it was meant to be a joke.
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