Because it wouldn’t be the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show without some sort of controversy, mostly white models backstage at the show were videotaped singing along to Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” and singing the n-word.
In the circulated video clip taken at the Shanghai shows, you can hear the models singing the lyric “I don’t wanna choose / And I’m quick, cut a ni**a off, so don’t get comfortable.”
It looks like the video clip was taken from one of model Karlie Kloss’s blogs and the shots line up to her video. You can see in her behind the scenes video at 2:59 the models are singing “Bodak Yellow” but the line in which they actually use the n-word isn’t included. Comments on the video from last night were pointing out how models were using the racial slur in the video, which indicates that Kloss possibly edited the line out.
For the past few years the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and models involved with the show have dealt with several allegations of racism. Just this year model Gigi Hadid and Katy Perry were barred from performing in the show because of “visa issues.” The Chinese press speculated that it was due to “political reasons” with other outlets citing Hadid’s past making fun of Asian people and Katy Perry’s controversial 2015 performance in China at which she displayed a Taiwanese flag.
Just last year the show was criticized for how it appropriated Chinese and Mexican influences on the fashion. In 2012 the company apologized for sending Karlie Kloss down the runway in a Native American headdress and it was removed from the broadcast and in 2010 they sent black models down the runway in “tribal” outfits.
Though Cardi B already re-tweeted the video on her Twitter feed, Jezebel has reached out to her reps and those of Kloss for comment as well as Victoria’s Secret. We’ll update this post when they respond.
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