Ivan Ooze last night found himself in a bit of a social media bind, that opened up a whole other conversation that many keep coming back to time after time again. The rapper foolishly uploaded an Instagram video to newly made account @unicorn.tracy of himself Crip walking. A bit of fun, quite clearly, but the caption that was attached to the original video quickly caught the attention of fellow rappers Briggs and Remi in particular, which then developed in to the online conversation that continued on Sunday night.
“I get my momz to film my c-walkz 4 u nukkahz”, read the original caption (the video has now been reuploaded and changed, with ‘nukkahz’ replaced by ‘homieZ’).
‘Nukkahz’, another variation on ‘nigger’, was quickly picked up by Briggs, who simply questioned the young rapper (who recently made news for his collaboration with Ghostface Killah), “You call Starks ‘Nukkah’ too?”.
Ooze immediately apologised for the post and removed it, stating he didn’t mean to offend anyone and he’d learned his lesson, however no public acknowledgement has since been made.
“I’m glad you’re sorry and I accept your individual apology, but you’ve got to understand you’re a role model now and your apology needs to run deeper than that.” Remi tweeted. “‘Cause even if it’s just a small mistake to you, the impact this shit has runs deeper than you, cause any uzi fan that may be as ignorant as you were before Briggs called you out won’t see what’s wrong with what you said.”
“As a result,” he continued. “They’ll stand up for you like the loyal fans they are and think it’s ok to be racist, to use this terminology. If you’re really sorry you’ll post about what you did, explain why it was wrong and educate any of your fans who don’t agree.”
So far, no acknowledgement has been posted, but it has highlighted a constant problem with flippant ignorance within the younger Australian community, especially. When artists with impressionable audiences are quick to apologise and move on, lessons aren’t necessarily shared with their wider fan base, often leading to misplaced online vitriol and the same ignorant cycles being precipitated. This, while a seemingly small example, is still an important one that hopefully can be learned from, properly, and not swept under the rug only to be talked about when someone else stuffs up online again.
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