Hailey Baldwin is no stranger to the spotlight—it’s just usually positive attention. Recently engaged to Justin Bieber and one of today’s most well-known models, Baldwin is on her way to becoming a household name. But all press isn’t always good press.
Baldwin is currently the target of immense backlash over some recently resurfaced tweets from her past. In private messages and Instagram comments, Baldwin used a racial slur repeatedly. The tweets were from as recently as 2016 (though they didn’t get a lot of attention then), so the excuse of her being too young to understand the implications of the term isn’t valid.
In the private messages, Baldwin calls her friends the racial slur, even referring to someone as an “ugly” N-word. In the messages, she claims to be joking and believes she’s allowed to use the term because she isn’t white. When called out for her behavior by one friend, she responds with, “I’m not white tho so that’s awk.” Even though Baldwin isn’t white (her mother is Brazilian) her use of the derogatory term is still not okay.
Hailey Baldwin has been starting to catch some backlash after old screenshots resurfaced of her openly using the n-word multiple times. pic.twitter.com/lkzQj6Gx6K
— The Pop Hub ? (@ThePopHub) July 29, 2018
Unfortunately, Baldwin seems to have a history of insensitive tweets. Back in 2014 she tweeted “leaving to Florida white but coming back to NY a different Race” along with an emoji of a man in a turban.
That tweet she posted in 2014 and quicky deleted and apologized cause she was getting dragged pic.twitter.com/U76EDbnNfe
— ???. ♀ (@NoCauseYouSuxk) July 25, 2018
After the tweets and messages resurfaced, fans took to Twitter to call for an apology from Baldwin.
Imagine having Hailey Baldwin’s impunity and being able to say the n word multiple times without being cancelled
— tina (@gomezsqueer) July 24, 2018
Hailey Baldwin also called someone a “ugly nigger” called jay z a monkey and thinks she can use the n word bc her mum was born in Brazil. bet y’all won’t drag her bc she’s not selena. pic.twitter.com/iJqKYT2X3S
— . (@Intoyoudeluxe) July 24, 2018
Some are even calling out the amount of attention her tweets aren’t getting, and believe that fans are excusing her offensive behavior. But, Baldwin did apologize for the tweet about “coming back a different race” when it originally happened in 2014. Many are even advocating for the same “calling out” of Baldwin and her insensitive comments that other celebrities have faced in the past. Recently, Kanye West faced backlash for his controversial comments on slavery, and Selena Gomez was called out for apparent hypocrisy over the Black Lives Matter movement.
Baldwin hasn’t yet responded to the tweets or the backlash she’s facing. Although it seems that there’s just a small group of fans (or just Twitter users) calling for an apology, even when the tweets were posted in 2016 the backlash was somewhat minimal. Hopefully, for the fans and others who were offended by Baldwin’s comments, we’ll be seeing an apology soon.