Doja Cat Was Canceled, but Then Uncanceled Over Racist "Misunderstanding"

It seems like there's always a new artist or public figure at risk of cancellation for comments that they've made in the past. This is becoming especially true for younger artists who've long possessed online identities, meaning that a lot of their communications occurred as they were still "growing up" so to speak. While there are some folks who are willing to "forgive and forget" when they've seen someone move past unsavory comments, it appears that isn't the case with Doja Cat and why she was canceled.

The singer was accused of being homophobic in 2018 when someone scrolled through her feed and pulled out a 2015 tweet in which she used the word f----t in response to a tweet about Tyler the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt.

She responded to the outrage surrounding her usage of the word in a way that offended many people, as she explained that she doesn't use the word as a hate slur, and probably employs it in a similar fashion to Louis C.K. in his Chewed Up special.

She wrote: "I called a couple of people f----ts when I was in high school in 2015 does this mean I don’t deserve support? I’ve said f----t roughly 15 thousand times in my life. Does saying f----t mean you hate gay people? Do I hate gay people? I don’t think I hate gay people. Gay is OK."

People called the reply a "non-apology" and doubled down on the singer's cancellation.

She then uploaded a more "legitimate" apology that was written on her phone's Notes app and then screenshotted: "I’ve used horrible derogatory and hateful words towards people out of ignorance. I just want you guys to know that you’re incredibly special and I hold you dearly to my heart. I’m sorry for anyone I’ve offended or hurt deeply. You all are worth love and support."

The singer was also accused of having "racist tendencies," with users pointing to her track "Dindu Nuffin" as being implicitly discriminatory of Black people. The song was being used by online groups to "mitigate" police brutality cases. Then there were screenshots of conversations and video chats that Doja allegedly participated in that included folks with alt-right ideologies.

People accused Doja of talking with avowed racists and even laughing at their jokes. Doja admitted to being "obsessed" with the chatroom in a 2019 interview with Paper Magazine. "People would pick on me and use horrible, horrible language, just the worst, and I just didn't understand why people were so crazy on there."

What's more is that Twitter users accused Doja of uploading "Dindu Nuffin" as a response to the death of Sandra Bland.

But it didn't take long for frequenters of the chatroom to come forth and reveal that the nature of the chatroom wasn't specifically racist, and, furthermore, Doja herself didn't say anything discriminatory in her conversations on the site. The "evidence" provided by Doja's "cancelers" didn't record any offensive commentary on the singer / rapper's part.

What's more is that the nature of the chat, named Tea Time, that Doja would occasionally drop into is apparently just another form of Omegle, where random folks are connected to each other to chat it up. One Twitter user familiar with the chat also said, "Not once have I ever heard Doja say anything racist, even before she blew up. I've heard her make troll ass comments, which NONE have been racist."

Doja addressed the racist controversy saying, "I've used public chat rooms to socialize since I was a child. I shouldn't have been on some of those chat room sites, but I personally have never been involved in any racist conversations. I'm sorry to everyone that I offended. I'm a black woman. Half of my family is black from South Africa and I'm very proud of where I come from."

So, some people "canceled" Doja for her alleged racism, but that was then nullified when the nature of the Tea Time chat was exposed. But, then are folks who can't get over her use of the word f----t, so to them, the "Hot Pink" singer is still on their cancel list.