Kim Kardashian Apologizes for Defending Jeffree Star's Racist Comments: I Don't 'Have the Right to Speak on That'
Kim Kardashian West is speaking out after receiving serious blowback for defending makeup artist and beauty vlogger Jeffree Star.
On Monday, Star took to Twitter to openly criticize the swatches of Kardashian West’s new
powder contour kits after she showed off her new products on Snapchat by applying the makeup to her arm to show how it appears on the skin. Kardashian West’s fans jumped to her defense by slamming Star for
racist comments he made in the past, which prompted the reality star to issue her take on the matter, taking to Snapchat to tell fans to “get off his ass” and stop “being so petty bringing up things in his past.” (In recent years, a series of 12-year-old videos of Star making offensive and racist comments have resurfaced, which he has apologized for.)
Kardashian West, 36, was promptly hit with a wave of criticism for defending Star, 31, and on Tuesday she took to Snapchat yet again to clarify and apologize for her comments.
“So I really wanted to apologize to you guys and my fans for defending a situation yesterday that I really didn’t know enough about,” she said. “I just feel a bit naïve, and I do want to really apologize for me feeling like I had the right to say ‘get over it’ in a situation that involves racism.”
“I just don’t really feel like I have the right to speak on that, and I really, really, really am sorry,” she said. “From the bottom of my heart, I’ve always been about positivity and I’ve never been a negative person, so my whole thing was: ‘Hey guys, I don’t want to see negativity in my timeline or my mentions, let’s just move forward — let’s be positive and move past this.’ ”
Now, the
Keeping Up with the Kardashians star — who has been
vocal about race relations and her views as a mom of biracial children in the past — admits she realizes she didn’t fully understand the message she was sending.
“I really am sorry, and I just want to move forward and be positive,” she repeated. “My last message is that I do believe that people are born to love and born with love, and they are taught to hate. So I have always had hopes that people can change and that people can learn to be better and do better, and learn to find that love again. So never give up hope. That is my message for the day and that’s always been what I’m trying to say. I believe in people changing, I believe in people just being better, and I’ll never give that up. I just want people to be positive.”
http://people.com/celebrity/kim-kardashian-apologizes-defending-jeffree-star-racist-comments/