Gigi Hadid has found herself at the center of an internet debate after a video surfaced of her allegedly “mocking Asian people.” Watch what has social media buzzing in the video above.
The supermodel has been accused of being racist because of the now-deleted footage that was shared by her sister, Bella Hadid, over the weekend.
The controversial clip shows Gigi, 21, giggling and squinting at a birthday dinner, while holding up a cookie that has a Buddha’s face on it.
Although her younger sibling removed the post a fan account for Gigi’s boyfriend, Zayn Malik, picked up on it and quickly reposted it, causing mayhem.
“this is y’all woke palestine queen?” the zainzayns Twitter account wrote above the video. “Gigi out there mocking Asian people. i would say she’s cancelled but she never started. rat @GiGiHadid.”
The comments section was then flooded with people branding Gigi “disrespectful,” “offensive” and “racist.”
the problem is she tried to copy the Asian face thing while mocking an entire race for her own humour. ?
— •H• (@sultrykarla) February 5, 2017
What she did was rude, ignorant and wrong. Idgaf who she is. It was wrong. You don’t get a pass bc ppl see you as a “supermodel”.
— abnormal girl ⓥ (@moooonique__) February 6, 2017
She was also attacked because her singer beau’s father is British Pakistani, making Malik part Asian.
Gigi’s Palestinian American father, Mohamed Hadid, is also Middle Eastern.
“ppl are so blind to anti asian racism as someone thats had to deal w ppl making fun of my eyes for 16 yrs i hope gigi hadid falls in a hole,” one angry post read, while another said: “Asking for a friend does gigi hadid no her bf is part asian bc when she made fun of asians she’s also insulting him (and billions more.)
somethings arent a joke…..thats mockery and very disrespectful to that religion….
— CellyStyles (@cellybill) February 5, 2017
Lots of people also jumped to Gigi’s defense, though, insisting she wasn’t doing it to offend anyone, and the backlash she was receiving was uncalled for.
“You guys will do anything to find something negative about her just remember her man is asian too,” wrote a fan in her defense. Other Asians said they weren’t offended and thought she’d been criticized too harshly.
❤Only a toxic mind will perceive hugging a chocolate laughing Buddha as racist…… ? #PracticeHappiness #PracticeKindness pic.twitter.com/NggEhuJXas
— YOLANDA (@YolandaHFoster) February 6, 2017
Her mother, Yolanda Hadid, also defended her daughter and tweeted: “Only a toxic mind would perceive hugging a chocolate laughing Buddha as racist.”