Camila Cabello has apologized for using racist slurs and sharing racist memes online when she was younger.
“I used language that I’m deeply ashamed of and will regret forever,” the 22-year-old pop star wrote in a message on social media. “I was uneducated and ignorant and once I became aware of the history and the weight and the true meaning behind this horrible and hurtful language, I was deeply embarrassed I ever used it.”
Cabello added: “I apologized then and I apologize again now.”
The singer, who has Mexican-Cuban roots, was raised in Miami-Dade – where only 15.4 per cent of the population is Caucasian – and dropped out of Grade 9 at Miami Palmetto High School to pursue her music career.
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Cabello’s mea culpa on Wednesday came after several posts Cabello made on Tumblr in 2012 resurfaced. They include the n-word and a joke about Asian languages.
“I would never intentionally hurt anyone and I regret it from the bottom of my heart,” she wrote. “As much as I wish I could, I can’t go back in time and change things I said in the past. But once you know better, you do better and that’s all I can do.”
Cabello described the words she used and the memes she shared as “mistakes” that don’t represent the person she is at 22.
“I only stand and have ever stood for love and inclusivity, and my heart has never, even then, had any ounce of hate or divisiveness,” she insisted. “The truth is I was embarrassingly ignorant and unaware.”
Cabello added: “I can’t say enough how deeply sorry and ashamed I feel, and I apologize again from the bottom of my heart.”
I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart. pic.twitter.com/iZrnUawUAb
— camila (@Camila_Cabello) December 18, 2019
In August, Cabello’s beau Shawn Mendes apologized on social media for racially insensitive tweets he made in 2012 and 2013.
“I posted some racially insensitive comments on social media when I was younger, and I am so sorry,” the Canadian singer wrote. “I apologize wholeheartedly for what was said & understand how offensive those posts were. There is no place for comments like that, and those words do not represent who I am.
“I stand for complete inclusivity, equality, & love.”
In 2014, Mendes’ fellow Canadian Justin Bieber apologized after a five-year-old video clip surfaced in which he told a racist joke.
The pop star said in a statement that he didn’t fully understand “the power of certain words and how they can hurt” when he was younger.
“I thought it was ok to repeat hurtful words and jokes, but didn’t realize at the time that it wasn’t funny and that in fact my actions were continuing the ignorance,” he said.