Shawn Mendes has shared a formal apology for controversial social media posts from his past.
“I posted some racially insensitive comments on social media when I was younger, and I am so sorry,” the Canadian singer wrote in a message shared via social media. “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.”
— Shawn Mendes (@ShawnMendes) August 24, 2019
Mendes’ statement comes as he took some heat on social media for a response he gave a fan during a recent Q&A session when she asked why he has not addressed criticism of the tweets. He appeared to downplay and deflect blame for the tweets.
“I just think that a lot of things need to be moved on from,” Mendes replied. “But I also think that the things that [you] saw, like, I had friends when I was 14 who would, like, take my phone and, like, post things of them and, like, they thought it was funny that I had like 2,000 followers and it was this big thing, and they’d post photos of themselves.
“At the time I was just like not thinking about it. I had no idea I was going to have 50 million followers – which doesn’t make it any better. But um, yeah, totally I apologize for everything insensitive that I said in the past, but with that being said, yeah, I think that’s not my personality.”
The racially insensitive tweets have been deleted. In October 2013, Mendes told a female friend via Twitter: “I can see the black coming out in you.” In a March 2013 tweet to a friend, Mendes said: “I’m black, burnt up ya knoe.”
In a 2012 Instagram post, he captioned a photo of a black friend: “"A regular day with mah n***er Kareem."