[jwplayer ksH6zuKH]TikTok star Addison Rae is facing backlash from fans after a video surfaced from a past Instagram live stream that appeared to show her tricking fellow TikTokker Kio Cyr into saying a racial slur.
Addison Rae is one of TikTok’s most popular content creators, boasting over 48 million followers on the app due to her viral lip syncing and dancing videos.
On par with names like Charli D’Amelio and Loren Gray, Addison Rae was rarely involved in online drama — until late June of 2020, when fans took issue with a moment captured in an Instagram live stream with Kio Cyr.
In the stream, Rae sits and talks with Cyr, who recently made headlines due to his shocking breakup with ex-girlfriend Olivia Ponton. While the two chat, Rae covers her mouth and seems to whisper to Cyr to “say the ‘n-word.’”
“No!” Cyr shouts in response, prompting Rae to clarify her request with an, “I’m kidding!”
“Luckily, your Live just froze when you said that,” Rae says a few moments later after Cyr claimed he “didn’t want to be the next ‘Melanin King.’”
The moment quickly went viral online, with many fans speaking out against Rae for her purported racist comment.
“Lmao, Addison Rae said the n word, and y’all are just sliding past that?” one critic Tweeted about the scandal.
lmaooo addison rae said the n word n y'all are just slide past that?
— Ilwad (@_ilwadabdi) June 23, 2020
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“Addison rae shared a video that said the Black Lives Matter movement is a cult, told another TikTokker to say the n word on live, insulted Charli, but hardly anyone batted an eye at her because she’s pretty,” another commented. “Pretty privilege is real and it’s insanely ridiculous.”
https://twitter.com/insanelyknj/status/1277455756267147269?s=20
While Rae has yet to speak out about the moment via her own social media accounts, some fans are arguing that she had asked Cyr if he had said a racial slur, rather than asking him to say it. This possibility is one that he himself has backed up, as told in an Instagram comment replying to the backlash.
Rae’s mother has also published several statements via Twitter, and while they do not directly address the video, some fans are convinced they’re subtweets about the situation.
“I’ve always been a person to see the good in people,” she wrote. “I’m genuinely losing hope in people and that makes me so sad.”
https://twitter.com/sherinicolee/status/1277275998564708353?s=20
the way things get so twisted 😔
— Sheri Nicolee (@sherinicolee) June 28, 2020
This isn’t the first time Rae has come under fire, by far; the star also faced criticism for dancing to a song that contained lyrics about eating disorders, as well as for liking comments in 2019 that appeared to shade Charli D’Amelio.
Stay tuned to Dexerto for more on this developing story.
