“I do hear you, I’m sorry,” said former Miss Universe Malaysia 2017, Samantha Katie James, in an Instagram post after she was caught in a controversy surrounding her remarks about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Photo: Instagram @samanthakayty
“I know you’re hurting. I know it’s unfair. I’m not in your shoes to understand this fully,” the statement continued.
The 25-year old recently posted a series of Instagram posts criticizing the nationwide protest happening in the United States following the tragic death of an African American man, George Floyd, as a result of police brutality.
Samantha went on to explain what she meant when she said “black people chose to be black” , a phrase that had caused massive outrage and offended not only the said community, but everyone else across the globe.
“Throughout my journey, I have learned that we are more than just this temporary physical body, like an avatar, merely a tiny speck of dust in this vast infinite universe, we tend to overlook that from time to time.”
“In our process towards evolution as a human being, on earth, we choose our body, our family, our place of birth, our name and our lessons from the path we take tailor-made for us.”
Samantha also admitted that she did not articulate her messages well and could've done a better job at phrasing her words.
“To clear the air, yes I did poorly articulate myself when writing ‘black people chose to be black’ and ‘to the black people, relax, take it as a challenge, it makes you stronger’.”
“If I had been more attentive in how I wrote it, the message would have been understood as a heartfelt message to all victims of racism be it any colour,” she added.
In a three-part slider posted on her personal Instagram page, she ended her statement by clarifying that she’s a Malaysian with Chinese-Brazilian parentage and was raised by foster parents who are Indian Malaysian.
In her previous postings, Samantha came under fire after calling on the African American community to “relax” and saying that they “chose to be born as a coloured person in America for a reason”.
She also explained that despite the fact that she does not live in the United States, she felt as if “the whites won”.
“If you’re angry, you respond in rage and anguish and that means it has power over you. They have power over you,” she said.
Samantha has turned off the comments for her apology post, and perhaps that’s for the best right now.
While we know the internet can be a place where news spread fast and anything can go viral, we hope netizens would take the time to reassess what has happened and educate, instead of bashing her, so more people can learn from the incident and not repeat the same mistake twice.
By: Siti Farhana Sheikh Yahya
