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Internet Culture

Beauty YouTuber facing backlash for putting Black man on leash at VMAs

‘Black men on chains is NEVER a good look.’

Photo of Samira Sadeque

Samira Sadeque

nikita-dragun-vmas-backlash

YouTuber Nikita Dragun rolled up to the Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Monday night with an interesting fashion statement: three men on leashes, one of whom is Black. 

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Dragun, who boasts more than 2 million YouTube subscribers, shared a photo of her “fashion choice” on Instagram. 

“‘Hiring’ one boyfriend didn’t exactly work out the first time… so this time i hired 3,” the non-Black YouTuber captioned the image. Dragun was making a reference to when she “hired a boyfriend for a day” for an old YouTube video of hers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1pfBCEFhzs/

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She promptly received flak from many across Instagram and Twitter–especially from the Black community, who pointed out the gravity and implications of putting a Black man on a leash.

“Black men on chains is NEVER a good look. Khloe Kardashian x Meagan Good teas,” Twitter user @TeenSuccubus wrote. The user was referring to a recently resurfaced image of Kardashian holding four Black women, one of whom was Good, on leashes for a Halloween costume.

“On top of the racism the dress is ugly and the wig is bad so there’s that,” another wrote.

https://twitter.com/TeenSuccubus/status/1166130194773680131

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https://twitter.com/orbitcells/status/1166136323041910784

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Another user brought up a recent viral incident, which took place in Galveston, Texas, where two police officers on horseback were seen leading a Black man by a rope. 

“This isn’t appropriate considering the current news cycle about a Black man led by rope, by police, through a town and of course the long history of treating Black people like livestock. @NikitaDragun this is absolute trash,” Twitter user @claytoff wrote.

https://twitter.com/claytoff/status/1166342516523900929?s=20

Some also pointed out that Dragun’s stunt would be completely unacceptable if the gender roles were reversed. 

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“Why are people supporting this, imagine the backlash if the gender roles were reversed smh,” an Instagram user commented on Dragun’s photo.  

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The Daily Dot has reached out to Dragun’s public relations team. 

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The Daily Dot