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

[BUtterfield 8 41,342]

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. 

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.

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.

https://www.dailydot.com/irl/nikita-dragun-vmas-backlash/?fb=dd

[tomsches 17,388]

I mean, I don't know how to put this without it being perceived the wrong way. But if we're all equal and if there isn't supposed to be any form of discrimination based on skin colour, there should either be outrage about all the men being on a leash or no outrage at all. 

They probably chose a black man to show diversity in the first place.

[Florian 19,951]

It was just bad taste in general. Bringing the race card sounds a bit far-fetched  

[geopang 4,831]

This is extremely stupid. Yes, she’s trash, but this is NOT racist in any way. I just see 3 idiots who willingly participated and allowed themselves to have a leash around their neck.

[weed 73,496]

I don't like her

[noisullitcefrep 3,871]

I have no idea who she is but I'm totally sure her aim wasn't to spread racist messages sskskks. Besides that, there are two other men, the black guy probably wasn't forced to do this and it was all just for fun.

Not saying it's unproblematic because if a man did this with women... Also it's just generally lacking taste. But it's definitely not as big of a thing as some make it out to be

[LOVEDRUG 10,568]

He clearly consented to it so I don't see why it matters, it isn't like she was putting only black men on a leash, it wasn't a targeted attack. She was putting men on leashes, nothing to to with being black

[Guillaume Hamon 6,417]

Folks try so hard to have something to denounce nowadays...

[Miel 15,009]

I think the issue would be if it were only Black men.

In this instance, she hired three models of (likely) different ethnicities to diversify her performance statement.

[Guest Adarsh]

As if he was forced to do this lol

[Miel 15,009]

Also... why do articles do this? Even from the larger online-activist communities, there has been like no outrage over this?

Why are they trying to stir the damn pot? There are actual, legitimate issues of racism pervading this country and the world all the damn time, and this is not one of them, imo.

[migamiga 12,101]

Kind of a reach. It’s clearly meant to be sexual and she’s not white so the optics of it all doesn’t really seem insensitive to me. Plus as someone mentioned above it’s not like it’s all black men either. 

[Morphine Prince 105,341]

People need to learn that context is important. 

She had 3 men in leashes as part of a red carpet look, an aesthetic.

The logic that a black man on a leash (or any imagery that can be traced back to slavery) is always inherently racist is flawed. 

This same flawed logic can be applied to the BDSM community. Sounds ridiculous right? Because it is. If a black man loves to be dominated and be on a leash, in cuffs, whipped, it does not in any way have to be related to  racism.

This was just an aesthetic they went for, nothing more. 

There are instances where maybe racism would be an issue, such as her having 3 black men in this... I can see why some would question the motive. But this is not the case. 

[Miel 15,009]

Articles like this only falsely incite outrage, causing people to immediately side with the "not everything is about race", "why did they have to make it about race", "why is everybody so PC", "SJW's ruin everything", etc.

It causes deflection from racial issues that do exist, by having people conflate something like this (which isn't racist) as the same. It's a dangerous thing they're doing, whether they are intending it or not.

[whore 11,447]

I know nothing about her but this doesn't seem racist in any way. She has three men of different races and everyone is focusing on the one