Is 2018 Another Year of Insensitivity? Donald Trump, H&M, and More!

It’s only the middle of the first month of the year and countless corporations, celebrities, and even the POTUS have engaged in alarming behavior that has us questioning here at #WhereistheBuzzz, is 2018 going to be another year of insensitivity? What exactly is insensitivity? According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, insensitivity is showing that you don’t know or care about the feelings of others. Let’s take a look at these moments that happened this year that are downright insensitive.
Shithole Countries – Donald Trump

The President came under fire this month for allegedly referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and all of Africa as shithole countries. The alleged comments have received backlash from most major news outlets and even the United Nations. CNN’s Anderson Cooper even called the comments “racist,” and not “racially-charged,” as most people are saying. In a recent interview with a reporter on Sunday, when asked what Trump would say to those who consider him to be a racist, his response was that he felt he wasn’t and that he was the “least racist” person that the reporter had ever interviewed. We’re finding that hard to believe when after referring to Haiti and Africa as shithole countries, he then allegedly wanted to know why more immigrants weren’t coming from countries like Norway. Norway’s population is over 94 percent white. Let that marinate…

No Sympathy for the Dead – Logan Paul

Logan Paul, an American vlogger has gotten the attention he so craves this week and it wasn’t exactly fandemonium. Paul is facing criticism in regards to his recent trip to a Japanese forest nicknamed “Suicide Forest.” The area gets this macabre moniker because hundreds of people visit the forest to commit suicide. While visiting the forest, Paul, with his camera, recorded the body of one of the deceased people in the forest while galvanizing his audience with the statement that this was the “first” one for him and that it was the YouTuber’s “realest vlog.”  The 22-year-old has since released an apology, but c’mon now, who does that to begin with? In light of the controversy, YouTube has released a statement saying that they will work harder to control the type of content that is uploaded to the site.

What to Wear – H&M Controversy

H&M has also come under fire for its ad campaign that featured a little Black boy in a hoodie with the words “coolest monkey in the jungle” written on it. The backlash was almost immediate on social media. Celebs like The Weeknd and G-Eazy decided to end their partnerships with the brand in light of the controversy as well. For many, the images that circulated the internet were extremely insensitive, as it seems to depict to many a comparison of the boy to a monkey, that is an age-old racist jest. For others, including the boy’s parents, it just wasn’t that deep. They have since gone to various media outlets to defend the decision of putting the boy in the hoodie, and have also asked that people respect that everyone doesn’t view racism the same way. The question is: what planet do they live on in which they don’t see and understand the severity of this controversy?

Whether or not 2018 will be a good or bad year, we don’t know, but it is proving to be a pretty insensitive one.