Accusations of racism come fast and furious these days, some justifiably, some not so much. But having the racist label hurled your way, fairly or not, seems to have a way of sticking and is difficult to defend against, something Cinderella and Downton Abbey star, Lily James, is finding out the hard way.
According to the Mirror , the allegations of racism against Lily James are poppy-cock, the news source saying Lily James has been “wrongly accused.”
The people screaming racism and calling Lily James a racist were inspired to do so by a picture and post Lily James left on her Instagram following the Japaneses opening of Cinderella . In the post, James featured a photo of herself in a lovely gown, a comment alongside saying, “‘Shinderera’ premiere in Tokyo. The final stop on our tour and it was a beautiful cold night, thank you!”
Some people who saw the post allegedly became instantly, and highly offended, apparently jumping to the conclusion that Lily James was mocking Japanese and other Asian accents with her post, intentionally butchering the English pronunciation of “Cinderella” with “Shinderera.”
Replacing the english “L” sound with an “R” sound when joking about or imitating Asian accents once was an acceptable comedic device, such as in the clip below, but has now become highly offensive and politically incorrect.
Some of the response’s to Lily James’s “Shinderera” post didn’t take kindly to the actress, tagging James as a racist, and worse.
“Tacky racist stereotype comment is pretty gross,” said one Lily James Instagram follower.
Another one-upped “tacky racist” with “F**king racist.”
But others gave James the benefit of the doubt, one saying, “Not sure if that’s a racist comment or it’s the real name there,” while another posited, “Sounds more like a joke that backfired to me.”
But in the end, the calls of racism and tagging Lily James a racist were quashed as Lily James supporters came forward with keen observations and strongly worded comments of their own, reports Yahoo Movies .
“This isn’t racist you idiots. It’s the romanised spelling of Cinderella in Japanese. Educate yourselves before you accuse people of ‘racism’!”
Another Lily James supporter also demonstrated the racist allegations against Lily James were nonsense, translating “Cinderella” into its Japanese form, ?????, which is in fact pronounced, “Shinderera.”
Whether or not apologies are forthcoming from those who accused Lily James of being a racist remains to be seen, but isn’t likely.
[Images, Kevin Winter, Getty Images and Lily James Instagram]