People Are Calling Out 24 Distasteful Things Celebs Have Said During The George Floyd Protests

Bored Panda spoke to Mike Johansson, the principal lecturer in the School of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology, about why some celebrities’ actions irritate people so much.

“It’s because too many people, for whatever reason, look up to celebrities. They feel they know them, they let them into their homes via social media, TV and movies, they feel they support them financially and therefore they expect them to use their celebrity for good causes,” explained Johansson.

But what’s upsetting to some is that when “a celebrity doesn’t appear to understand the real world or at least each individual’s concerns of the moment, there is an abrupt disconnect between the celebrity and the individual.”

Johansson argues that the “crisis” of social media is partly due to the fans who are now able to see their celebrity idols making very human mistakes in real time. As a result, “the carefully managed image of most celebrities of the past is literally not possible if a celebrity is continually tweeting and posting on Instagram.”

It’s not the first time celebrities have been criticized for being tone-deaf in the midst of difficult times. The critic-at-large Amanda Hess wrote in a piece for the New York Times that American pursuit of wealth through talent, charm, and hard work, which celebrities represent, “dissipates when society locks down.”

It’s true that during critical times, like the George Floyd protests and coronavirus pandemic, celebrities have an audience of traumatized people that is no longer willing to go with the social media flow. “[People’s] eyes are darting toward trending topics for clues to processing the unimaginable horrors looming just outside, and instead are finding Madonna bathing in a rose petal-strewn bath,” wrote Amanda. And this is where it gets infuriating.

No wonder many of us weren’t buying it when Ellen DeGeneres felt like she was "in a prison” in her huge mansion and Katy Perry lost track of the days in her enormous home. We previously wrote on celebrities sharing their quarantine experiences and people finding it offensive right here.

Meanwhile, Chris Rojek, professor of sociology at City University, London, believes that it’s not only the A-list privilege that frustrates so many. “I think one of the factors that is different about the virus is the sense that celebrities are appearing to the audience as irrelevant." “Whatever gestures celebrities have made, they’re as helpless as the ordinary person,” he told The Guardian.

In the context of the George Floyd protests, celebrities who are voicing their opinions are no longer helpless, though. It’s hard enough dealing with sensitive topics for many of us, but the A-listers should take even more responsibility for what and how they’re communicating things.