Celebrity and former beauty queen Yasmin Yusoff urges ex-Miss Universe Malaysia to apologise over controversial remarks
KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — Veteran radio announcer and actress Datuk Yasmin Yusoff urged former Miss Universe Malaysia Samantha Katie James to take down her controversial remarks on the Black Lives Matter movement in the US.
Yasmin, who is also former Miss Universe Malaysia 1978, advised James to publicly apologise to the world over her racially-charged comments on Instagram, which has outraged social media users in Malaysia and overseas.
“I’m shocked she hasn’t taken down her posts.
“She should have removed the posts, apologise and explain herself further.”
Although Yasmin was lost for words to express her views over the issue, she said she was totally puzzled by James’ remarks and couldn’t really interpret what the 25-year-old was trying to say in her series of Instagram stories last night.
“I tried to re-read her remarks multiple times, but no matter how positive I tried to spin it on her behalf, I still couldn’t get it.
“I’m surprised that she chose to comment on such a huge issue.
“If it was me, I would have just expressed my views on the violence and not about the racial issues,” she said when contacted by Malay Mail.
Yasmin also regretted that while the world is crippled with a major crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic, a careless comment by an emerging celebrity could stir such controversies on social media.
She advised young beauty queens and influencers to be more mindful of their choice of words and views they wish to express publicly.
“Just because you hold a title, it doesn’t mean you are perfect or can’t make any mistakes.
“Social media is very dangerous.
“If I want to post something, I make sure I read it over and over again to ensure that nobody could interpret [my comments] in any different way from what I meant,” added Yasmin.
Yasmin hoped that the controversy would have taught James a lesson to be more mindful of her views and comments on sensitive issues in the future.
“Be conscious of the value of your statements and the topic you choose to make comments.”
James, who is of Malaysian Chinese-Brazilian heritage, came under heavy criticism online after she posted a series of controversial remarks telling African Americans to “take it as a challenge, referring to the US race protests over the death of George Floydlast week.
She also claimed that the coloured community “chose to be born as coloured (people) in America.”
Her remarks have since dominated the headlines of local and international online portals, including UK media newspapers The Independent and the Daily Star.
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