Two steps forward, one giant step back, Jennifer Lopez.
While promoting her new single “Love Make the World Go Round” to benefit the victims of the mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, Lopez (or someone with diminishing job prospects on her social media team) tweeted out the hashtag #AllLivesMatter.
The hashtag accompanied a photo of the singer and “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda hand-in-hand performing the song on NBC’s “Today,” where 50 survivors and families of the victims were reportedly in attendance, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
J.Lo deleted the tweet soon after it was posted, but forgot about the other time she used your racist uncle’s rallying cry on Instagram. Nuzzled in between the caption #filltheworldwithmusicloveandpride and #JLin in a promotion post for her new single is #alllivesmatter, the social media movement that erases the specificity of the black experience in this country.
Social media users were quick to clock Lopez for her usage of the hashtag, setting off a Twitter firestorm. Some mentioned how Lopez has tremendously benefitted from the work of black artists in the past, while others let Mariah Carey memes speak for themselves.
Regardless of whether Lopez was aware of the hashtag’s meaning (how could she not?) or if she even posted it herself, she needs to recognize the damage this kind of rhetoric inflicts on communities of color and issue an apology. That’s all she has now.
Watch Lopez and Miranda discuss the single below:
We’ve reached out to Lopez’s representatives and will update the post accordingly.
Before You Go
