Dee Kosh apologises for using racial slur; Jianhao Tan retires 'Peter Papadum' character

As the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement sweeps across the globe, celebrities and notable personalities in Asia as well as Singapore have added their voices to calls against racism.

Local influencers are also responding to criticism that they are perpetuating racism.

Singaporean radio DJ-YouTuber Dee Kosh has found himself in a bit of hot soup over his past use of racist language even as he spoke up in support of BLM and about racism in Singapore.

He apologised and deleted numerous old tweets dating back to 2013 after netizens criticised him for using a derogatory term used to refer to African-Americans. In two tweets on 31 May, he also called out Singaporeans who use the “N word”.

“Singaporeans kids using the N word is an issue because kids in Singapore don’t have CONSEQUENCES after saying the word. So you gotta call them out,” he said in one post.

In a podcast released on Sunday (7 June), Dee Kosh said he “didn’t know the gravity of the word” when he used it in the past. “I used to very openly use the N-word because I grew up listening to a lot of Black songs, I grew up with Black culture.

“There were some tweets that were pulled up from way back and I’ve already apologised for them because I was ignorant.”

Separately, Jianhao Tan – one of Singapore’s top YouTubers – also announced that he has retired an Indian character named Peter Papadum from his video sketches, saying that the character exploited racial stereotypes.

“After some reflection, I realised it was insensitive and we could have done it better. I will no longer have that character anymore,” he said in an apology on Instagram.

Tan has also decided not to release a video in which his hair was braided, and apologised for the cultural appropriation. Many African-American people traditionally wear their hair in braids.

Referring to his production company, Tan said in an Instagram post, “All of us here at Titan Digital Media stand against any form of racism. We’ve made mistakes in the past, and we aren’t afraid to say sorry. We’re learning every single day to educate ourselves and we need to speak up now.”

He added that the company would also be “donating to support BLM causes as well as causes that fight racism”.