Social media influencers have spoken out against French DJ Michel Gaubert’s insensitive and racist dinner party last week – which saw slanty eye mask cut-outs distributed to party attendants. Guabert is well known for his collaborations with luxury labels such as Chanel, Raf Simons and Fendi.
In a now-deleted Instagram video, Gaubert’s guests wore the mask and shouted: “Wuhan Girls, wahoo”. The video immediately infuriated viewers and was also called out by fashion influencers such as Susie Lau, Bryan Grey Yambao, Diet Prada and Tina Craig. Lau posted a series of Instagram stories – calling Gaubert’s video “patently racist” and the “Asian version of Blackface”.
Yambao shared his dismay by sharing a screenshot of the video to his 500K followers on Twitter:
“wuhan girl”? Come in Michel you should know better pic.twitter.com/GDTt2B3yRw
— bryanboy (@bryanboy) April 8, 2021
Craig also shared her thoughts on Gaubert’s video post:
“Regardless if it was you or your friend who said ‘Wuhan girl’ (loud and clear), YOU chose to post and promote this video. Careless hate speech tossed around disguised as ‘funny dinner party conversations’ dehumanizing Asians is the direct reason why we are being attacked and murdered”.
Moreover, Diet Prada – an Instagram account that calls out fashion and beauty influencers – created a highlight reel – which includes Gaubert’s racist video and a compilation of the influencers calling him out.
Diet Prada’s post also shows comments made by Designer Marie Beltrami, who attended Gaubert’s party amid the backlash. In an attempt to defend Gaubert, Beltrami called out Yambao – saying: “you are very racist yourself. all you need is love.”.
Gaubert – however – decided to take the high road: he addressed the backlash and apologized for his mistakes. He also thanked Diet Prada for holding him accountable for his actions:
“I am extremely sorry for this lack of dignity, especially in the times we are going through now. Asian hate is not acceptable and I condemn it like any other hate. I have always been embracing every culture in whatever I do and I am devastated when I see what is going on in the world today. Yet I failed when I thought I could not. We all learn something every day and I realize it is not enough. I am committed to hold myself accountable and become a better person as I am convinced that we should all live in harmony and fight against every form of racism”.