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Cancelled “C List Youtuber” Lindsay Ellis Tells Her Side of the Story
A story of Twitter, outrage, and the weaponisation of racism
Video Essayist, fiction author, and YouTube personality Lindsay Ellis unwittingly became the latest “Twitter Villain” last month when one of her Tweets went viral. (In a bad way).
After watching Disney’s latest animated film ‘Raya and the last Dragon’, Ellis Tweeted;
“Also watched Raya and the Last Dragon and I think we need to come up with a name for this genre that is basically Avatar: the Last Airbender reduxes. It’s like half of all YA fantasy published in the last few years anyway.”
People across Twitter interpreted this Tweet as a “straight white person” mashing all Asian fiction content together in a way that suggests media properties can’t be unique if they’re Asian.
Ellis’s opinion of the film wasn’t isolated however, and came days after many other ordinary people, entertainment channels, and film reviewers also drew comparison between ‘Avatar the Last Airbender’ and Disney’s ‘Raya and the last Dragon’. Not because these properties are set in Asian countries and feature Asian characters, but because the plot and many character motivations share a lot of noticeable similarities.
This discord also came at a time when Asian Americans have been dealing with a historic rise of Asian focused hatred in cities across the US.
But while many Asian Americans are choosing to focus their efforts on ending the daily abuses and attacks that are negatively impacting their lives, many Twitter users chose to plant their flag on the Lindsay Ellis hill. Some from the Asian American community themselves, but the vast majority white people who claim to be friends of POC (people of colour).
Speaking Out
After deleting her Twitter account and staying silent the past few weeks, Ellis finally chose to speak out in an almost 2 hour YouTube video uploaded today.
Ellis responded to criticism of the viral Tweet that thrust her onto the global stage, and tried to provide context to what she meant. She pointed out some of the other influencers who also drew a comparison between Raya and Avatar…
