Chris Lilley Gave One Of Those Half-Apologies After Posting A Blackface Video
Lilley says the video was "not connected in any way to current news stories".
Actor and producer Chris Lilley has backtracked on social media after a video of himself wearing blackface and using the n-word was posted on his Instagram page.
The video is a remix of Lilley’s song ‘Squashed N****’, which he performed in blackface as the character S.mouse on his ABC series Angry Boys. The song is about a child who gets run over by a truck, and was shared on the actor’s Instagram on Saturday, barely a week after a white man in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, was given just three years in jail for running down and killing Indigenous teenager Elijah Doughty.
The video was taken down and Lilley’s Instagram set to private after people began slamming him on social media. Not long after, a number of Lilley’s more vocal critics, including rapper Briggs and Cleverman creator Ryan Griffen, found themselves blocked from viewing the actor’s Twitter page.
I know someone who follows me will have Chris Lilley in their contacts – tell him, from me; ‘Chris, go fuck yourself you tactless gronk’ pic.twitter.com/CZ7qro8yq6
— Senator Briggs (@BriggsGE) July 29, 2017
What’s wrong, Chris? pic.twitter.com/w5VFkYyzlk
— Senator Briggs (@BriggsGE) July 29, 2017
After several hours, a message was shared on Lilley’s Twitter claiming that he was not the one who operated his social media pages, and that the S.mouse video was “not connected in any way to current news stories”.
The message also included an apology “for any hurt caused by the misinterpretation”.
— Chris Lilley (@ChrisLilley) July 29, 2017
But Lilley’s apology, such as it was, only seemed to make the situation worse. In particular, people took issue with his use of the word “misinterpretation”.
hey everyone, sorry if you accidentally misinterpreted a blackface performance by a white man saying ‘n*gger’ over and over as offensive https://t.co/jBJUuxiooL
— illy bocean (@IllyBocean) July 29, 2017
We didn’t ‘misinterpret’ your videos racism. We responded correctly. You re-posted it as if it served some kind relevance. This is YOURS. https://t.co/WKLG0aiUvm
— A.B. Original (@ABOriginalBAM) July 29, 2017
Apologises for the “misinterpretation” not, like you know, the inherently racist act of performing in blackface and using the word n****
— choose to believe (@broek_af) July 29, 2017
You’ve been criticised for ten years. If anyone’s misinterpreting the intent behind a decade of minstrelsy, it can only be you.
— Erin Ryan (@erinryanau) July 29, 2017
Earlier this month, Lilley’s show Jonah From Tonga, which also features the actor in blackface, was pulled from New Zealand television over concerns about its depiction of people with Pacific Island heritage.