While Estée Lauder senior executive John Demsey was forced to leave the company on Monday after sharing a Chingy-referencing meme with a racial slur, the MC himself said he’s “not even concerned.”
As Demsey apologized on Instagram for making “the terrible mistake of carelessly reposting a racist meme without reading it before hand,” Chingy commented underneath that he “didn’t take it a way at all.”
“Matter fact I can tell you wurr jus trying to be hip like the kids today an it jus came out the wrong way,” Chingy wrote, per HipHopDX. “I didn’t see it as being a racial slurr either my brother. I love you guys products always have and I hope you keep yurr job my man.”
In a later post, Chingy shared a video response to his name trending and reiterated that the meme, which featured Sesame Street characters in reference to COVID-19, didn’t bother him. He made it clear that while “everybody’s gossiping” about the meme and Demsey stepping down, he’s instead been spending some one-on-one time with his daughter.
“I just got off a military tour and now guess what I’m doing. I’m hanging out with my daughter while everybody around the world has my name in they mouth,” Chingy said. “I wanna say peace and love to John Demsey. Peace and love to that brother. I didn’t take it no certain type of way.”
Despite Chingy himself having other things to attend to, Estée Lauder released a statement about the controversial meme shortly after it was posted, writing that it doesn’t “reflect the values of The Estée Lauder Companies.”
“This decision is the result of his recent Instagram posts, which do not reflect the values of The Estée Lauder Companies, have caused widespread offense, are damaging to our efforts to drive inclusivity both inside and outside our walls, and do not reflect the judgment we expect of our leaders,” the statement said. “Our employees, and especially our senior leaders, are accountable to continue driving our progress and to respect the values of this company for the long term.”
