Victoria’s Secret Model Sara Sampaio Exposed As Racist, Suggests Instagram User Kill Themselves
Emotions have been running high of late, and understandably so in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in yet another case of a police brutality related death. While regular folks from all walks of life took to the streets in protest, the backlash was not just isolated to those of us not in the spotlight. Countless celebrities and others with similarly large social media followings have used their platforms to amplify the message of the masses.
With that amplification, however, has come consequences for some celebrities who are still confined to their lavish homes due to the quick, worldwide spread of Covid-19 and the stay-at-home orders that followed. These celebs, who have become accustomed to having a PR at their side to green-light their social media posts have been left to fend for themselves as talent agencies are (quite obviously) non-essential businesses and thus their employees have also been sent home. One of the first notable names to slip up was NASCAR driver Kyle Larson, who was suspended indefinitely from the sport after saying a racial slur during a virtual race online, which was heard on a live stream of another driver, along with everyone else participating in the event.
Victoria’s Secret model Sara Sampaio has become the latest victim of succumbing to an inability to keep her cool online. In two posts, one posted Saturday and the other posted Sunday, Sampaio made a slew of extremely inappropriate comments, the worst of which included claiming only white people could be racist, and another quite sickening comment where she suggested a user drink bleach.
The first incident unfolded under a comment that under any circumstance is non-inflammatory, especially on social media where conversations can devolve into verbal warfare. I tried scanning through other comments on the post but was unable to tell if the comment Sara was responding to was in response to a comment by another user and they just did not know how the reply functionality works on Instagram, or if this was a one-off statement the user was making in response to all of the posts Sampaio had been posting throughout the week about police brutality in the USA. Whatever the case, the comment is that is highly concerning, especially for those of us in minorities communities that aren’t African-American. There has been a dangerous trend out of the younger generation which includes a complete disregard for the voices of other racial groups that have not been as vocal as the African-American community when it comes to voicing public concern and outrage for events that transpire in their communities. As a 2nd-generation Asian-American, this attitude saddens me, as I know all too well how untrue that mindset is, and have witnessed firsthand racism from just about every racial group towards just about every other racial group. I can only speak for my own race, but as an Asian woman whose social circle is made up predominantly of other Asian-Americans, the racism I’ve experienced at the hands of others, a large concentration of which have come from African-Americans, had and continues to have a negative effect on my mental health. It is very draining emotionally to be put down for something you can not control, and the fact that Sampaio willingly disregards this because it’s not “trendy” to talk about, like the viral #blacklivesmatter movement that large swaths of influencers have made sure to flock to, is concerning to say the least.
The second incident occurred the following day on a separate, new post to the model’s Instagram page. The reply, which was made to a comment that is visibly more inflammatory than the first, encourages a user to commit suicide by drinking Clorox bleach. Her reply appears as if it could be an attempted reference to the dangerous trend of 2018/2019 in which people were “trolled” into consuming detergent-filled Tide Pods. Comments like this are made even more dangerous considering the recent events surrounding staving off the coronavirus, in which users on social media have been hinting that drinking bleach was a legitimate way to cure yourself. We live in a world where comments like these are often tossed aside without a care as users who “stan” these celebs claim it’s a clear joke, or that the celebrity is “just trolling”. The problem is that suicide is a real problem in the United States, and a very serious one at that as the suicide rate has climbed 35% since 1999. Regardless of context and whether she actually wanted the user to commit suicide or not, Sampaio has almost 8 million followers on Instagram, a lot of which are impressionable youths, and recommending someone commit suicide openly on a platform where all 8 million of those followers can see it is both inappropriate and irresponsible.
(If you or anyone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please contact National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at: 1–800–273–8255 )
Sampaio, who just purchased 635 N Fuller Ave., a newly-constructed home in Los Angeles, for $4 million last year to go along with her $3.5 million New York City apartment is clearly well out of her depth when it comes to interacting online in a responsible manner. As they sit comfortably at home in their lavish mansions, hidden away from us regular people, the disconnect between the haves and the have-nots becomes ever clearer. Sampaio, in what she probably thought was a righteous fight by herself to stand up for racial equality, merely magnified yet another issue that persists in the United States. Perhaps a silver-lining of the coronavirus will be flushing out some of these bad actors (no pun intended) as they show their true selves as a result of having no handlers to keep their images squeaky clean.
We have reached out to Sara’s modeling agency, The Lions Model Management, and talent agency, Brave Artists Management, as well as her sponsors Victoria’s Secret and Giorgio Armani for comments on Sara Sampaio’s racist and suicide-encouraging messages. We will update the article with responses we receive from any of these companies.
