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A TikTok influencer is facing backlash over her comments about wanting to live in a "sundown town."
In a now-deleted video, Madeline Argy, a British social media influencer, said she used to tell people that she wanted to live in a "sundown town" when she was older without knowing what the term meant.
“I told, like, 100 people that I want to live in a sundown town when I grow up because I didn’t know what the f*ck that was. I thought that they were, like, the tiny little American towns like Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls or, like, from Paper Towns, when it’s, like, it doesn’t exist on a map for some reason,” Argy said in a TikTok video. “Like the cute American towns where there’s, like, literally 20 people and they all drive pickup trucks, that’s what I thought a sundown town was.”
Sundown towns are known as "all-white areas in the United States that practice racial segregation by excluding non-white people via discriminatory policies, violence, or intimidation. Some of these towns historically had signs that told non-white people to leave before sundown," per Centennial.
In an apology, Argy doubled down on her claim that she had no idea what sundown towns were. She noted that she had been saying it “to other European people who don’t know what they are."
“Guys I want to apologize for the Sundown town post before that gets to any more ears than it already has without like, me being able to say sorry,” she said in a TikTok video. “I had been saying for years, that like, Sundown towns look like a really nice place to live because I did not know what they were. So I was trying to poke fun at myself for that.”
Despite deleting the original video and apologizing, social media users slammed Argy over her comments.
“Who the f*ck is she talking to that made sundown town sound idyllic? That’s problem number one,” one TikTok user said. “Problem number two is people using words and phrases when they don’t know what the f*ck it means. Because when you say sh*t like that, you say something not knowing what it means and it’s actually really offensive, the person who receives it, is offended, is expected to just let all of the offense wash right over them.”
See more reactions to Argy's video below.
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