TikTok star Anna Schumate has addressed problematic comments she made on a burner account known to be her.
Earlier this week, the 18-year-old came under fire for liking racist and making racist comments on her secondary account, @b00nanuh. Amongst several offensive comments she allegedly liked, Anna reportedly wrote an anti-Semitic comment referencing how Jewish people were tortured during the Holocaust, writing, “I like my bacon how I like my Jews. Burnt and crispy.”
After mounting backlash, the teen has now addressed the controversy in a nine-part TikTok series. In part one, Anna starts by admitting to writing and liking racist comment, calling her behaviour “dark humour” but “unacceptable”.
“The ones that I liked and commented back to were very unacceptable and wrong in so many ways. And I’m here to say that I’m sorry to everyone that I have affected with that video and those comments,” she says.
Throughout the following videos, Anna attempts to share what she’s “learned” and how she’s been affected by the stories of those who have reached out to her from groups that she targeted. She maintains that she was “in no way was I trying to be malicious” and that she was “just trying to make a joke, but that’s no excuse whatsoever”.
She posted videos as well as resource links surrounding the issues she “joked” about, incluidng anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, anti-Asian hate crimes, suicide, self-harm, racism, women’s rights, and terrorism.
Despite posting on her main account, Anna’s apology attempt was met with mixed emotions. She took to Instagram stories to elaborate, writing, “No you don’t have to accept my apology I just wanted you all to listen to what I had to say. Once again I apologize for the statements I made and the commentsI liked it was very wrong for me to do and I’m so sorry.”
“To the people in my comment section or other comment sections stop calling other people sensitive/snowflakes because this is a very serious topic. I owned up to it because I know what I did was wrong, but to call people snowflakes because they have a problem with what I said is also wrong,” she added.
Anna’s secondary TikTok account has since been removed at the time of publication.