By Louis Chan, AsAmNews National Correspondent
TikToker Joel Hansen thought he could have fun making references to pets while going through an Asian grocery store.
Instead he found himself apologizing and facing an uproar after being called out for his insensitivity and using antiquated stereotypes about Asian food and pets.
Hansen goes by the name of @modelvsfood. He went through an Asian store playing up what he consider oddities in the food 60 percent of the world’s population eats.
He got busted by fellow TikToker @chachamyeonmikal who called out Hansen for pulling his bit on Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month.
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Hansen has since pulled down his video, but not before @chachamyeonmikal grabbed it for posterity, say the timing couldn’t have been worse: “During a time when anti-Asian hate crimes are at an all time high due to racist connotations of what Asian people eat,” @chachamyeonmikal said.
Hansen says he takes full responsibility for what he did.
It was “marketed for shock value and with my layers of privilege I did not identify how this video was at its creation.”
“I cannot change the past, but I can change the future. I will do better,” he wrote.
His apology at the time of this writing has generated 1600 likes.
That pales in comparison to the 178,000 likes @chachamyeonmikal has received condemning Hansen for his action.
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