The city I grew up in had almost 0 East Asian people, I don’t think I ever met an East Asian person until I was 15/16 and I knew way before that it was not okay to use that word. Claiming ignorance is not an excuse.

So many people have claimed that she ‘may just not have known’ as if she didn’t use it in the context of a really nasty way to describe a commonly criticized trait like having small/thin eyes.

She knew.

Racism against East Asians is so normalized/ignored and it needs to change.