Doja Cat has finally addressed the internet chatter stemming from her controversial selfie in October in which she wore a t-shirt featuring Sam Hyde, a comedian who has been linked to alt-right extremism.
In a recent sit down with Ebro Darden for Apple Music, the “Say So” hitmaker says she’s not very political and was unaware of Hyde’s alt-right connections.
“First of all, I’m not a political person at all,” Doja said. “I feel like when it comes to that sort of thing, I have to back the f— away. Politics are not something that I wanna sweep into my life. I just want creativity and joy and just sort of the immediate reality of my friends, my family and my music and whatever. You can’t know everything and me wearing a t-shirt of somebody who I thought was funny is ‘an attack on people’? It’s not an attack. It didn’t affect the world in a way where we now have to look behind our backs. We don’t.”
“And I know that,” she continued. “And me saying that right now, I’m going to get a lot of responses of, ‘Yes it did! It’s going to change everything!’ I also think that I’m way too f—— famous. 100 percent. I’m doing what I can slowly but surely to separate myself from this kind of narrative or whatever this world is that I kind of built. And I’m fine tuning it and tailoring it to what I want out of it. I feel like it doesn’t matter what you say, it doesn’t matter what some people know.
“Because there’s fans that I have that know I don’t put any involvement into whatever the f— that negative s— was. I am more just: funny guy on t-shirt, wore it that day. But I don’t need to explain myself. I don’t need to prove myself to a bunch of people who are just gonna project no matter what I say, too. There’s people who are incredibly dogmatic. It doesn’t matter what the f— you do, what you say, they’re always going to stand by, ‘That person’s evil.’”
Originally posted to her account in October, Doja initially removed the picture after the post was swarmed with a slew of negative comments. She then cropped Hyde’s face out of the image and reposted it but the damage was done.
Hyde and his Million Dollar Extreme comedy troupe are well known for their controversial and offensive humor. In the past, the comedian has come under fire for a number of things including being photographed giving the Nazi salute, having swastikas prominently featured while performing, and donating money to the alt-right website, The Daily Stormer.