SISTAR’s Hyolyn Responds To Criticism Over Singing Along To Racial Slur

People’s reaction did not play out predictably.
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Serah S. Cherrie
Serah S. Cherrie

SISTAR member Hyloyn has issued an apology after she was caught mouthing a racial slur recently.

xhyolynx
Hyolyn | @xhyolynx/Instagram

On February 15, KST, the singer posted a collection of pictures and videos of her on vacation with her friend and style director GANi.

She also shared a video clip on her Instagram story, where she could be seen singing along to a Doja Cat song while enjoying herself on a boat. The song contained the N-word in its lyrics, and Hyolyn clearly mouthed the word while rapping along with Doja.

All of them b*tches hating I have you with meAll of my n*ggas saying you mad committedRealer than anybody you had, and prettyAll of that body-ody, the a*s and t*tties

— Doja Cat, “Say So”

The N-word is an ethnic, racial slur used against Black people which traces its roots back to slavery. While many African-Americans use the word as a way of reclaiming power over the language, it is widely agreed upon that a non-Black person saying it is inappropriate, to say the least.

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NAACP Official Position on the Use of the Word “N**ger” and the “N” Word | NAACP

Hyolyn’s video caused immediate backlash from fans and ordinary netizens, so much so that the singer ended up removing it from her Stories. She also turned off the comments on her recent post, upsetting fans even more, who wanted her to take accountability.

The singer responded to the criticism just a day later. On February 16, she took to X (formerly Twitter) to apologize for her actions.

Hello everyone, this is HYOLYN.

Yesterday, while singing along to a song that was playing in the background, I carelessly uttered a charged word with significant cultural and historical implications. I am deeply regretful and heartbroken to have hurt so many of you by my ignorance. I am sincerely sorry.

Please know that I love you all very much, and I thank you for keeping me accountable for my actions. I hope you will be there in my journey to educate myself more on cultures beyond my own, to grow not only as an artist but as a person.

Thank you again for all your love and support.

— Hyolyn

While some appreciated her owning up to the mistake, the overall response to her apology appeared to be lukewarm, with many pointing out that she has had more than a decade-long career working with Black people to not know better by now.

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