Steve Lacy was the topic of the latest Twitter discourse this week after the R&B singer replied to a comment on one of his Instagram posts, mentioning Coronavirus. Steve shared some photos of himself and his entourage dressing him with the caption, "love my team." A fan commented telling Steve, "bro we need asia tour," to which Steve responded, "and yall need a coronavirus vaccine that's what y'all need."
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The comment about the deadly virus, of which, according to Complex, more than 20,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide and from which 400 people have died in China alone, was not received well by some. Despite the panic surrounding what appears to be an epidemic, many pointed out that Steve was ignorant for not only fuelling the fire of what many believe to be unnecessary fear surrounding Coronavirus, but also for encouraging xenophobia by implying the racist notion that all Asian people are infected with the disease.
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However, others felt that the outrage was unnecessary, including Steve himself. He posted a screenshot of the original commenter telling everyone to "chill" on his Instagram story, which he has since deleted. Steve agreed with the sentiment, captioning the story, "literally," and tagging the commenter. Some fans felt that people were being too sensitive, and others pointed out the hypocrisy in attempting to cancel Steve for making a joke about Coronavirus, which plenty of Twitter users have been doing since the outbreak became common knowledge earlier this year.
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