Influencer Sparks Outrage with ‘Corona Time’ Video at Nail Salon on TikTok
By Ryan General
A popular YouTuber is taking some heat for her recent TikTok video in which she apparently ridiculed a nail salon worker.
Nicola DeMartino, popularly known as Niki DeMar, visited a nail salon with a friend and created a video that also captured the woman doing their nails.
In the clip posted on TikTok, DeMartino, her friend and the nail salon worker are all shown wearing masks. As the song “It’s Corona Time” by Red Knight played, the camera panned to the nail salon employee while she worked.
After uploading the clip on Twitter, DeMartino immediately received backlash from users who pointed out how problematic it was.
Some criticized the 24-year-old influencer for going out during the pandemic amid calls by health experts for social distancing.
Many also found the video content to be insensitive, considering the woman doing her nails is of Asian descent.
According to commenters, her video potentially perpetuated many of the racist sentiments against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Here’s a reminder: You don’t need to get your nails done during a pandemic, you don’t need to post a racist video of the person doing your nails, and you need to do research to educate yourself on this virus to keep yourself and everyone safe,” one Twitter user reacted.
While DeMartino has taken the video down from her social media accounts, a screen recording of the clip remains circulating online.
In a series of tweets, she acknowledged how her post can be problematic but defended that offending others was not her intention to begin with.
DeMartino began her YouTube career in 2010 with her twin sister Gabi and their older sister Alex DeMartino on their channel “00RemakeGirls.” She currently runs her own channel, “Niki DeMar,” alongside her joint channel with her twin sister, Gabi, “Niki and Gabi.”
She has since apologized with a YouTube video uploaded on Wednesday, “addressing the tik tok”:
Feature Image via @nikidemar
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