I love Lizzo, you love Lizzo, the whole world loves Lizzo.
She’s not afraid to be herself 110% of the time and speaks her mind 120% of the time.
While people – myself included – normally love Lizzo’s ability to keep things real, a recent tweet by the rap queen has fans – yes, myself included – a little conflicted.
Lizzo took to Twitter to call out a Postmates driver for stealing her food delivery.
“Hey @Postmates this girl Tiffany W. stole my food. she lucky I don’t fight no more,” Lizzo wrote in a since deleted tweet.
Postmates responded to Lizzo, asking her to DM them and apologised for the “less than satisfactory experience.”
On face value, this is fair enough – I’d be damn peeved too if someone stole the food I was waiting for. I would probably complain about it to anyone who would listen. And yes, if it was an especially bad day, I would probably file a formal complaint.
But not everyone on Twitter felt the same way, calling Lizzo a “snitch” for ratting out Tiffany W. to Postmates.
“Snitches get stitches,” one follower tweeted.
“Jesus. This poor girl is going to get fired and then hunted down. Come on, Lizzo,” wrote another.
“So you’ve publicly shamed someone who works in the service industry… you’ve nearly a million twitter followers… and you’ve now DMd their employer who will likely sack the individual you shamed publicly after accusing her of theft when you don’t actually know what happened…,” tweeted another.
These reactions feel a little full on for what was just a salty tweet about a lost food delivery. But, after pausing to think about it, I actually understand why people are so annoyed: Lizzo’s tweet raises a lot of questions about celebrity status and the use of social media as a platform.
Even though celebs are just normal people, their fame comes with an inherent responsibility whether we/they like it or not. The things they say and do have more sway, therefore they’re more likely to be held accountable for those things.
Where a normal person could tweet about a crappy delivery service and receive little to no response, celebrities don’t have the same luxury. Lizzo’s tweets have the ability to do a lot more damage than if she wasn’t, well, Lizzo. Her public shaming of Tiffany shows a lack of awareness and understanding on her part.
But – and this is a pretty big but – it would be unfair for us to expect celebs to be perfect all the time. Like I said, they’re just normal people. And normal people make mistakes.
The important thing is that they show a willingness to learn which is exactly what Lizzo did in the wake of this whole Postmates saga.
“Imma really be more responsible with my use of social media and check my petty and my pride at the door. ”
Can I get “check my petty and my pride” printed on a t-shirt?
