Amber Liu issued a statement on social media late Sunday (Nov. 17) night after being called out for a comment she made about a recent viral video showing a black man harassed and handcuffed on a subway platform by white police officers for eating a sandwich.
“I am so sorry,” she wrote. “I saw a video clip, made an ignorant, snap judgement, and I majorly messed up.”
Amber’s name trended worldwide on Twitter for several hours after a clip featuring the K-pop star sharing her thoughts on the arrest incident via the Just Kidding News YouTube channel went viral.
“I think he deserved it,” Amber said in a now-deleted video from the channel. “He was being super disrespectful. You don’t have to act like that towards a police officer. A police officer is a police officer. You should still some type of respect. Know your rights, but show some type of respect.”
Show co-host Joe Jitsukawa responded to her pointing out that the black community in America has a history of tensions with police officers. “I think culturally we don’t understand what the black community goes through,” he said. He later took to Twitter to address the situation and defended Amber after calling out those attacking her, saying that his response in the clip to her, “Is a good example on how to have a discussion when someone might not know something.”
In her statement, Amber said: “It was my fault for not being more aware of how the systemic racism in the United States has continued and gotten worse while I spent the last 10 years overseas. I 100% do not stand for racism and discrimination. I 100% do not stand for racism and discrimination. It angers me that he was singled out because of the color of his skin. It is completely unjust and I am so sorry for not seeing the whole situation and jumping to a conclusion. I’m sorry for hurting you guys.
“I’ve always stood for equality, I’ve always stood for love, I believe in #BlackLivesMatter, and I’m so sorry I’ve negatively affected so many people because of my ignorance and I will continue to educate myself in this matter.”
She also responded to several comments on social media as people responded that she had to earn back trust regardless of the apology.
I do understand and I will do better. I’m sorry, I will do my best to earn back the trust from the community by learning more and I’m sorry for dissapointing you..
— Amber J. Liu 刘逸云 (@llama_ajol) 18 ноября 2019 г.