Despite netizens asking for her punishment for racism, popular YouTuber and social media influencer, Wendy Cheng, also known as Xiaxue, remained unperturbed, thanking them instead for sending her to the No 1 position in Twitter trend across Singapore.
While she didn't apologize for her remarks, she said the tweets which were aimed at migrant workers were emotionally charged due to sexual abuse she faced during her teenage. On police request, she has since deleted those posts that were reported.
On July 6, Vignesh Sankar, a Singaporean of Indian origin filed a police complaint against her for inciting racial tension. Cheng, in her blog, acknowledged a visit by the police inquiring her about the social media posts that she made in 2010 and recently against Workers' Party candidate Raeesah Khan. An online petition on Change.org was also launched demanding punishment. She has also been criticized for her remarks on obesity in the past.
"By now, some of you may have seen that some idiots went to dig up 10-year-old tweets of mine and reported them to the police. And yes, it's true, the police came to my house yesterday and took my statement," she wrote in her blog.
A Victim of Sexual Abuse as A Minor
Initially, she wasn't bothered being called a 'racist' and rather agitated netizens thanking them for trending her on Twitter. "Harder, I've been a naughty girl. Trending number 1 on twitter? Thanks for fulfilling an attention whore's wishes!! I love this sexy tagline, I'm gonna print it on tshirts and mugs!!" the 36-year-old said.
However, when police asked her to remove those posts, she gave them a statement saying that those posts were emotionally motivated and a result of sexual assaults she faced as a minor.
"When I was a child and teenager, I was often sexually assaulted by members of this group. They grabbed my hands, one of them literally sat on my lap on the bus. All while I was in my school uniform, as a minor. I've encountered flashers in lifts, public masturbation more times than I can count, you name it," she said in her blog. "These tweets are but a very small slice of a much larger story. Not finding an excuse for my behavior. It is what it is. If you are still offended, I don't give a f—k."
Cheng said that she was speaking from trauma and even if they were not polite, they were real and she wouldn't apologize for that. "I was so angry. In my youth, nothing was done to protect young girls as these s--ts kept on happening to me and around me. My tweets were emotionally charged, but haven't you posted rude s--t before when you were angry? Once again, if you never experienced what I did, you have no right to tell me how to feel," she added.
Raeesah Khan Episode
Her comments were highlighted after WP's Sengkang candidate Raeesah Khan was reported for her social media comments on police bias for Chinese-Singaporeans and Christians. She also said that law and authorities were punishing the minorities. Cheng pointed out a post, Khan made on supporting the ideologies of Angela Davis, a self-proclaimed communist in the U.S. The Singaporean YouTuber didn't like a candidate with such extreme ideologies and Khan for targeting a particular group in the city-state.
"There are racial issues that minorities face in Singapore, of course, there is. It is tough to be a minority in any country. But instead of discussing calmly and logically what new politics can be introduced to solve these problems or what laws need to change, proponents of Identity politics instead try to make a single race the enemy," she said.
