YouTuber Sarah Stevenson under fire for ‘racist’ comment about her son’s school lunch
A top Australian wellness influencer has been branded a “racist” for an innocent comment about her son’s school lunch.
Health and fitness YouTuber Sarah Stevenson, known to her millions of followers as Sarah’s Day, filmed herself making curried eggs to put in her son’s sandwich.
The 31-year-old vlogger said her son would be “the smelly kid on the playground” if he brought food to school.
“Do you want to be the ‘smelly curry egg guy’?” She asked him.
While the comment went unnoticed by most of his followers, it was so offensive to one person that he demanded a public apology from Stevenson for his “almost racist” words.
Instead, the businesswoman and mother of two responded to the private message in a video to her followers explaining that she was referring to the “egg smell.”
“Didn’t everyone go to school with someone who brought eggs for lunch and you’re like, ‘ew, you smell like rotten eggs’… not ‘you smell like curry!’” she said in the video on her Instagram. Stories.
She joked: “I’m being racist about eggs.”
Stevenson then doubled down on fans’ outrage and followed up with a cooking tutorial for “racist eggs.”
She also joked about being dyslexic, but said she was “fine” because her husband has this learning disorder.
“We’re allowed to make jokes about it. Not really… I’m digging myself a hole here.”
The overnight social media saga was shared again by the official Outspoken The Podcast account, where it was dubbed “the egg gate” and many more people chimed in.
“He should have apologized and deleted it, instead he made it worse,” one commenter wrote.
“I totally thought he was talking about egg farts,” wrote another.
The general consensus of the public was that the original accusation of racism “was a definite reach,” but she went too far with her explanation.
“Honestly, I don’t think there was any malice in the original comment; it was definitely rushed (ha!), although it was overly apologetic in explaining itself afterwards,” someone wrote.
“People will take any opportunity to point fingers, but this time, I actually think it was just a true comment about eggs stinking.”
During his ‘tutorial’, Stevenson vented about the reaction to his ‘racist’ comment.
“That’s why it’s so hard to joke and make jokes, because there’s always one person,” he said.
“Guys, I married a beautiful man and he is dyslexic and I think eggs smell bad, but I still love them. Does that mean I’m racist against them? Maybe?”
Still mashing the eggs, he let out a sigh and said “oh man.”
He went on to explain that being an ‘influencer’ meant having to decide whether to “be yourself and go with the flow and… have a little fun with smelly eggs” or be “really politically correct and let the people please.”
“It’s a very fine line. It’s a very fine line,” she concluded.
It is not the first time that Sarah’s Day has caused a controversial stir among its followers.
In March of this year, she was branded “out of touch” after sharing that she and her husband Kurt Tilse had bought a second home to film sponsored content.
In 2020, the influencer has been accused of cultural appropriation on two occasions: first in June when she wore her hair in colorful boxer braids for a promotional campaign for White Fox Boutique; then again, months later, after buying her partner a didgeridoo for Father’s Day.
