Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson has apologized to fans after they called her out for using a “ghetto” accent in a recent TikTok Live session. In the original video, Alana, 17, began using the accent after fans told her she speaks like she has one. “You know what? I’mma actually start talking like this,” she said in the problematic clip while purposely loosely pronouncing her words. “Cause y’all think I’m so ghetto.”
with my eyes closed you couldn’t convince me that this isn’t a BW
— Milan Blanco🥢 (@MARINEXTD00R) March 21, 2023
In her apology, which was posted to her Instagram Story on March 26, she wrote that she was not “attempting to offend anyone.” The Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alum explained: “I did this because people frequently comment on how ‘ghetto’ my speech is. Which i feel in no way i do! i feel like i am my own true self and if you don’t like it you simply don’t have to comment on it! i basically did this to troll everyone back that swears i’m trying to be something i’m not!”
“if in any way i did disrespect anyone i apologize,” Alana continued. “i never meant for it to come off like that.” Her full apology can be read here.
Before the apology came, critics said Alana was appropriating Black people by using the so-called “ghetto” accent. “with my eyes closed you couldn’t convince me that this isn’t a [Black woman],” one Twitter user said alongside a clip of the above video. “Honey boo boo showed her true colors in this viral video! If you can make fun of what ‘ghetto’ is to you in an impersonation, YOU’RE LOWKEY RACIST. Stop playin in our faces. These are the people that only act not racist to ‘fit in’!” another person slammed.
This isn’t the first time the TLC star has stirred up headlines this month. It was revealed on March 1 that Alana was involved in a car chase with police in Monroe County, Ga. after her boyfriend of two years, Dralin Carswell, 21, fled police when they tried to stop him. He was eventually arrested for DUI, fleeing police, speeding, and more. He also had an outstanding warrant. Alana was not charged and was listed as a witness. Another male passenger named Julian Malik Divon Williams, however, was reportedly also arrested.
honeybooboo has a boyfriend!!! cuffing season has arrived!! pic.twitter.com/d0Yi3U56S7
— miss? pig?? 😮💨 (@NeeeenBean) September 28, 2021
Alana let her fans know she was seeing Dralin in a Jan. 2021 Q&A session on Instagram. The pair went Instagram official in September of that same year. In an interview published in Aug. 2021, she admitted that Dralin is one of her only friends. “To be honest, I do not have many friends. At all,” she told Teen Vogue. “Because I feel like folks are so much like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m friends with Honey Boo Boo.’ I don’t trust nobody really, so I don’t have friends.”