This week, furious fans have called out Kailyn Lowry over appalling racist comments that she made on Teen Mom 2.
Fans are calling for her to be fired, and Kail has responded by … deleting her Twitter and fleeing from social media.

Kailyn Lowry’s fans are seeing her in a new light after a resurfaced clip made the rounds on social media.
“When he goes over [to your house], you have him dress a certain way, you have him look a certain way,” Kail berated Jo Rivera.
Jo is her ex and, of course, the father of Isaac.

Kail accused him: “you have his hair cut a certain way, and that’s not who he is.”
“I think you forget about the fact that he’s half-white and he’s half-Hispanic,” Kailyn lectured Jo.
“Like, I feel like you dress him [in] a stereotypical way,” she complained, “and I don’t like it. …”

Jo balked at that, saying that he did not understand “what your description of how I dress him is.”
That’s when Kailyn snapped back at him, accusing: “You dress him like a thug!”
“What is going to be done about this?” a fan asks on social media.

The same fan continues: “Kail should be fired like the rest of the cast who has made racist remarks!”
“I’ve been talking about this clip for yeeears now!!!” another exclaimed.
Kail is not the first public figure whose prior bad behavior is coming back to haunt her. Finally, people are listening to what a few have been saying.

Briana DeJesus, Kail’s castmate and longtime rival, also commented.
“WTF did I just watch. SMH,” she expressed after seeing Kail’s video.
These weren’t even comments caught on a hot mic, though that would not have been an excuse, either.

Kailyn is a reality star. She knew perfectly well that she was having the conversation on camera.
The 28-year-old Delaware native was clearly in no mood to discuss her wrongdoings.
She deleted her Twitter.

There are ways to simply filter which replies to tweets you might see, but she opted for the “nuclear option.”
That was not the end of the criticisms against her, however.
A lot of Teen Mom 2 fans have been saying these things for years, but without anyone paying attention.

In addition to her calling her own son a “thug” for his haircut, they spoke about Kail’s history of domestic violence.
Another old clip shows Kailyn admitting to “smacking” Javi in the face.
Domestic violence is unacceptable from any perpetrator, so this clip is only increasing the demand that MTV fire her.

Some of Kail’s most ardent defenders have unwisely spoken up.
They have asked how Kailyn could be racist if she has children and partners of multiple races.
Well, multiracial partners and children do not mean that someone cannot be racist.

Racism is so much more than a belief in one’s superiority.
It is a complex system of marginalization.
And yes, calling her own child a “thug” after his latine father styles him is absolutely engaging in racism.

The word “thug” is most often used as a racist dogwhistle these days. And honestly, in 2020, it’s more like a regular whistle.
Everyone knows what people mean when they say this, and they are most often referring to men of color.
Whether Kail was consciously doing this is moot — as a mother of biracial sons, she should be more passionate than anyone about opposing racism.

Kailyn could have phrased her issues with Jo so differently if she had chosen to.
For example, it is very fair that parents of young children coordinate questions of clothing and especially haircuts.
Unilateral haircut decisions are not compatible with healthy co-parenting strategies.

But the worry is that Kail’s issue wasn’t a matter of phrasing, but reflective of how she thinks.
Kailyn is now once again preparing to give birth to a young man of color.
While she is clearly not repulsed by black and latino men, her sexual habits do not mean that she is not racist.

In fact, some deeply racist white people fetishize men of color and pursue sex with them while disliking everything else about them.
We hope that we do not have to spell out the horrific ways in which this toxic behavior dates back to the time of slavery.
Will Kailyn be fired? That’s up to MTV and possibly to Kail herself.
Should she be fired? We really don’t know. I, a white person, am not in a position to dole out forgiveness or decree that she has changed.
But whether she continues as a reality star or not, we can all hope that Kailyn learns and grows from this overdue callout.
As we said, she owes it to her sons to not only not be racist, but to be actively and passionately anti-racist.