Teen Mom OG star Mackenzie McKee has caused quite the controversy due to her ignorant comments about Vice President Kamala Harris online and during Tuesday’s reunion episode. Back in January, after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, McKee took to Facebook to share her disagreement over Harris, the first female Vice President of the United States, being seen as a role model and used offensive language to do so. “Sorry, no. There are a lot of amazing women in the world for my daughters to look up to and see as role models. Kamala Harris is not one of them,” McKee wrote. “It blows my mind that out of all the amazing colored women in the world, that is the one who is making history.”
Following the backlash over her remarks, McKee took to Twitter and said “Growth is being called out and learning from my mistake, even if I meant no harm versus making excuses for myself and justifying it.” Additionally, in Tuesday’s reunion episode, McKee admitted that she “would have never, ever used that word if I knew it was derogatory.” MTV also included a conversation that McKee had with Arisha Hatch, the vice president of Color of Change, an organization that focuses on civil rights advocacy. Hatch educated McKee on the dark history of the terminology, explaining that the word “colored” is offensive because of it serves as a reminder of when Black individuals were seen as “less than human,” especially during the Jim Crow era.
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Fans of Teen Mom OG are still calling for additional repercussions for McKee’s behavior, and there are some who believe that she should ultimately be fired. At this point, MTV has not made that decision. McKee took to Instagram live on April 24 to “share the facts.”[MTV] didn’t want to squash it right then and there because they wanted it to be part of the show, and this is what you will see next Tuesday,” McKee claimed.
McKee ended up ranting about “cancel” culture” and claimed that MTV “wanted to train her” after her racist remarks. When McKee tried to publicly apologize to Cheyenne Floyd, the only black woman on Teen Mom OG, Floyd understandably wasn’t having it. “I have no sympathy for you,” Floyd replied. “Welcome to day one of being uncomfortable because of the color of your skin.” McKee also didn’t seem to understand that merely apologizing on social media was insufficient. “I kept hanging up the phone on the lawyer, on my manager, on everybody … I’m like, ‘why can’t I get on social media and say sorry?” she wondered.
Ultimately, McKee was forced to remove the video from Instagram, and fans are left wondering if she will continue to be a cast member of Teen Mom OG. She certainly hasn’t done herself any favors in how she handled the scandal. Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by ViacomCBS Streaming, a division of ViacomCBS.
