Over the past few weeks, anyone who is even minimally chronically online has noticed the heightened downfall of the YouTuber Colleen Ballinger — otherwise known as the former online persona Miranda Sings. The entire event occurred over the span of a few weeks, when many of her former fans, friends, and even co-workers, exposed the influencer of her inappropriate actions toward underage fans for years.
From downright inappropriate sexual innuendos on stage to risque and ill-suited messages toward younger fans, Ballinger quickly joined the list of controversial YouTubers, who somehow cannot seem to grasp the idea of being wrong. Since her ultimate demise, each passing day a new video, message, or picture of Ballinger seems to resurface, proving just how problematic she truly is. This time, it was a video of Ballinger performing Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” on stage, supposedly in Blackface. Surprisingly, it may not be exactly as it seems.
Did Colleen Ballinger do Blackface?
While I don’t necessarily wish to play the devil’s advocate in this instance, saying that Ballinger is doing Blackface might just be factually incorrect. In reality, many fans on Reddit seem to believe that the video allegedly hailed from part of the YouTuber’s stint on stage surrounding her performance of “Defying Gravity,” as Elphaba, the protagonist from the popular musical Wicked. Others also brought up the fact that she put on fake dirt makeup to look muddy as part of her performance as Fantine from Lés Miserables.
Although the video may just be of Miranda Sings in green face paint, that does not exclude her bigoted behavior that was also exposed while on the set of Haters Back Off!, where the singer was accused of using inappropriate slurs against a crew member, as well as making racist jokes about a colleague on set. According to April Korto Quioh, Ballinger also refused to have Asian food on the set, showing that her racism isn’t limited to just one race, but instead, spreads to anyone or any culture that isn’t white and American.
At the moment, however, it is almost impossible to be sure of what exactly Ballinger was doing on stage, but online users seem to believe it would be highly unlikely that in 2018, the influencer would be proudly displaying and linking a video on her book showing her bigotry on stage. The video is also believed to be from 2011, although everyone appears to be having difficulties pinpointing the year of the performance and its purpose.
So far, neither Ballinger nor her representatives have come forward with an explanation.