‘The X Factor’ UK winner James Arthur ‘quits’ Twitter after MC Worthless rap battle controversy
In what has been a tumultuous past few days, James Arthur has seen his image take a nosedive among many fans out there; not only are the media after him, but even one of his former contestants on “The X Factor” UK has criticized him. But why? It all stems from a comment that he made during a rap battle with MC Worthless recently, where he referred to him using what many feel to be a derogatory and homophobic slur after being dissed for being manipulated by a record label after winning the singing competition
Arthur tried to clean things up a little bit in a series of posts on Twitter earlier today, where he claimed that he was not using the term in a homophobic context and apologized to anyone he offended:
“Any offence I have caused by using the term ‘queer’ in my rap battle with MC Worthless would just like to make it completely clear that it was not meant in anyway as a reference to homosexuality. I realise where the term has come from in meaning. but used in the context of the rap battles I have grown up with it has come to mean something completely different. That said, I understand why it could cause offence and that definitely wasn’t my intention.”
So can James be forgiven with his explanation in mind? It’s still a tough pill to swallow. We understand via the whole nature vs. nurture debate that there are some words that you grow up with that at one point in your life you find to be socially acceptable; however, somewhere along the way, yo tend to learn that it is probably not a good idea to say that. James is 25 years old; he’s not some teenager learning the ropes of life. He also has a team of people around him that should have helped him when it comes to being careful of what words are dangerous to say and could be perceived as offensive.
In the end, there is a little something known as the intentional fallacy, which suggests that it is a false argument when looking at a statement to judge based on intent. Therefore, what Arthur may have intended is less important to what the response to the comment ended up being. We’ve been a huge supporter of James over the past year, and even went as far as to say that he was our favorite “X Factor” winner ever based on the quality of his performances. But this incident has caused him to take a serious hit in our book, and even if he did not mean any bigotry, it is still sad that he did not have the foresight to see how this would be perceived.
James announced later in the day that he is quitting Twitter, and all comments from his page here on out will be made by his team.
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Photo: ITV