As celebrities continue to grapple with the explosion of SJW culture into the mainstream – all of a sudden, wealthy white celebrities are talking about ‘colonizers’ and the ‘erasure’ of indigenous cultures – their awkward embrace of international struggle against oppression has led to a handful of accidental controversies.
On Tuesday, the BBC reported on a ‘scandal’ involving British-Albanian pop singer Dua Lipa. Lipa, who occasionally tweets about her Albanian ‘heritage’, shared a map of ‘Greater Albania’ – an ultra-nationalist vision of a new Albanian state encompassing territory belonging to Albania’s neighbors that is occupied by mostly ethnic Albanians. Kosovo is perhaps the most glaring example. Having declared independence from Serbia in 2008, Serbia, Russia and their geopolitical allies still refuse to recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
Lipa’s tweet included a definition of the word “autochthonous” – pronounced ah-tak-then-us – not exactly a common component of the popular lexicon. Its essentially a fancy synonym for “indigenous”.
Albanians believe their claim to the land in and around Albania dates back centuries to long before the Serbs arrived in the region.
According to the BBC, Lipa was accused of supporting Albanian expansionism after posting the map which forms part of hard-line nationalist dreams of creating a Greater Albania encompassing all ethnic Albanians. Taken a certain way, one could argue that this nationalist ‘dream’ is vaguely reminiscent of Hitler’s justification for invading Poland and the Sudetenland – that German-speaking peoples were in danger.
Some on twitter accused Lipa of being a “fascist” and even trotted out the hashtag #CancelDuaLipa. However, considering that most Americans probably don’t even know what Kosovo is (older Americans might remember the NATO bombing campaign, but that’s about it), we doubt Ms. Lipa will experience any lasting financial backlash over the controversy. We wouldn’t be surprised to learn that her ‘critics’ are pro-Serbian bots, although plenty of sympathizers chimed in as well.
