Example #100909238 of social media influencers putting their foot in their mouth. If they don’t want views to tank and people to judge their every word, they have to stay squeaky clean on online communities. One Missouri influencer wanted to punch down at homeless folk. Her hateful rhetoric had social media coming after her, and she tried to backtrack and apologize. Unfortunately, the internet doesn’t forget and will immortalize your bigotry.
TikTok influencer Devin captured and shared another influencer’s sad excuse for an apology, one who has links to TikTok, Instagram, and more. In Carla McCloud’s apology video, she claims homeless folk only come out “in the winter and Christmas,” for some strange reason. To abuse the goodwill of others, perhaps? Seems like an awful thing to assume for people whom the American system has failed. In Carla’s video, it pans over to a homeless man, whom Carla then mocks because people like him will say, “Give me money, I’m homeless.”
Carla then makes herself look even more evil as she says, “I don’t have feelings toward it. I don’t. No sympathy, none. Go get a job anywhere—McDonald’s, Walmart, a gas station,” which is just the kind of pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps I expect from She then claims that you will only see homeless people outside when it’s cold and that they “prey on people” for money. She ends by saying, “You’re cozy and comfy in the woods in the summer, I guess.”
In a follow-up video, Carla tries to defend herself while simultaneously fishing for sympathy. She tries to share a “gentle reminder” that everyone is “human” and makes mistakes. In a weird twist of events, she says the Devil takes over and you can’t always be as “Christian as you want to be.”
“People seem to forget that it’s super hard to get a job when you don’t have a phone number, email address, or actual address. Also when you don’t have access to technology to submit job applications, or clothing to wear to the interview or work itself,” one person said, calling out Carla’s lack of humanity.
“This is painful to listen to. My heart literally hurts listening to so much evil,” said another. How does an influencer, who claims to love God, act less than Jesus himself? There’s something very gross about using hateful rhetoric against homeless people to boost your profile. Carla even admits she’s just fishing for things that will help her go viral. At what cost?
