Rachel Accurso, known as Ms. Rachel
Ms. Rachel slams Ed Sheeran over Macklemore row
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- Ms. Rachel accused Sheeran of "caving" to critics and argued that treating some children's deaths as less newsworthy than others is racist.
- She cited figures on Palestinian child casualties, malnutrition, amputations, and children who have lost parents, and called for public advocacy.
Children’s education creator Ms. Rachel criticized singer Ed Sheeran in two Instagram posts Monday after Macklemore was dropped as the opening act for Sheeran’s tour.
In her first post, Ms. Rachel argued that Sheeran had missed a chance to stand firm against pressure. "Ed Sheeran had an opportunity show that we won't be bullied into punishing people for supporting Palestine," she wrote.
She went on to accuse him of backing down: "Instead, he caved to people who refuse to accept what the world knows."
She then turned to the broader situation in the region. "A genocide is happening in Gaza. We all need to speak out against it," she wrote, before drawing a comparison she said exposed a double standard: "If more than 20,000 white children were killed in another part of the world, everyone would be shouting about it at their concerts."
Ms. Rachel tied that comparison directly to accusations of racism, writing that "treating some children's lives as less worthy of outrage is racist." She closed the post by rejecting the idea that staying quiet is a neutral position: "Silence during a genocide is not neutral."
In a follow-up post, Ms. Rachel pressed the issue further, asking Sheeran to consider how his decision might look with the benefit of hindsight. "Imagine looking back 20 years from now at yourself kicking someone off a tour because they spoke out during a genocide that has killed over 20,000 kids," she wrote.
She then described conditions for children in Gaza in stark terms, saying Palestinian children are "still being killed, have had almost all of their homes, schools and hospitals bombed, live in tents without proper sanitation among rats." She added that many are "dying of easily treatable diseases, malnourished, the highest number of child amputees in modern history, 58,000 have lost one or both parents."
Ms. Rachel called for greater public attention to the crisis, writing in capital letters that "THEY NEED OUR VOICES, their human rights are being violated, and they are KIDS," and adding, "also free Palestine."
She ended the post defending her right to speak on the issue: "It's not wrong to say Palestinian kids should be able to grow up and Palestinian people should be able to be free. It's wrong to be silent during a genocide."
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The Macklemore controversy
The posts follow the removal of rapper Macklemore from the remainder of Ed Sheeran's US Loop Tour. According to Rolling Stone and Variety, Macklemore made pro-Palestinian remarks on stage during a Sep. 4 show at MetLife Stadium, including a "free Palestine" statement and a speech telling the audience in Gaza and the West Bank that they had not been forgotten.
Messina Touring Group, the tour's promoter, said in a statement that venues on the remaining US dates had indicated they would not host a show with Macklemore on the bill, which threatened to cancel the tour and affect hundreds of thousands of fans.
As a result, Macklemore was dropped from the remaining support dates.
Read more: Ms. Rachel slams celebrity silence over Gaza
