Zayn Defends Gigi Hadid Over Claims She Mocked Asian People & Fans Aren’t Having It

Zayn took to Twitter to defend girlfriend Gigi Hadid over accusations that she is racist against Asian people. The model is under fire for appearing to mock Asian features in a video (since deleted) posted by her sister Bella on Snapchat. Zayn, whose father is Pakistani and therefore is of South Asian descent, was asked for his take on the Hadid controversy. "Being of Asian descent, how do you feel about your girlfriend making fun of Asian people?" a commenter asked. Zayn clearly tried to keep his response light, though some could read that as being flippant. "Trust me... she likes Asians," the singer tweeted back, adding a winky face and a thumbs up emoji.

That didn't sit well with fans. "Dude, I love you so much, but come on," the original poster tweeted. "I know you're smarter than that." Others chimed in to accuse Zayn of "defending a racist act" and not taking the matter seriously.

"You seriously need to educate yourself for the sake of your career and your social standing," a fan tweeted. "You can't get away with this shit. I'm telling you this for your own sake bc it's 2017 and a time of peril for a lot of people and you can't afford to be ignorant... If you wanna be another celebrity that burns out bc they're so ignorant go ahead but you'd waste everything you worked for."

Others simply used GIFs to convey their disapproval.

Much has also been made of the time last fall when Hadid identified Zayn as "half-Middle Eastern" like herself. Pakistan, however, is part of South Asia, and not the Middle East, prompting people to criticize Hadid for appearing to not understand her boyfriend's ethnicity. Mysteriously, a photo of the couple posted yesterday has vanished from Hadid's Instagram.