People like Brooklyn Beckham have it all: a successful family, a wealth of opportunities, and - of course - actual wealth. He can do pretty much anything he wants in life, use his influence and background to go wherever he pleases, and utilise his huge social media following to maybe make the world just a teeny tiny bit better.
But instead, the footballer's son uploaded an Instagram post many are taking to be racist.
Last week, on Thursday October 4th, the 19-year-old posted two images to Instagram while on holiday in Italy. The first showed a group of Asian tourists enjoying a gondola trip, and the second showed an Asian woman perusing a supermarket.
He captioned them, "No place like Italy innit."
Sooo, let's get this straight: Brooklyn Beckham, who is not from Italy, took pictures of strangers while in Italy, and then publicly called them out... for not being from Italy?
Ignoring for a second the fact that these people could have actually been Italian with Asian heritage, and therefore had more of a 'right' to be there than he did - Beckham took the time to single out a race of people and shame them for doing exactly the same things that he was doing. That's racist, pure and simple.
The pictures quickly made their way over to Weibo, a Chinese social media site, where they attracted a huge amount of criticism.
"A Briton in Italy saying it's not like Italy. Isn't that double standards?" wrote one user.
"Some people say that we are being too sensitive, but don't you see that this is clearly discrimination against Asians?" added another. "If these were pictures of African-Americans in the United States, they would tear him apart... If we don't speak up for ourselves, we Asians will always be looked down upon."
Meanwhile, folks on Twitter made it very clear what they thought about the teenager's post.
Others also took issue with Beckham taking photos of people without their knowledge.
One person tweeted: "Hey Brooklyn Beckham. Perhaps you can ask that lady first if you want to take a photo of her. Besides, don’t act like you never go to a Chinatown. Kid there are so many things you have to learn. Don’t make the judgment easily. Finally, don’t play with fire and don’t be a coward."
The comments were particularly hurtful considering that the 19-year-old seemed perfectly happy to immerse himself in Asian culture when it suited him. In 2016, he starred in an advertisement for the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer, Huawei, and was paid £100,000 for the gig. In the same year, he also appeared on the cover of Vogue China.
Some people took the issue a step further, and left messages for Brooklyn's parents - David and Victoria Beckham - on their social media platforms.
So far, none of the Beckhams have responded to the messages, and Brooklyn has not offered an apology for his comments. Instead, he has removed the posts and made his account private.
