It has taken a person of colour to educate 'Girls' writer-director Lena Dunham on the offensive and racist nature of comments she made about football star Odell Beckham Jr about an incident she claimed occurred at the annual Met gala.
In an interview with Amy Schumer, published on Dunham's online newsletter 'Lenny Letter', Dunham describes feeling as though she was being ignored by Beckham Jr, who was looking at his phone rather than talking to her she claims.
'I was sitting next to Odell Beckham Jr., and it was so amazing because it was like he looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards... I was like, "This should be called the Metropolitan Museum of Getting Rejected by Athletes."'
There appears to have been no basis for the claim other than the fact she sat next to the sports star and that he was on his phone.
The comments, along with an earlier line about 'attempting to grind her ass' on Michael B. Jordan, drew instant, widespread criticism.
But Dunham would not hear it. In a series of tweets, she defended her comments.
A day later, and Dunham made a formal apology, attributing her newfound awareness to writer-director Xavier Burgin.
Burgin, it seems, educated Dunham to realise how her comments were racist.
'I would never intentionally contribute to a long and often violent history of the over-sexualisation of black male bodies,' she writes.
However, it appears that apology and understanding does not extend to comments made about actor Michael B. Jordan.
She made no specific reference to Jordan in her apology. Her tweet defence of those lines, which were deleted from the interview, stands it seems.
