The “Motivation” singer, 23, posted a photo of herself on Friday, November 1, replicating a 1979 photo of Cher sitting down naked while wearing a silver wig and fairy wings.
“I don’t think this is the right costume for a black girl, Cher is white and Cher was thing, Cher did a lot you not even close to her you black people think you own everything not fair you could’ve been beyonce or rihanna or janet but no cher cher is white respect her [sic],” one person commented on the post.
Bieber, 22, took offense to the comment and fired off her own response on Instagram on Friday. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with Normani dressing up as Cher for Halloween,” Bieber wrote.
“What do you mean by the first sentence?” the model continued. “She can do it because she wants to, she is doing much better than you, you’re behind a computer complaining about a costume. Stop being racist and get out of her page if you don’t like it. It’s 2019 and you’re still supporting the garbage of Trump, Marta.”
The “Dancing With a Stranger” singer also honored another pop culture icon in a different Halloween costume. Normani recreated Naomi Campbell‘s Azzedine Alaïa head-to-toe leopard print look from a 1991 photoshoot.
This isn’t the first time Normani has faced racist trolls online. In 2016, the former Fifth Harmony member exclusively told Us Weekly that she regularly received comments such as “Get f–king lynched,” “Dumb black bitch” and “You f–ked up the pretty girl group.”
She told Us the remarks were “absolutely disgusting.” The online bullying became worse after she called fellow Fifth Harmony member Camila Cabello “very quirky” in a Facebook Live interview. The remark caused an onslaught of racist comments and people calling Normani the n-word.
Normani quit Twitter to avoid the backlash but decided to return to the social media platform to make a statement.
“The hate is not going to stop, but I needed to make a point that you can’t run away from a bully,” she told Us. “You can’t allow someone’s hate to dictate your life. I want to be the voice for those people who are going through the same thing, like little African American boys and girls getting bullied at school. It wasn’t just, I’m going to get back in to tweet ‘I had a burger today.’”
