Country star Chad Brownlee apologizes for controversial social media post

Country music star Chad Brownlee is distancing himself from a controversial social media post.

On Wednesday, June 3, the Kelowna born singer posted an image depicting a common conspiracy theory involving Jewish-American billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

In the now-deleted post, the features Soros overlooking a chess board with pieces made up of protesters and the COVID-19 molecule.

Soros has been the target of many right-wing conspiracy theories, including claims he's funding anti-fascist activists in the protests against racism and police brutality in the United States.

A screeenshot of the deleted post includes an image of Brownlee allegedly responding to a commenter, saying "This man plays a massive role in what the media puts out and how protests are televised. Awareness of this power structure is key if we want to start to understand the pieces that are being moved around us."

Blackout Tuesday was supposed to be a day to acknowledge, contemplate and protest racism in all forms. And to inspire change. Some people, however, used it to promote bullshit anti-semitic conspiracy theories. Hey @ChadBrownlee. When are you going to issue an apology for this? pic.twitter.com/8UMJybi5Ik

— Jonathan Simkin (@JonathanSimkin) June 3, 2020

Reacting to a wave of criticism responding to the post, Brownlee wrote on his Twitter and Instagram accounts that he apologizes for sharing an image "that was wrong, inappropriate and could be perceived as racist."

I apologize for any hurt this may have caused pic.twitter.com/aA0UWoktjP

— Chad Brownlee (@ChadBrownlee) June 3, 2020

The 35-year-old added his “intention in posting the image was nothing of the sort,” although he acknowledges “how people could easily have seen it that way.”