Miley Cyrus Uses the Term "Mammy" on Stage at the 2015 MTV VMAs

Impact

The 2015 MTV Video Music Awards have thus far been full of especially racially-loaded, tense moments. But perhaps the most offensive moment came when host Miley Cyrus used the term "real mammy" on stage.

In a pre-recorded backstage bit with Snoop Dog, he and Cyrus consumed brownies which he claimed were baked by her grandmother, who, we all learned Sunday night, she apparently calls "mammy." 

The "mammy" is the "most well known and enduring racial caricature of African-American women" known for devotion to their white slaveowners and were promoted as "evidence of the supposed humanity of the institution of slavery," according to Ferris State University.

Twitter users understandably reacted in rage.

Correction August 31:

An earlier version of this story stated that Miley Cyrus, in a rainbow flag contraption, called Snoop her "real mammy." Rather, she was referring to her grandmother.