Drag queens have always been known for bawdy, boundary-pushing humor, including jokes that push cultural buttons; after all, part of the reason we love drag is for its ability to subvert social mores. But when footage of Trixie Mattel making a joke based on slavery recently surfaced, many questioned whether the lines of what queens can and can’t joke about are shifting, especially in a post-RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10 world — a season that ignited widespread and necessary conversations about race and racial perception on television.

Mattel’s joke surfaced after footage from an appearance on “Haters Roast: The Shady Tour” was posted online. Featuring Drag Race alumni like Trinity Taylor, Willam, Eureka O’Hara, Jinkx Monsoon and Mattel, the tour takes some of the most well-known comedy queens working today around the country for a good old reading session. The premise of the event is simple: We aren’t on RuPaul’s Best Friends Race anymore, so let’s lose the kid gloves and get shady.

In a clip from an April 4 performance in Denver, Colorado, Mattel offered up this comment at fellow queen Latrice Royale’s expense:

“You like this outfit? I couldn’t decide what to wear,” she says, stepping back from the podium to admire her own floor-length gold gown. “It’s just like a cotton; Latrice picked it.” In footage posted as a part of a thread to model-activist Munroe Bergdorf’s Twitter account, laughs can be heard before a few screams, and then some accompanying boos. Mattel is undeterred.

“Oh, is that too far Denver?” she says, leaning in. “What, did you forget to invite your black friends tonight?”

The clip inspired backlash and discussion among well-known drag enthusiasts (including actor Daniel Franzese), fellow drag queens, and Drag Race fans alike. After Drag Race alum Tyra Sanchez initially boosted the video on her own social media, Bergdorf followed suit; she then became became a lightning rod for the conversation on Twitter, taking Mattel to task for her comments, much in the vein of other criticism leveled at Mattel.

“You do not get to ‘make racism funny.’” Bergdorf wrote. “This may have been a joke but calling any black person a slave for laughs is really f*cking stupid, insensitive and plain old racist. It also shows the extent to which you lack understanding of how pop culture can set a bar for what people think is publicly acceptable behaviour.”

Bergdorf’s comments then specifically mention Mattel’s poor taste in light of the racist tendencies of the Drag Race fandom — behavior that was made particularly apparent during Season 10, when The Vixen surfaced needed conversations about how race plays into the show and the optics of how queens of color are portrayed during the competition.