I think this photo in particular got alot of backlash because people think she’s exaggerating her features to look more Asian. Its not super noticeable, but I think people were sensitive to it because ariana grande has a history of role playing as ethnicities she is not a part of. For example her brown face era when she would often use a blaccent and tanned excessively.

Heres a link to a more in depth reddit discussion about her and her shifting presentation: https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/comments/ahdxyc/can_we_discuss_arianas_skin_tone_and_the/

Also a YouTube video of her very cringe use of AAVE: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eLOF7Qaklsw