YouTuber Shane Dawson lost over 600k subs after uploading an apology video to address the backlash surrounding his history in blackface and pedophilic jokes.
Offensive videos
During his 15-year track record on YouTube, Dawson was exposed to have created rather “offensive” content at some point.
This involved doing a blackface and inappropriate sexual jokes about minors.
Many have called out the YouTube star, and in the wake of the backlash he issued a 20-minute apology video titled “Taking Accountability.”
The said video was inspired by Jenna Marbles’ apology video where she announced her decision to quit YouTube and take responsibility over the problematic content she made in the past.
Shane’s statements
In the said video, Dawson addressed wearing blackface, saying racial slurs, joking about pedophelia, and even insulting the people living with disabilities.
“I’ve done a lot of things in my past that I hate, that I wish I could make go away. I don’t know who that person is anymore.”
“This video is coming from a place of just wanting to own up to my sh*t, wanting to own up to everything I’ve done on the internet that has hurt people – that has added to the problem, that has not been handled well. I should have been punished for things.”
He also acknowledged how he probably does not deserve the current success of his career as an online personality:
“I should have probably lost my career at the time. There’s no amount of apologising that can take it away.”
Racial slurs
Specifically referring on his usage of the N-word and mocking blackface skits, he explained:
“Blackface was something that I did a lot on my channel. And there’s no excuse for it. There’s literally no excuse. I made a video six years ago talking about it and I gave excuses and it was wrong… But I didn’t do the work. I didn’t actually look into the history of it and why it’s so wrong and why people were so upset.”
Dawson also apologized for his problematic content in the past:
“I’m sorry that I added to the normalisation of blackface or the normalisation of saying the N-word. It’s not a funny word. Especially for a white person to say.”
Recirculated videos
After his official apology, Dawson’s old offensive clips still plagued social media.
In one particular case, the YouTuber pretended to masturbate in front of a Disney poster of Willow Smith (11 years old at the time) while singing the lines to her 2011 hit song Whip My Hair.
Dawson said in his apology video that he would “never talk about a child in a way that is inappropriate.”
But that did not stop Willow’s brother Jaden Smith and mother Jada Pinkett-Smith to express their disgust towards the YouTuber on Twitter:
“To Shane Dawson … I’m done with the excuses.”
“SHANE DAWSON I AM DISGUSTED BY YOU. YOU SEXUALIZING AN 11 YEAR OLD GIRL WHO HAPPENS TO BE MY SISTER!!!!!! IS THE FURTHEST THING FROM FUNNY AND NOT OKAY IN THE SLIGHTEST BIT.”
Shane concluded his apology video by saying:
“At this point, realising how many people I’ve hurt or how many people I’ve inspired to say awful things or do anything awful, to finally just own up to all of this and be accountable is worth losing everything to me.”
