Trending 29th June 2020 by Denise Curtin

The Shane Dawson Controversy: Here’s What’s Happening

With 22.6 million YouTube subscribers, Shane Dawson is the latest celebrity to get called out on social media.

 

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Shane Dawson’s apology video titled Taking Accountability is gathering hits at rapid speed on YouTube at the moment.

The video was spurred on for a number of reasons, including Shane’s previous use of blackface and derogatory words in his videos, jokes about pedophilia and claimed bullying of fellow YouTuber, James Charles.

In the past number of weeks, Shane Dawson has been called out multiple times on social media.

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, people are starting to dig deep and examine  wrongful things they have been said and done in the past, looking for those responsible to take accountability for their actions and own up to their mistakes.

“Blackface was something that I did a lot,” explained Shane in his latest YouTube video. “There’s no excuse for it. I didn’t do the work. I didn’t look into the history of it and why it’s so wrong, and why people were so upset.”

“I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be Black, and see this white f**king guy do blackface, and the whole internet at that time being like, ‘LOL!’ That’s insane and I am so sorry.”

In his apology video, the YouTuber also apologised for a now deleted four page tweet which he posted to his Twitter last week. Announcing that he was leaving the beauty world (one he entered under the watchful eye of Jeffree Star), Shane called everyone in it “attention seeking, game playing, egocentric, narcissistic, vengeful, two-faced, ticking time bombs ready to explode.”

Anyone who is familiar with Shane’s past will know he was involved in global beauty community drama last year titled by fans as “Dramageddon”. The scandal involved him apparently “assisting” Tati Westbrook and Jeffree Star in calling out James Charles in a now-deleted video on Tati’s channel called “Bye sister”. A video which led to numerous response videos, an online hate campaign against the 19-year-old and his brief exit from social media for his mental health.

In the four page note recently posted to his Twitter and now deleted, Shane made a dig at James Charles yet again, one which he apologised for in his Taking Accountability video. In the note, Shane said that James needs to be “served a slice of humble pie in the size of the f***ing Empire State Building”, but later apologised for the anger-fuelled tweet.

“I’m sorry, James. First of all, nobody deserves what happened. The whole internet ganging up on somebody, nobody deserved that,” said Shane. “Who am I to say that somebody needs to be humbled? Me? Who am I to say that? I have literally put so much hate onto the internet over my last 15 years.”

Shane Dawson was also called out by Jaden and Jada Pinkett Smith in recent days. Announcing she was “done with excuses”, Jada and her son, Jaden called out Shane for a clip where the YouTuber acts inappropriately on camera while speaking about Willow Smith, who was only 11-years-old at the time.

Shane has not yet responded to Jaden’s tweet which was posted after he released his video.

Concluding his apology, however, Shane noted that he should have “lost everything” for the way he acted in the past and all the different situations he created which “added” to the problem.

“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,” explained Shane.

“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.”

You can watch the video here.

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