Let it be a famous personality on YouTube or Instagram or any other social media platform, they encounter several controversies during their career. It is because the internet is a vast world, and it is full of different opinions. So when someone famous posts some content online, they receive multiple responses on it. While some people praise it, others try to point out all the wrongs in it. But when the count of hatred becomes more than love, the so-called ‘Star’ falls into trouble. And the same thing happened with Shane Dawson.
After the George Floyd incident in May 2020, people are pointing out every social media star that has indulged in some sort of racism. A lot of names and content have been raised in this process. One of the most affected YouTubers that fell under this protest is Shane Dawson. Before moving on with what happened to him, let’s first explore his life a little.
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Shane Dawson
Born in California, US, She Dawson is a popular YouTuber. His original name is Shane Lee Yaw, and he was born in the year 1988. Along with YouTube, he is also an actor, comedian, musician, make-up artist, writer, and director. What makes him different from other YouTube stars is that he was one of the initial people who received fame on the video-sharing platform. In addition to that, the American personality has maintained his presence for years, which many people lack nowadays.
Dawson used to get bullied in school because of his weight. But with the help of two of his older brothers, he managed to lose over 150 pounds. He always loved making videos, and he did that for most of his high school projects. Dawson grew up under the influence of a single mother who had a low-income household.
Career Choices:
YouTube was the first career choice for Shane Dawson due to his fondness with video making. He began his YouTube career at the age of 19, in the year 2008. His channel was named “ShaneDawsonTV,” and one of his earliest videos that remains on his channel was “Kermit the Frog and Me.” At the same time, Dawson also used to work at Jenny Craig, a weight loss management and nutrition company. His mother and brother worked with him there as well.
After five to six months of his YouTube career, he made a video of himself that showed him pole dancing in Jenny Craig’s building. When the company people saw that video, they fired Dawson, his mother, his brother, and six other people who were seen in the video. He returned to YouTube the following month when he uploaded a video named “Fred is Dead!” The particular video has received over 25 million views to date. After that, he started doing sketch comedy for most of his videos, where he portrayed different characters and personalities. He included characters of minor communities and persons of color.
Between 2010 and 2016, Shane Dawson tried his hands on various other things. He did some music videos that got popular, starred in some films, made several TV pilots and shows, started some podcasts, and wrote books. After that, he returned to YouTube in 2017 and started focusing on different content types for his channel.
Criticism For Shane Dawson
This is not the first time when Shane Dawson’s name has come up in controversies. He has been in the list of critics from the year 2012. At that time, he used to do a sketch comedy for his YouTube channel. In those videos, he used blackface, called out the n-word, and produced racial comedy. Many people came up to criticize Dawson for all these factors found in his comedy.
In the year 2014, some YouTubers brought back the previous content of Dawson and again criticized him. As Dawson was a grown-up person then, so he apologized for everything and called it a “learning experience.” The YouTube star came back in controversy when people started pointing out his comments on pedophilia that he made on one of his podcast episodes in 2014. He again said sorry for whatever he did and justified his comedy somehow.
The same content made him a subject of controversy in the year 2019. It was accompanied by some more of his podcast content. A year later, after the last controversy, Shane Dawson again became a target of critics recently. They brought up every piece of work he did that was socially wrong. Dawson uploaded a 20 minutes video regarding the same, taking accountability of whatever he did in the past.
The Accountability Video
On 26 June 2020, Shane Dawson uploaded a 20-minute video on his YouTube channel called “Shane.” His channel has over 22.3 million subscribers, but the reports show that he has lost over a million subscribers before his apology video. The video started with Dawson saying that till now he has been apologizing just to be accepted in the society. But being almost a 32-years-old, he has realized the damage that his actions must have done.
After that, Dawson said that now he only wants to own all the wrong work that he has done over time. He further mentioned that every piece of his content that has ever hurt anyone, he is taking accountability for that. Following that, he accepted that he might get canceled for all the wrongdoings and that he deserved it after the hatred/hurt that he has spread.
Adding to that, Shane Dawson owned all the types of content that he made and said he was naive and did not know much about why it was wrong. And now that he has realized the seriousness of this, he is ready to lose everything.
Conclusion
Shane Dawson has been in lights because of the type of content he once made. In his YouTube videos and podcasts, he included several factors that have created a bad influence on people and landed the YouTube star in controversies multiple times. Though he has apologized after every time his name came up for criticism, he did it just to get accepted in the society. In the recent video, “Taking Accountability,” he owned all the wrongly produced content and said that this is when he is actually saying sorry for all of that. Following the statement, his channels have been suspended by YouTube for monetization.
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