Jenna Marbles and Shane Dawson apologise for past racism

Cancelling a famous person or content creator is more an idea and buzz phrase than it is an actual reality. Rarely does anyone genuinely get ‘cancelled’, but YouTubers have such personal relationships with fans that any slip up can alter their public image and relevance significantly.

People have pushed for both Jenna and Shane to remove themselves from the internet, and Jaden Smith has expressed anger toward old footage of black face and paedophilia jokes that has recently resurfaced. There is clearly a big call for these creators to step away from the spotlight, regardless of how old these jokes are or the changes they’ve made since.

https://twitter.com/jaden/status/1276991250474758144?s=20

This outrage and pushback is absolutely valid and warranted. Shane’s old content in particular was horrifically offensive, so much so that I wonder if he really can bounce back from all of the hate he’s currently receiving. But there seems to also be an equal amount of fans and viewers that see this renewed anger as incorrectly placed. Jenna’s video in particular is filled with comments that express sadness at her leaving YouTube, boiling the whole situation down to ‘cancel culture gone crazy’.

Regardless of who you think is wrong or right, the most important thing here is that both creators have, to their own extent, acknowledged that they were wrong for creating racist videos in the early tens.

The Black Lives Matter protests and the underlying racism that still exists throughout every nuance of our society has made these types of jokes and ‘edgy’ humour completely unacceptable as more of us have suddenly become aware of it. Even Jenna herself in her video described our current times as a ‘cleansing of any toxicity’ and this sudden wake-up call is a positive step forward that we’re all forced to reckon with.

Racial stereotyping should not be allowed to go under the radar or simply be classed as ‘edgy comedy’. We’ve been letting writers, content creators, and entertainment industry leaders use black characters as punchlines designed for white people to laugh at for way too long. This isn’t just a case of ‘cancelling’ Jenna or Shane because they’re horrendous racists, because I don’t think either of them are. It’s more about making sure that content creators recognise the problematic videos that helped them build an audience and publically acknowledge that they were never acceptable to make and distribute.

Removing Jenna and Shane off of YouTube won’t erase the content they’ve already made. In that sense, truly ‘cancelling’ them as pubic figures would be a little redundant. A more helpful and progressive approach here is to allow famous people to explain themselves, be earnest about their pasts, and reaffirm that they no longer support the type of content they used to make. This Twitter thread by @lavendearst perhaps sums this situation up best.

I’m a black girl whose been watching YouTube since elementary/middle school and I’ve been a fan of Jenna Marbles for years. I see a lot of fans who are sad to see her go (just like I am) but are missing the point of her video. (1/?)

— the it girl (@moody_mauvee) June 25, 2020

Whether Jenna will ever actually come back to YouTube remains to be seen, and we’ve yet to see how Shane continues over the next few months, but hopefully more creators will own up to their older mistakes in a similar fashion moving forward. It’s the only way to get real closure for those who grew up surrounded by offensive and racially charged content.

More ownership needs to be taken like this, and it’s not enough for individuals to simply walk away as a result of being ‘cancelled’ without informing the public on why their old material is unacceptable. Educating ourselves and realigning our standards is vital, especially right now, and the more open conversations we have the better informed we can be about racism in entertainment.