YouTube star Shane Dawson wants his millions of fans to know that he’s not the person he used to be.
In a 20-minute video released Friday, June 26 and titled “Taking Accountability,” Dawson addressed the renewed criticism he’s facing for his use of blackface, the N-word and other offensive comments he’s made since launching his popular YouTube channel more than a decade ago.
Despite having issued public apologies in the past, Shane said it’s only recently that’s he realized how poorly those incidents were handled.
“I have done a lot of things in my past that I hate, that I wish I could make go away, that I tried to make go away by deleting videos, or un-tagging my Instagram, literally doing whatever I can to pretend those things didn’t happen,” he said. “Because yes, I apologized for a lot of them but I’m 31, almost 32. Those apologies suck. I don’t know who that person is anymore.”
In hindsight, Shane explained, “This video is coming from a place of just wanting to own up to my s–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.”