He and Kat Von D went back and forth, with Star claiming Von D was jealous of his success. His music career took him to Warped Tour and landed a Nicki Minaj feature on his debut album in 2009, but he left the music industry in 2013, pivoting to full-time beauty guru. Jeffree Star, real name Jeffrey Steininger Jr., started his social media brand on MySpace in the early 2000s, where he promoted his music and fashion designs, and was known for being controversial. In July 2016, tattoo artist and makeup-brand owner Kat Von D called out her ex-friend Jeffree Star’s inappropriate behavior while feuding over a friend who she claimed Star never paid for their work. Meanwhile, many big creators, including Tay Zonday, continued to stand by Dawson. While Dawson got to move on, she continued to be harassed and made a video about the experience titled “ Here’s Why Racism’s Not ‘Just Comedy’” before taking a break from YouTube. But he doesn’t address any of the other accusations, which Ramsey found unsatisfactory. He says he used blackface to keep the “integrity” of his characters and that he was “ignorant,” but not racist. After weeks, Dawson posted his apology video. Dawson initially mocked the backlash and Ramsey personally on Twitter, calling her “ the epitome of a hater.” His fans lashed out at her with racist slurs and threats. She also took a stand against Dawson’s jokes about “rape, molestation, child abuse, domestic assault,” and other offensive, harmful jokes. He was called out for a series of videos where he paints himself darker to play people like Wendy Williams and Chris Brown, and uses stereotypes to portray people of color. After six years of monumental success on YouTube, built on blackface skits, appropriation, and offensive remarks, the community first attempted to hold Shane Dawson accountable in 2014, led by YouTuber and comedian Franchesca Ramsey. By 2010, he had amassed over half a billion views. Starting in 2008, he would post sketches with an eclectic cast of stereotypes all played by him, impersonate celebrities, and make fun of popular culture. Shane Dawson was the king of edgy comedy on early YouTube. Here’s a timeline of all the drama and just a few of the many “cancellations” it took to get to this point. After beauty influencers like Jackie Aina began cutting ties with the company, it dropped Jeffree Star Cosmetics in its entirety. On June 30, popular beauty brand Morphe announced it would stop selling Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson’s viral 2019 makeup collaboration. Now finally, after over six years of backlash after backlash, two Dramageddons, and the creation of the drama channel genre, Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star are being hit with a tidal wave of accountability. It’s almost like “canceling” people in positions of power is impossible to do. Every time either of the YouTube megapersonalities and multimillionaire makeup creators would pull out the Notes app or cry on camera, their millions of fans would forgive and expect everyone else to forget. What goes around, in theory, must come around, right? But after years of sporadic revolutions against blackface controversies, violent slurs, and pedophilia jokes - to name a few of the pair’s indiscretions - it seemed like there would never be a meaningful resolution, just white tears and a playlist of apology videos. People on the internet have been waiting for Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star’s actions to catch up with them.
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