Earlier this week, Jenna Marbles, 33, announced to her over 20million subscribers on YouTube that she was quitting the platform amid blackface backlash.
And fellow YouTube star PewDiePie, 30, came to her defense in a statement published to his YouTube channel on Friday.
PewDiePie – born Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg – described Jenna as ‘one of the most genuinely good people on this platform’ and found it disgraceful that she got ‘bullied off the site by mistakes that happened 8-10 years ago.’
‘Who cares? These actions reflect in no way who she is and the content she makes today, anyone who watches her can see that,’ he wrote.
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Defense: Fellow YouTube star PewDiePie, 30, came to Jenna Marbles defense in a statement published to his YouTube channel on Friday
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Marbles uploaded a video titled ‘A Message’ on Thursday, where she addressed her highly criticized past transgressions, which included a 2011 blackface skit, shaming women and a racist rap.
PewDiePie continued: ‘Some things were more [lenient] a few years ago – that’s not to say it was right, but where the line is drawn from the past and today seems non existent.
He took major issue with online ‘cancel culture’ and urged people to allowed others to ‘learn from [their] mistakes.’
‘I thought the point was to learn from your mistakes and do better? We all have problems in our past, no one in the world is perfect.’
PewDiePie fears that YouTube ‘will be filled with nothing but douchetubers who don’t care,’ if content creators like Marbles ‘who do [care]’ get ‘pushed out.’
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Taking issue: PewDiePie – born Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg – described Jenna as ‘one of the most genuinely good people on this platform’ and found it disgraceful that she got ‘bullied off the site by mistakes that happened 8-10 years ago’; PewDiePie pictured in 2015
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A Message: Earlier this week, Jenna, 33, announced to her over 20million subscribers on YouTube that she was quitting the platform amid blackface backlash
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‘So disappointed with the internet and how far things have gotten. And of course these are the headlines as well,’ concluded the social media sensation, who included a screenshot of various news headlines pertaining to Marbles.
PewDiePie – who boasts 105million subscribers on YouTube – faced backlash of his own in 2017 for dropping the N-word during a video game livestream.
In Jenna’s 11-minute video she began by stating that she ‘can’t exist on [her] channel’ and that she wants to ‘hold [herself] accountable, and it’s painful to do it.’
‘I’m ashamed of things I’ve done and said in my past – but, it’s important.
‘I think I’m just going to move on from this channel for now. I don’t know if that’s forever. I don’t know how long it’s going to be… I’m just going to stop for now.’
Marbles said it was time to take a step back from the channel amid a pileup of questions about the routines.
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The latest: Jenna Marbles, 33, says she will no longer post to her YouTube channel amid scrutiny of older videos she did that contained racist content including a blackface skit
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In an 11-minute clip titled ‘A Message,’ the Rochester, New York native, 33, acknowledged her past transgressions, which included a 2011 blackface skit (pictured), shaming women and a racist rap
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She specifically addressed the blackface skit, a video featuring a rap which made a joke about Asian people, and another in which she hit out at women who ‘slept around’.
The rap song included the line: ‘Hey Ching Chong Wing Wong, shake your King Kong ding dong.’
She described the video as ‘awful’ and ‘inexcusable’.
In the blackface video she dons a pink wig and skintight blue outfit and jokes that Minaj has different personalities. At one point in the video she is seen with dark paint or a face mask on her face while talking about ‘kinky’ sex.
‘I get it,’ she said. ‘I’ve definitely done things in the past that weren’t great. I’m not completely unproblematic. I’ve tried my best to grow up.’
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Marbles is seen wearing a shiny skin-tight outfit and a pink wig during her Nicki Minaj impersonation
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Admitting wrongdoing: Marbles acknowledged she had past done a skit in blackface trying to lampoon Nicki Minaj
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Marbles, whose real name is Jenna Nicole Mourey, admits she’s gradually switched the older clips to private amid ‘a time where we are purging ourselves of anything and everything toxic’.
‘Yeah there [are] things in my past I’m not proud of and I’m getting a lot of tweets from people saying, “Why have you privated all these old videos?” and I have spent a lot of the last few days privating almost all of my old content.
‘I’m sorry if any of that holds any nostalgia for you but I’m literally not trying to put out negative things into the world.’
Marbles said she was ‘unbelievably sorry’ specifically in regards to the blackface skit, and wishes ‘it wasn’t part of [her] past.’
She added of the bit: ‘I do just want to tell you that it was not my intention to do blackface.
‘I don’t know how else to say this but it doesn’t matter because all that matters is that people were offended and it hurt them… this isn’t okay and it hasn’t existed on the Internet for a long time because it’s not okay.’
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Purge: Marbles, whose real name is Jenna Nicole Mourey, admits she’s gradually switched the older clips to private amid ‘a time where we are purging ourselves of anything and everything toxic’
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As for her other offensive content, Marbles said ‘it doesn’t need to exist’ and she was ’embarrassed that [she] ever made’ it.
Marbles said she saw no value in leaving the offensive content up, as she doesn’t ‘want to contribute to’ strife amid a time where racism is at the forefront of the national discussion.
‘If that’s the case where people will watch something and be offended now, I don’t want it to exist,’ she said. ‘So I probably deleted a lot of my old content because I just don’t want anyone to feel upset about anything.’
Marbles said she had no problem taking the heat for her past transgressions to align with the social values she and her fans hold dear.
‘I’m happy to do that,’ she said, ‘because what I want from the people that I support and that I like is to have accountability and to know that I am supporting someone whose morals and values align with my own.’
Marbles said that while she cannot erase the past, she can be her best self moving forward.
‘As someone clearly with their own past that they’re not proud of, I do just try to see people for who they are right now, today and that they’re not defined by their pasts – and I understand,’ she said. ‘I’m trying to do the same thing that you are and support and be friends of people that I’m proud of and that I love and I just know that I’m doing my best.’
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Moving forward: Marbles said that while she cannot erase the past, she can be her best self moving forward
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