The James Charles vs. Tati Westbrook YouTube Drama Returns, Now With Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star
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While taking a long stroll by the Brooklyn waterfront on Saturday, I noticed a teenager dressed in a cap and gown, carrying a pig-shaped backpack she surely had just received as a graduation present, judging by how frequently she flipped the bag around to squeeze it. I recognized the backpack immediately as $80 merch from YouTuber Shane Dawson, released around the same time he began collaborating on makeup with BeauTuber Jeffree Star. I felt pretty hip and cool to what young people are interested in until I learned that carrying the bag was some sort of political statement: the beauty YouTubers were fighting again, and by toting the pink vegan-leather bag, the new grad was probably showing her support for Dawson. Identifying the backpack, however, is not enough to keep up with the ever-evolving drama cycle that plagues and sustains YouTubers, and so I’ve tried to figure out what happened.
By toting the pink vegan-leather bag, the new grad was probably showing her support for Dawson
According to Cosmopolitan, the drama began two weeks ago when beauty YouTuber Kameron Lester posted a 27-minute IGTV video detailing racist experiences he had while working as a model on beauty campaigns with Jeffree Star. “I just felt like it wasn’t a friendship, it was never a friendship in the beginning to start with, it was always something, like, I was kind of like the token Black kid,” he said in the video. “I felt like he was trying to send a message in some way that I was replaceable as a Black boy.” Lester said that poor treatment in the YouTube beauty community didn’t end there, adding that he was also removed from working on Shane Dawson’s YouTube series about Jeffree Star after witnessing Dawson speak ill of James Charles. Lester also alleged that Dawson and Star knew Tati Westbrook was going to post a video chastising James Charles long before she actually did in May 2019, sparking the biggest Beauty YouTube controversy in recent memory dubbed “Dramaggedon 2.0.”
In case you don’t remember the details of “Dramaggedon 2.0,” it was a dramatic blow-up that began after James Charles partnered with Sugar Bear Hair vitamins at Coachella, the direct competitor to his then-friend Tati Westbrook’s brand Halo Beauty. Westbrook posted a video accusing Charles of a slew of bad behaviors, none so damning as the allegation that he was sexually inappropriate with straight boys. Other makeup gurus got involved, including Jeffree Star, who co-signed Westbrook’s allegations. (Of course, regardless of any poor treatment, Star stood to benefit from a direct competitor’s “canceling.”)