Jenna Marbles announced Thursday that she is leaving YouTube due to racist and misogynist videos.
What We Know:
- Jenna Mourey, better known as Jenna Marbles, posted a video to YouTube announcing her departure from the platform. Mourey was an early star on YouTube, creating her channel back in 2010 and has over 20 million subscribers. Her early videos, mainly comedic sketches, were the target of criticism.
- In the video titled “A Message,” she pointed out three videos from 2011 and 2012 and apologized for the harm those videos caused. In the old videos, she impersonated Nicki Minaj with blackface, made a culturally insensitive rap about Asians, and shamed women who “slept around”. Mourey made these videos private, along with much of her older content.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz3mQhuMACs&feature=emb_logo
- She said that the early years of her channel were a time when she had bad judgement and internalized misogyny. She called the videos “inexcusable” and “shameful” and said that they “shouldn’t have existed”. In the video, she is visibly tearing up and says that she is trying to be a better person and does not want to put offensive or negative content into the world. “For now, I just can’t exist on this channel . . . I don’t know how long it’s going to be. I just want to make sure the things I’m putting in the world aren’t hurting anyone,” Mourey said.
- The video has mixed reactions on social media. Some fans and influencers point to it as an example of how far “cancel culture” has gone. Others said that it has nothing to do with cancel culture and that she rightfully took responsibility for her past.
https://twitter.com/barbieswhore_/status/1276408284937965568
https://twitter.com/pleasantlytwstd/status/1276516545280294914
In the video, Mourey addresses being called an “unproblematic queen”. She said that she’s uncomfortable being called unproblematic because “that’s not true”. She said that she expects accountability from others and herself.
