Seeing James Charles get cancelled makes me feel a little bit sick.
I’ve never watched one of his beauty videos. I’m not exactly in the target market. I can’t think of anything more boring than watching someone, male or female, put their makeup on.
But I do have kids. And Charles is just a kid. He’s only 19.
What did Tati do to James? Hear the saga explained in a nutshell on The Quicky. Post continues after video.
For anyone who’s missed out on the story, in late April, Charles promoted Sugar Bear Hair vitamins on Instagram after they provided him with security at Coachella. Sugar Bear Hair is a competitor to Halo Beauty, the brand owned by Charles’s mentor/mother figure, beauty vlogger Tati Westbrook.
Westbrook took offence, and despite Charles’s Instagram apology, she made a 43-minute video that destroyed Charles. Not only did she call him “ungrateful”, she claimed he tried to “trick straight men into thinking they’re gay”. The video has had more than 37 million views on YouTube so far.
Since then, there’s been a huge pile-on, with other influencers attacking Charles. His YouTube subscriber numbers have fallen by about three million, while Westbrook’s have gone up by four million. It’s a classic example of cancel culture.
Top Comments
I find it interesting that her 43 minute take down video came out only after he advertised for her competitor. Before he did that, she was happy to go along with his alleged predatory behaviour? Come on. And she is a little old and should be more mature than to target a kid like that. I felt the same way you did.
Putting aside whether this person deserves what's come his way, I don't think anyone needs to be a parent to get some special level of empathy for someone experiencing something horrible. It's like those men that preface comments about violence against women by saying "as a father of daughters", like it's only the existence of their kids that gives them a horror of women being violently attacked.