James Charles is apologizing again for his Spirit Airlines employee rant that went extremely viral on social media, and launching a new initiative in response to the backlash.
The 27-year-old influencer shared an over 7-minute Tikok video over the weekend addressing the situation.
If you didn’t know, James made an angry, since-deleted TikTok video claiming that a woman who lost her job at Spirit Airlines reached out in his DMs with a link to her GoFundMe, calling her “a lazy piece of s–t” for asking for money. He then uploaded an initial apology video amid backlash. The woman he allegedly called out then shared his alleged response to her DM asking for help.
James Charles says the original video was “awful”
“The video that I posted two weeks ago now about the Spirit Airline situation was awful. That video was terrible. It was nasty, it was disrespectful, it was completely unnecessary, and seeing clips of it all over my for you page is embarrassing to say the least. There is no excuse for making that video, so I’m not gonna sit down today and try to give you one. I f–ked up. Point Blank, period,” he began, going on to say that he posted the video on his spam account, as opposed to his main channel.
“To be completely honest with you, I don’t know what I was going through that day that led to me or allowed me to be so triggered by an individual one-off message like that. And I really don’t know what the hell went through my head to think it was appropriate in any way, shape or form to make a piece of content about somebody reaching out asking for a helping hand at a vulnerable time. The intention behind that video was not to accuse anybody unemployed of being lazy and It was also not to accuse any hard working people of not working hard enough, but that is how the video came across and I feel f–king terrible for contributing to those narratives,” he continued.
“I know that when I post this video today, there will probably come to people saying you know, James, you’re only making this response because of the backlash. And I want you to know that is true,” he explained.
He admits backlash changed his perspective
“When I first posted this video, clearly I didn’t see a problem with it. It embarrassingly did take people making videos and me getting hate comments and backlash to actually take a step back, put myself in check, and realize what I said here is not okay. And now I need to educate myself as to why. And that’s what I’ve been working on doing over the last two weeks.” – James Charles
James Charles says he privately apologized and donated
James went on to say that he was able to send a private apology to the Spirit Airlines worker and donate to her and other employees’ GoFundMes affected by the company’s bankruptcy.
“However, I’m well aware that an apology video and a couple of donations from my couch in L. A. are not enough. In the initial video I made a comment of like ‘welcome to the real world, why don’t you just go get another job?’ And I now realize that is literally just not possible. I knew that the economy and the job market weren’t great, but I’m ashamed to admit my level of ignorance when it came to how bad it actually was. But now I’m definitely more in the loop the last two weeks have been spent having a lot of conversations and listening to people, whether it was a supporter, a non supporter, a mean message, a nice message. I have just been reading and taking in as many stories as I possibly can to better understand what it is actually like living in the real world,” James explained.
He went on to explain what he’s learned in the last two weeks about the difficulties of finding a job in the current economy, as well as acknowledging his privilege as an influencer.
“I have such a blessed job to be able to make videos online and teach people how to do makeup. Clearly I have lost touch with the amount of privilege that it is to be able to do this for a living and I’m really embarrassed by that and obviously need to come back down to Earth and do my best to use my platform for the right reasons,” he said.
He is now launching a new initiative
James then went on to explain that he’s launching a new initiative under his company, called the Painted Project.
“This is the brand new organization I’m working on building with my team. With an initial personal contribution of $250,000, every single cent of that is going to go directly towards helping people in need that have been affected by a crisis,” he said.
“I will be transparent and say that launching something like this is not fast and it’s not easy. It’s fine. It’s gonna be a multi=year thing that I’m Rreally looking forward to putting my all into,” he said, describing the three phases in detail, including emergency relief funding. working with local organizations on the ground, and then scholarships and tuitions towards creative education programs.
“I do wanna make it really clear that I know launching this right now is probably gonna look just as performative as making an apology video or sending out donations, and I have to be okay with that. I know that I can’t undo my video or erase the impact of the words that I chose to say. That’s my own fault. But I hope that by launching this, I can at least show you guys I’m listening, I’m learning, and I really want to use my platform in the best way that I possibly can,” James said.
“I wanna say a massive thank you to anybody that’s reached out over the course of the last two weeks to be vulnerable and share their story with me. I clearly needed a massive reality check, and speaking to you guys has really helped with that. And I also wanna say thank you to anybody that’s taken the time to watch this video all the way through. I’ll be in touch soon.”
Watch James Charles‘ full apology video above, and find out which other influencer recently said she “hates” him.
Posted To:News
