James Charles has come under fire after he called a woman who allegedly lost her job at Spirit Airlines “lazy” and “stupid” for asking him for a donation through a GoFundMe link.
In a now-deleted TikTok rant the 26-year-old influencer called the woman, who was one of 17,000 who was let go when the budget airline shut down, a “lazy piece of shit”.
Charles, a prolific internet personality, has accumulated an online following of over 80 million and is reportedly worth $US22 million (approx. $30.4 million).
Watch the video above.
He began the video by yelling to the cameras and mocking the follower’s message explaining they were financially “struggling”.
“You’re entitled and you think that influencers and celebrities should fund your life for you. Why?” Charles sounded off in the video.
“You think I’m going to send you money because you lost your job? Welcome to real world sweetheart. People lose their jobs every f–king day.”
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“You know what else would help you? Getting another job.”
The video received immediate backlash from millions who labelled Charles’ behaviour “disgusting”.
“Worst thing I’ve seen an influencer willingly say on camera,” one wrote.
Many were baffled Charles felt the need to respond with a video, pointing out that he could’ve simply ignored the message and nobody would’ve been the wiser.
Others thought it was hypocritical of Charles to not want to help his followers “considering he literally relies on his fans to fund his own lifestyle”.
Charles followed the deleted video with another now-deleted apology TikTok in which he said he “stands by what [he] said ten toes down”.
Despite that, he acknowledged he was initially “speaking from a very privileged, obnoxious, ignorant standpoint”.
The make-up artist explained he’d assumed the woman was “copying and pasting the message just asking for a handout”.
He admitted the original video was “completely unnecessary” but defended his behaviour saying the woman’s message “triggered” him.
Charles said he receives thousands of messages a day asking for money.
“It definitely sucks to receive messages from people that don’t follow you and don’t support you, treating you like a personal ATM or bank account,” he saying.
The American YouTuber continued, saying: “What I’m sure sucks even f–king more is not knowing where your next pay check is coming from and not being sure whether or not you’re gonna be able to put food on the table for yourself and your family.
“So it really doesn’t matter what my intentions were behind making the video because it came across as super f–king privileged.
“I was basically shaming anybody that’s unemployed for not trying hard enough to get a job.”
Many were still not satisfied with Charles’ apology, saying he was only “saving face” in response to the backlash.
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