Shane Dawson's fiancé Ryland Adams speaks out about Dawson's old, offensive content

Palmer HaaschAug 5, 2020, 03:53 IST

Insider

Shane Dawson's fiancé, Ryland Adams.Ryland Adams/YouTube

Shane Dawson's fiancé Ryland Adams recently spoke out about his feelings on the reckoning over Shane Dawon's old, offensive content.
It's been over a month since Dawson posted a video apologizing for previous uses of the N-word, blackface, and pedophilia jokes, which led to intense fan backlash amid increased calls for accountability from celebrities for their offensive incidents.
Adams said that he can never ask people to accept Dawson's apology, but says that Dawson has grown as a person since the time when his old videos were filmed.

Shane Dawson's fiancé Ryland Adams recently broke his silence about the recent reckoning over Dawson's old, offensive content. At the beginning of the first YouTube video he's posted since Dawson's most recent apology video in late June, Adams took several minutes to address the resurfacing of Dawson's old content and speak about his feelings that Dawson has grown as a person.

"I wanted to jump on before I started posting videos again to acknowledge what's been going on with Shane and I, and Shane's past," Adams said. "I didn't initially jump in and insert myself because I didn't want to add to the intense negativity that was circulating about all of these old clips, and I wanted to process and think for myself."

After Dawson tweeted (and later deleted) a statement in June about 'dramatic gurus' in the beauty community, people began to resurface his old offensive and racist content. Dawson then published a video titled "Taking Accountability" on June 26 apologizing for his previous uses of the N-word, blackface, and pedophilia jokes, which had attracted intense attention online.

The situation escalated when on June 27 both Jaden Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith called Dawson out for an old video in which he appears to pretend to masturbate to a photo of 11-year-old Willow Smith. Several companies, including Target and Morphe, have since distanced themselves from Dawson and no longer sell his products.

Both Dawson and Adams have largely been silent on social media since, with Ryland breaking their social media hiatus on July 19 with an Instagram story post for Shane's 32nd birthday. Both also quickly reacted to beauty guru Tati Westbrook's explosive June 30 video in which she claimed that Dawson and Jeffree Star had manipulated her into starting 2019's major beauty community feud "Dramageddon 2.0."

In his latest video, Adams explains why he quickly responded to Westbrooks's video and not the resurfaced Dawson content, saying that he had been present for the events leading up to Westbrook's video and not when Dawson posted hi old content with "highly insensitive and offensive jokes."

"I know that while they were far in his past, it's hard to separate that person from who he is today, especially when you're seeing them in real time and your feelings are being hurt right now, and I can never take that away from you and say you have to accept his apology or even ask that you do," Adams says in the video.

Adams also said that people bringing up Dawson's old content on a recurring basis meant that Dawson has truly been forced to reflect on its impact and grow as a person, saying that longtime viewers have "experienced his growth" and should know that Dawson has "good intentions." He also noted that Dawson still has more "learning, and growing, and evolving to do."

"What I hate to see is because of something in someone's past, the result is that no one can be associated with them, or like them, and we can't allow growth. Instead, we have to ruin, throw in the trash, and they can't be spoken about ever again," Adams said.

Adams did not immediately respond to Insider's request for further comment when contacted via the email posted on his YouTube channel.

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Shane Dawson's fiancé Ryland Adams speaks out about Dawson's old, offensive content