YouTube personality Jenna Marbles quits her channel and apologizes to her 20 million followers for Nicki Minaj blackface skit and rap about Asians
Jenna Marbles says she will no longer post content to her YouTube channel amid renewed scrutiny of older videos that included racist content.
In an 11-minute clip titled 'A Message,' the Rochester, New York native, 33, acknowledged her past transgressions, which included a 2011 blackface skit, shaming women and a racist rap.
'For now I just can't exist on this channel,' she said. 'I want to hold myself accountable, and it’s painful to do it. I’m ashamed of things I’ve done and said in my past - but, it’s important.
The latest: Jenna Marbles, 33, says she will no longer post to her YouTube channel amid scrutiny of older videos she did that contained racist content including a blackface skit
In an 11-minute clip titled 'A Message,' the Rochester, New York native, 33, acknowledged her past transgressions, which included a 2011 blackface skit (pictured), shaming women and a racist rap
Marbles is seen wearing a shiny skin-tight outfit and a pink wig during her Nicki Minaj impersonation
'I think I'm just going to move on from this channel for now. I don't know if that's forever. I don't know how long it's going to be... I'm just going to stop for now.'
Marbles said it was time to take a step back from the channel, which has more than 20 million subscribers, amid a pileup of questions about the routines.
She specifically addressed the blackface skit, a video featuring a rap which made a joke about Asian people, and another in which she hit out at women who 'slept around'.
The rap song included the line: 'Hey Ching Chong Wing Wong, shake your King Kong ding dong.'
She described the video as 'awful' and 'inexcusable'.
In the blackface video she dons a pink wig and skintight blue outfit and jokes that Minaj has different personalities. At one point in the video she is seen with dark paint or a face mask on her face while talking about 'kinky' sex.
'I get it,' she said. 'I've definitely done things in the past that weren't great. I'm not completely unproblematic. I've tried my best to grow up.'
Marbles, whose real name is Jenna Nicole Mourey, admits she's gradually switched the older clips to private amid 'a time where we are purging ourselves of anything and everything toxic'.
'Yeah there [are] things in my past I'm not proud of and I'm getting a lot of tweets from people saying, "Why have you privated all these old videos?" and I have spent a lot of the last few days privating almost all of my old content.
'I'm sorry if any of that holds any nostalgia for you but I'm literally not trying to put out negative things into the world.'
Marbles said she was 'unbelievably sorry' specifically in regards to the blackface skit, and wishes 'it wasn’t part of [her] past.'
She added of the bit: 'I do just want to tell you that it was not my intention to do blackface.
'I don't know how else to say this but it doesn't matter because all that matters is that people were offended and it hurt them... this isn't okay and it hasn't existed on the Internet for a long time because it's not okay.'
As for her other offensive content, Marbles said 'it doesn't need to exist' and she was 'embarrassed that [she] ever made' it.
Marbles said she saw no value in leaving the offensive content up, as she doesn't 'want to contribute to' strife amid a time where racism is at the forefront of the national discussion.
Marbles acknowledged she had past done a skit in blackface trying to lampoon Nicki Minaj
'If that's the case where people will watch something and be offended now, I don't want it to exist,' she said. 'So I probably deleted a lot of my old content because I just don't want anyone to feel upset about anything.'
Marbles said she had no problem taking the heat for her past transgressions to align with the social values she and her fans hold dear.
'I'm happy to do that,' she said, 'because what I want from the people that I support and that I like is to have accountability and to know that I am supporting someone whose morals and values align with my own.'
Marbles said that while she cannot erase the past, she can be her best self moving forward.
'As someone clearly with their own past that they're not proud of, I do just try to see people for who they are right now, today and that they're not defined by their pasts - and I understand,' she said. 'I'm trying to do the same thing that you are and support and be friends of people that I'm proud of and that I love and I just know that I'm doing my best.'
