James Charles is coming under fire after he took part in a Tik Tok trend called the Mugshot challenge, where people share photos of themselves with fake injuries.
The YouTuber and make-up artist shared photos of himself with fake blood under his nose and fake black eyes as part of the bizarre “challenge”.
But people weren’t happy with James – many survivors of domestic violence, among other types of violence, pointed out that for them, injuries can’t just be washed away.
Twitter users who have experienced domestic violence called out James Charles for doing the mugshot challenge.
One Twitter user wrote: “As someone who has gone through a physical and emotional abusive relationship I don’t think that you using abuse as an aesthetic is cute.
They continued: “This looks so real and it triggered me so much. this is insensitive to abuse survivors.”
tw// graphical simulation of abuse
as someone who has gone through a physical and emotional abusive relationship i dont think that you using abuse as an aesthetic is cute. this looks so real and it triggered me so much. this is insensitive to abuse survivors https://t.co/0Qk5njhcsC
— victoire (@siriusclaw) April 6, 2020
Meanwhile, another Twitter user pointed out that Black people face “disproportionate rates of incarceration” and slammed James Charles and other influences for turning mugshots into a “trend”.
Another Twitter user replied to James Charles’ tweet, where she spoke candidly about her experience of domestic violence.
You know I had to have two nose surgeries due to domestic violence. My nose is still crooked. I am reminded of those moments every day. This is not a subject matter to take lightly. You should know better. You need to apologize to everyone. This is triggering and offensive.
— Carrie Day (@TWiNKS_KS) April 6, 2020
The make-up artist replied to several tweets criticising him for taking part in the challenge, where he repeatedly suggested it had “nothing to do with domestic violence.”
However, the backlash kept coming, and he eventually deleted the original tweet – but insisted it was “not an apology”.
this is not an apology lol
— James Charles (@jamescharles) April 6, 2020
“Despite the fact that hundreds of other influences and artists have done something similar, I deleted the mugshot trend because it was never my intention to trigger anyone & it’s a waste of time trying to have an open discussion with people who hate me regardless,” he wrote.
despite the fact that hundreds of other influencers and artists have done something similar, I deleted the mugshot trend because it was never my intention to trigger anyone & it’s a waste of time trying to have an open discussion with people who hate me regardless ✌🏼
— James Charles (@jamescharles) April 6, 2020
The YouTuber is no stranger to controversy.
James Charles is no stranger to controversy. In January of this year, he uploaded a video of himself singing along to Saweetie’s “My Type”, which includes several uses of the N-word.
Charles was immediately caught in a crossfire of criticism, as people accused the 20-year-old of belting out the racist term.
He also came under fire when he joked on Twitter that he could catch Ebola during a trip to South Africa.