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It’s been a while since PewDiePie–one of the biggest Youtubers in the world–made headlines for doing something insensitive in a video. That all changed this week after he mocked a popular deaf TikToker in one of his videos.

Source: Karwai Tang / Getty

On Tuesday, July 26, PewDiePie shared a video titled “My Dog Cringes at TikToks” for his 111 million subscribers, in which he reacts to viral videos with his dog, Maya.

One of the clips the pair reacted to was popular TikToker Scarlet May, a deaf Black women who regularly posts videos using both sign language and spoken English to communicate with her 6.2 million followers.

When PewDiePie saw her video, he instantly cut the clip short, saying, “I’m not listening to this…Look, she has your crazy nails, Maya!”

As he said this, he waved both of the dog’s paws around, imitating American Sign Language and Scarlet’s nails as he said, “Sorry, are my nails distracting you guys?”

The Backlash

The video quickly garnered backlash from viewers, upset over PewDiePie not only making fun of ASL, but mocking a Black woman simply for having long nails.

“Pewdiepie isnt ableist, he just wanted to mock a Black woman for millions of viewers for having long fingernails and speaking in her natural dialect,” one Twitter user wrote. “Its ONLY racism.”

After receiving so much criticism, PewDiePie went on to issue an apology, claiming he didn’t know Scarlet was deaf when he watched her video. Still, he admits to making fun of her nails, apparently still not realizing that’s a big part of the problem.

“Hey, just to clear a few things up: I edited out the clip with the girl that has the long nails,” he commented under his YouTube video July 27. “Had no clue she was deaf, but kinda dumb of me to not realize.. Still watching through the clip I only poked fun of her long nails. The voice I did for my dog is the same voice I’ve given her for years.”

He went on to say that making his dog’s paws move “is an ongoing theme in the video,” adding, “Anyway honest mistake, my bad.”

 

Another day, another Youtuber “apology.”

Anyway, check out Scarlet’s TikTok page down below:

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