Makeup influencer James Charles is apologizing after bashing a former Spirit Airlines employee for being “lazy and stupid,” then doubling down in a second video.
James Charles Bashes Woman Who Lost Her Job Amid Spirit Airlines Shut Down
On Friday (May 8), Charles ranted about a woman jumping into his DMs for some assistance after losing her job at Spirit Airlines. Last week, the company completely folded, leaving over 17,000 employees out of work and without income for rent or groceries.
Charles said one of the airlines’ former employees reached out to him, hoping the super successful influencer could spare some change. However, things didn’t quite work out in her favor. Instead, Charles hopped on his spam TikTok account and bashed the unidentified and unemployed woman. Not only did he mock the woman’s struggle, but he also called her a “lazy piece of sh*t.” He also gave her unsolicited “career advice.”
“I just got a DM on here from a girl that said, ‘Good morning, James. I know you’ll probably never see this, but if you could just take one minute to read it would really mean a lot to me. I’m really struggling right now because Spirit Airlines just filed for bankruptcy and I have lost her job. Here’s a GoFundMe link. Any donations help.’
You know what else would help you? Getting another job. Yeah, try that. Because in the time that it took you to copy and paste the same f**k a** message to myself, who you don’t follow, by the way, and probably a hundred other influencers and celebrities, you could’ve applied for a hundred other jobs. But you didn’t, ‘cause you’re a lazy piece of sh*t, and you’re entitled, and you think that influencers and celebrities should fund your life for you. Why would I ever help you?
You’re not a fan, you don’t even follow me, you’ve never supported me, this is your first time DMing. And you think that I’m gonna send you money because you lost your job?! Oh my God, welcome to the real world, sweetheart. People lose their jobs every f**king day. And you’re White, pretty, and able-bodied; you’re in a much better position than a lot of other people out here who are trying clearly much harder to make a better life for themselves. Why would I f**king help you?! ’m not f**king helping you. All you did was lost your job. Welcome to the real world.”
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James Charles Doubles Down On Video Bashing Former Spirit Airlines Employee Asking For Donations
Hours later, Charles hopped back with a video doubling down on his comments against the former Spirit Airlines employee. In that video, he said, “I stand behind what I said, ten toes down.”
“I ended up deleting the video that I posted yesterday talking about people who sent me GoFundMe links that have never followed, supported, DMed me before, just begging for money, and most people were like enjoying the video, saying it was a valid point, but it definitely started causing some discourse in the comments, and a lot of people were just saying it was out of touch and insensitive, and they’re right. It was definitely a harsh choice of words, maybe not my best video, and I deleted it, but of course the internet is forever, and now a lot of content creators are using like the five second clip in the very beginning where I’m like, ‘You’re a lazy piece of sh*t, get a new job,’ to upload their cute little think pieces being like, influencers are all so out of touch, this is so disgusting, you don’t know how hard it is in the job market these days.
Oh my god, give me a f**king break. I am out of touch, first and foremost, okay? I am never going to be one of those influencers that gets online and pretends to be poor so I can come across as relatable to my audience. I think it’s tacky, I think it’s annoying, and I also think it’s quite insulting to the audience watching, as if you guys are going to be fooled into thinking that. You’ve been watching me for 10 years now, it’s no secret that I have been able to find success doing what I’ve done. It didn’t start that way though, I started from literally nothing and had a dream for myself, and was determined to literally do anything to make it happen, and luckily I’ve been blessed to be able to do that and now call this my full-time job.
The reason I made that video yesterday though was a lot of people these days do not have the make-it-work mentality. They have no desire to actually put in the effort to try to fix a problem and get themselves out of a situation. They immediately result in asking for help, and don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking for help. In my personal opinion though, it should be a last resort. If you disagree, that’s totally fine, that’s your personal opinion, I’m not going to apologize for having mine. There’s a lot of people responding back to the video being like, ‘Oh my gosh, he has no idea how hard the job market is, I’ve been applying for new jobs for six months, one year, two years now, and I’ve literally heard back nothing from any of the jobs.’
I’m sorry that that is happening to people. I know that the job market fucking sucks, I’ve heard so many horror stories, I can’t even imagine what that’s like. Those are the people, in my opinion, that are totally valid in asking for help. The person that I made the video about yesterday lost their job last week at Spirit Airlines, along with 17,000 other people. And granted, I don’t know this person, maybe making a GoFundMe link was really their last resort, I just personally do not believe that to be the case, because I know for a fact that they sent this same exact DM to hundreds of different influencers and celebrities. This person did not follow me, they have never DM’d me previously, they have never supported me on any social platforms, they have never purchased from Painted.
This person was literally just spam, copying and pasting this DM to every single person that they assumed had money to offer them, and I’m sorry, just because somebody has money does not mean that you’re entitled. I’m sorry if that comes across as insensitive or privileged or mean, but welcome to the real world. It’s f**king hard out there, nobody owes anybody anything, the universe will constantly remind you of that, and a little bit of effort goes a really, really long way sometimes. I stand behind what I said, 10 toes down. Instead of spending an hour copying and pasting the same DM to 100 different celebrities or influencers, you could have spent the same amount of time copying and pasting a job application to hundreds of different companies.
Or, hear me out, put in a little bit of effort. If you want to send the DMs, at least spend 20 seconds before you hit send, customizing it to the person that you’re asking for money from, right? ‘Hi sister, James, I’ve been watching your YouTube videos since I was a teenager, you really taught me how to do makeup and it positively impacted my life every single Friday. Hey, I’m in this sh*tty situation, do you think that you could help?’ Probably would have gone a lot further than a generic message. Or, instead of copying and pasting the same job application to hundreds of different companies, send in 10 job applications to companies that you really care about and you think you could fit in with, and then customize your application and your cover letter, letting these recruiters or hiring people know that you’re the best candidate for this job and why they should want you on their team.
I know putting in the extra work and effort probably feels useless when you know that you’re in a sea of DMs or job applicants, but trust and believe, as somebody who’s now on the other side of things, the little bit of extra effort does go a very long way, and unfortunately, taking the easy route is usually never going to That’s just my two cents, just a word of advice, you can take it, you can leave it, it’s all good, I just wanted to provide some more context on my video yesterday because I do not like how it’s being twisted and taken out of context. It was definitely never my intention to undermine anybody who’s trying to work and provide a better future for themselves, their family, and their loved ones. I just don’t exactly think that that is what this person was trying to do, or at least the right way to go about doing it.”
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James Charles Shares Second Follow-Up Video Over Spirit Airlines Employee, He Now Apologizes For His ‘Privileged And Completely Unnecessary’ Comments
In the early hours of Saturday (May 9), Charles ended up quickly deleting the video and posting a third video, one attempting to apologize and fix everything.
“Yesterday morning, I posted a video on this account talking about how a woman had lost her job at Spear Airlines, and she sent me a message with a GoFundMe link asking me to donate. And the video was basically me yelling at the camera, being super upset and frustrated because this person had never followed me, never supported me before, and it was clear that she had basically copied and pasted this DM to every influencer and celebrity she possibly could, asking for a handout. And I called her lazy, I said she was stupid, and I said she should have spent the time that she spent copying and pasting the message applying for jobs instead.
This video was fucking stupid. It was rude, it was obnoxious, it was privileged, and most importantly, it was completely fucking unnecessary. When I saw that DM, I absolutely had the choice to ignore it and say absolutely nothing at all and move on with my day, but instead, I couldn’t even tell you why, her message just triggered me, and I decided instead to make a video about it. And I bashed her, and it was obnoxious, and I shamed her for asking for help in a situation where she was clearly really struggling and this could have been her absolute last resort. I have no idea what was going on in her life, and I should have never assumed that she was just copying and pasting this DM as an easy way out. I don’t know. I just don’t know.
My intention behind making this video in the first place was, I get a lot of messages like this every single day, and for me personally, 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, but what I’m sure sucks even f**king more is not knowing where your next paycheck is coming from and not being sure whether or not you’re going to 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, and like I was basically shaming anybody that’s unemployed for not trying hard enough to get a job, and I feel awful because that wasn’t my intention, and it really hurt a lot of people, and I know that it’s not that easy.
I know that the job market f**king sucks right now. I have friends that are looking for jobs. I have my own employees that I try my best to take care of, and I’ve heard so many f**king horror stories online of companies ghosting people, recruiters wasting everybody’s time, people applying for job after job and not hearing back for six months, a year, two years. I know that it’s really f**king hard out there, and that most people are just doing their best and trying their best to figure it out and to make it by. And if this person happened to choose sending out GoFundMe links as their method of trying to make it by, who am I to judge?
Especially when you consider the fact that my method of figuring it out and getting by was making makeup videos online. I just happened to get really lucky, and now, years later, I’m in a blessed and privileged position. But as somebody with a platform, it’s my responsibility to humble myself and to never take what I have for granted, and when I made that video today, that is exactly what I did. I was speaking from a very privileged, obnoxious, ignorant standpoint, and for anybody that saw that video and was disappointed or upset with what I said, I am super sorry. Especially to the woman from Spirit Airlines.
I did try to look for her message earlier before making this video, and I couldn’t find it. If you see this video and you want to get in touch, I would love to apologize to you directly and to help you out a but if you are not comfortable with that, I totally understand too. I really appreciate anybody that sent me a message or left a comment about this video today letting me know how insensitive it was. I really needed to hear that, and I really need to think twice before I hit record and just start yapping on this account. I genuinely treat this spam page like I’m on FaceTime with you guys. I love to laugh and tell you stories and rant and scream at the camera and around with y’all, but sometimes I genuinely forget how many people are watching and it was completely inappropriate to make a joke out of somebody just trying to provide for themselves and their family. That’s definitely my bad.”
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