Savannah Evanski

May 1, 2022

COM 101

Professor Sarah Socha

Taking Accountability

The internet is full of so many different personalities creating content to show to billions

on a daily basis. Shane Dawson is one of these so-called content creators. Not only has Shane

Dawson made an online apology video, but he has made several. The specific apology I will be

analyzing is his most recent as well as most controversial. Shane titles this apology as “Taking

Accountability” where he manages to take accountability maybe once in a twenty minute long

ramble.

As a white person I don’t feel qualified to speak on whether or not Shane Dawson’s

apology is forgivable, but I can say whether I believe it’s genuine or not. While Shane vocally

expresses his disdain with his past actions, his body language fails to match that. Shane’s

insincerity shines through with a whopping “twenty-nine mouth shrugs and roughly two-hundred

and sixty to three-hundred jump cuts” in only twenty minutes. (Observe) As many times as

Shane says he is ‘sorry’ he follows it with an excuse and a self-preservational statement. As

MacDoesIt put it, you can say you’re sorry as much as you want, but trying to explain why

you’re a good person rather than showing that you are takes so much away from the apology. It

seems while Shane may be sorry, he is much more sorry that he was caught and called out for his

racist and pedophilic behavior rather than the hurt it caused. For example, during multiple

instances in this apology Shane says his older apologies were quote “fear-based.” With the
extreme controversy that resulted in the necessity for this apology video, one can only assume

that this apology is similarly “fear-based.”

“Body Language Analyst REACTS to Shane Dawson’s Instagram Live and Apology Video |

Faces Episode 10.” YouTube, uploaded by Observe, 9 Aug. 2020,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFr3SP9dBO8.

“Reviewing Youtubers Racism Apologies So You Don’t Have To.” YouTube, uploaded by

MacDoesIt, 12 July 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATGLyzbCw2g.

“Taking Accountability.” YouTube, uploaded by Shane Dawson, 26 June 2020,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ardRp2x0D_E.