Jubliee star Dean Withers issues apology after racist and homophobic posts resurface

By Abby Amoakuh

Published Oct 11, 2024 at 01:59 PM

Reading time: 3 minutes

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Images courtesy of Jubilee via YouTube

If you’re a fan of political debates and watching people get their asses handed to them, I’m sure you’ve heard of Dean Withers. The 20-year-old political content creator has been going viral recently after he starred in a YouTube video for the digital media publication Jubilee wherein he debated 20 Donald Trump supporters. Taking each Republican participant down one by one, Withers managed to stun them all into silence with, well, facts. However, his status as the new Gen Z poster child for liberalism started to crumble as old racist and homophobic tweets by the influencer resurfaced. Here are the details.

In case you’ve never heard of him, Dean Withers is a content creator who uses his platform on TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, to challenge far-right commentators, and extremist people and ideas.

The creator has one million highly engaged followers on TikTok and roughly 153,000 followers on X.

It was probably Withers’ commitment to facts and passion for debating MAGA loyalists that caught the attention of Jubilee, a Los Angeles–based media company that specialises in facilitating discourse between opposing parties about social and political issues.

The video that cemented his internet fame was released on 20 September and featured Withers doing what he does best: speaking facts to conservatives who like to obscure them for their own agenda. It currently has almost 10 million views and 86,427 comments, alongside some pretty extensive engagement on social media.

Ever since the debate aired, the content creator has enjoyed new heights of viral fame. Nevertheless, the teenager might have been unprepared for the scrutiny this new spotlight brought with it.

Within weeks of the Jubilee video going live, netizens uncovered old tweets of the content creator using racist and homophobic slurs, such as a notorious word starting ‘n’ and another infamous word starting with ‘f’.

Withers promptly responded to the comments, acknowledging that the screenshots revealing his use of the f-slur two years ago and the n-word in 2019, were genuine. He also noted that he had responded to the posts on Discord some time ago and copied the apology on a new post on X.

“I am putting this announcement out not only to hold myself accountable but hoping you guys will hold me accountable as well. Collectively, society should hold all accountable who hold harmful ideologies or use such language; regardless of follower count, political affiliation, or perceived “power”. The use of slurs is deplorable, harmful, and disgusting and I am ashamed of my past actions,” Withers’  statement read.

He continued: “As I speak about on my live streams often, the reason I host my debates is because I was once in a position where I lacked critical education surrounding the topics that I now adamantly preach about, and I now hope to share that same education that brought me to the truth with AS MANY people as I can.”

The post has been liked more than 20,000 times and has attracted some 3,000 comments. Many of the comments came from white supremacists who have used the opportunity to hit back at Withers for his relentless advocacy against their community.

Still, Withers also used the opportunity to call out fabricated racist tweets that were gaining traction online.

Regardless, the internet seems to have forgiven Withers for the blunders, although some of the comments go back to as recent as 2022, according to PinkNews.

One formerly undecided voter even argued that the backlash left her undeterred, noting that Withers had firmly won her over to Kamala Harris’ side.

“The Dean drama that the right is trying to pretend we’re all burning over is absolutely insane. Dean has made some mistakes in the past but he is doing what every normal person should do who has a functioning IQ, learn from your past mistakes and move forward,” queer influencer and former Conservative Mercedes said in a new video that got roughly 60,000 likes.

“The thing about Dean is, I have joined his side, the blue side, simply because of that man right there. I love watching debates, I’ve always been an independent and I’m still an independent but I wasn’t going to vote for either side. Watching his debates, seeing how he dog-piled MAGA with actual facts that I had no idea existed and (…) unbiased media outlets and unbiased research proved him right. (…) That managed to do the lord’s work,” the influencer continued.

In the comment section, people seemed to agree with Mercedes: “Dean is a sharp, persuasive debater, consistently delivering well-founded, logical arguments that are tough to refute, never driven by emotional bias,” one person noted.

“That’s exactly why they’re trying to cancel Dean. They’re scared,” another user said.“I love Dean. We were all kids and made dumb mistakes…it’s called growth,” a final TikToker stated.

It looks like Withers managed to have a rise, fall and rise back up within in a week in a way only a true Gen Zers could. Respect.