The YouTuber KSI has apologised for using a racist slur during a recent video made with his group the Sidemen.
He acknowledged there was no excuse for using the slur and said he would be removing himself from social media for a spell as a result.
In the video, Sidemen members played a game of Countdown. Given his letters, KSI put together a four-letter derogatory word for someone of Pakistani origin.
“This is horrifically disappointing from KSI and his crew,” said the teacher and broadcaster Mehreen Baig. “So many of my students look up to these guys and they’re casually throwing around a word that has consistently been used to bully and attack south Asians. This isn’t comedy.
“What’s worse is that it will be swept under the carpet after minimal outrage because racism against brown people is so normalised.”
Less than an hour later, KSI posted on Twitter: “I wanna apologise for saying a racial slur in a recent Sidemen video. There’s no excuse, no matter the circumstances, I shouldn’t have said it and I’m sorry.
“I’ve always said to my audience that they shouldn’t worship me or put me on a pedestal because I’m human. I’m not perfect, I’m gonna mess up in life, and lately I’ve been messing up a lot. So I’ve decided I’m gonna just take a break from social media for a while.”
His Sidemen colleagues could be seen laughing at his jibe in the video, which has since been removed from YouTube, though tweets from the Sidemen’s official account promoting it are still live.
KSI, who is also a musician, a boxer and is behind the popular Prime energy drink brand, has developed huge cultural influence in recent years. His main personal account on YouTube has more than 20 million subscribers, while the account he shares with the other Sidemen has nearly as many, and its videos are regularly shared by people in their tens of millions.
