Liza Koshy is apologizing for her own past racist actions on YouTube.
The 24-year-old influencer came under fire for a now-deleted 2016 video with ex-boyfriend David Dobrik, where she imitated Asian accents while tasting candy from Japan and Hawaii.
In an additional video with the same candy concept, Liza again pretended to speak Japanese while taste testing the sweets.
“Being anti-racist requires a personal reckoning, and I can’t in good faith continue to use my platform for progress without taking accountability myself,” Liza shared in her apology. “I am taking inventory, taking initiative and taking note that my impact and influence will weigh greater than my intention.”
She went on, explaining that she once thought her jokes were “innocent,” but now knows they were “actually tainted with implicit bias, and what might have been intended as ‘playful’ was actually to some, incredibly painful. And for that, I am so sorry.”
“As a woman of color and self-defined ‘little brown girl,’ I have experienced the harm of prejudices in my own life,” Liza continued. “However, this reality does not exempt me from the responsibility of acknowledging the times I’ve unknowingly perpetuated racist ideas.”
“I see now that some of my previous influences and my own past thinking, speaking and storytelling reinforced stereotypes,” she wrote. “I created characters of different cultures with the intent of celebrating them, but with the impact of appropriating them.”
“I am sorry to the beautiful communities I have caused hurt within,” she continued. “It takes a combination of individual and collective reckoning with our past to heal and move forward together. Consider this my resignation from ignorance, and my declaration as an ally in action. I will give grace, make space and break these damn systems in place like my life depends on it… because too many do.”
Liza concluded: “Thank you to my guardian angels in life and online who have been gracefully guiding this growth of mine, and I thank God for my continued awakening.”
Just recently, many YouTubers have issued apologies for their past actions, including Shane Dawson and Jenna Marbles.
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