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Lasizwe deletes tweets about being racially profiled in Europe
The creator, who travelled to Spain for a YouTube event, claimed that he was singled out, profiled and threatened with arrest.
Lasizwe Dambuza, YouTube content creator and reality TV star. Picture: Twitter
Influencer and creator Lasizwe Dambuza got his fans in a tizzy after claiming he was racially profiled while on a work trip in Spain and quietly deleted the tweets shortly thereafter.
“So I got racially profiled. The police in Spain stopped me inside the airport and asked for my passport then they told me to wear my mask (bare in mind it’s not mandatory in Spain to wear masks anymore except for when you are in a public transport),” began Lasizwe on 24 October.
The creator, who travelled to Spain for a YouTube event celebrating the World’s Top Creators, claimed that he was then threatened with arrest.
“They told me if they catch me without a mask at the airport they were going to arrest me or fine me when I looked around at the airport NO ONE WAS WEARING MASKS (also [bear] in mind it’s just white people here. Black people are a 1:1000 scale here) after the security checkpoint,” added Lasizwe.
He concluded by stating that he felt targeted because of his race and the fact that he was travelling alone.
“I said f*** it I removed my mask and made friends to just move around with them… I felt like they targeted me because I was alone, young and black. This was a very wild experience still trying to process it.”
His fans offered words of support and expressed their disappointment with his experience.
ALSO READ: Lasizwe denies being EFF’s ‘president of LGBTQI+’
Lasizwe’s success questioned
Entertainment commentator Phil Mphela recently questioned YouTube’s continued support of Lasziwe over other creators.
“Mzansi creative industry is so lazy! The obsession with celebrity has completely decimated talent development and elevation. It’s sad. There are YouTubers pulling impressive numbers [and] content but they don’t get the support from Google Africa because they are not celebs,” tweeted Mphela.
His tweet caught the attention of Google Africa who reached out to him with the intention of discussing ways to collaborate with him and he chose to use the moment to publicly question their support of Lasizwe and the fact that he is placed at the forefront of a lot of their creator campaigns.
The most recent campaign being their ‘Made in Mzansi’ campaign which “challenges young creators to showcase the best of South Africa via YouTube Shorts. The objective of the project is to celebrate culturally relevant moments”, especially around Heritage Day and engage with South Africans.
“While I have you we might as well address it here. Love Lasizwe, love what you have done for him. Amazing. That said, I think it’s time you started acknowledging other Mzansi creators on the platform getting massive views,” argued Phil before listing creators like Owami, NdivhuT and the notorious Podcast and Chill which has previously been selected for one of YouTube’s annual Black Voices cohorts.
He then backed his position using the statistics of Lasizwe’s channel stating that he had been experiencing a drastic decline in viewership.
“Let’s look at the numbers to support my lament… Lasizwe’s numbers have drastically declined he barely hits 500k views,” added Mphela before comparing his performance to other channels.
He concluded by stating that he did not necessarily want anything taken away from Lasizwe but added that he wished other people could enjoy the success that the young creator is enjoying.
Neither Lasziwe nor Google had publicly responded to Mphela’s suggestions at the time of writing.
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