On October 11, 2016, James Charles Dickinson became CoverGirl’s first male spokesmodel at the age of seventeen. So how did CoverGirl find him? Dickinson launched his youtube channel on December 1, 2015 to share his talent and his love for makeup. He now has nearly 790,000 subscribers and 1.5 million followers and amazing supporters on Instagram who he calls his ‘Sisters.’

At the age of twelve Dickinson came out as gay and a few years later decided to play with makeup, never once suspecting that just two years after that he would be CoverGirl’s first CoverBoy. Inevitably there were the ignorant negative comments towards his appearance and his character but Dickinson continued to become a role model for millions around the world. He told Allure “I’m having fun; I’m being myself; I’m
doing what I love, that’s all that matters.”

In a recent twitter post, Dickinson made quite an offensive comment after announcing that he would be in Africa for ten days. The post read: “I can’t believe we’re going to Africa today omg what if we get Ebola?” The tweet blew up in just minutes. Some argued it was blatantly racist while others defended him saying he didn’t mean anything by it. When he got off the plane he posted an apology explaining that he understood why what he said was offensive and that he has a lot to learn as a

The tweet blew up in just minutes. Some argued it was blatantly racist while others defended him saying he didn’t mean anything by it. When he got off the plane he posted an apology explaining that he understood why what he said was offensive and that he has a lot to learn as a seventeen-year-old.

We have all posted things on social media that we wish would disappear. Dickinson may have apologized after being called out but is that enough to ignore the fact that he was being blatantly racist? He is now under fire with his fans and CoverGirl regarding not just this one post, but multiple other offensive jokes that have been found in his past tweets.