Tana Mongeau Apologizes to YouTuber Kahlen Barry For Past Racist Behavior

Carolyn Twersky
·5 min read
Photo credit: YouTube
Photo credit: YouTube

From Seventeen

Tana Mongeau apologized on Monday after YouTuber Kahlen Barry called her out for racist behavior in the past.

Kahlen was part of Tana's collab channel, Trash, back in 2016 and 2017, though they no longer keep in touch. Last week, he went on YouTube to talk about his experiences with Tana and called her out for using the n-word as well as allegedly treating him poorly for no reason.

According to Kahlen, when he confronted Tana about her use of the n-word, she said that she thought it was OK because she heard it in rap songs. Kahlen, though, didn't feel that this was an excuse and said he thought that Tana was lying to him and feigning ignorance.

"I would have respected her a lot more had she just owned up to it," he said in the YouTube video titled, "Finally Revealing the Truth About Tana Mongeau.

Kahlen claimed that after that incident, Tana and her manager, Jordan Worona, treated him very poorly. "She was saying things to lots of other YouTubers behind the scenes about me," he claimed.

Then, a year later, in a video with Aaron Fuller and Imari Stuart on YouTube, Tana joked that she "hates" Kahlen. "Honestly, I feel like she hates me because I’m black and that f*cking sucks to say and it’s crazy because she does have a black best friend, but you’ve called him the n-word too," Kahlen said in his video.

Then, in a follow up video, Kahlen claimed that since his initial video, Tana and Jordan tried to "silence him." He said that Jordan was "blackmailing" people who were also in Trash so they wouldn't support Kahlen. "You’re trying to get everybody who can vouch for me and who is sticking by me and having my back," he said. "You’re trying to get all of them to be silent and to not stick up for me."

A week after Kahlen's initial video came out, Tana took to Twitter to make a statement and apologize. "First, I’d like to apologize to Kahlen directly for my silence, there are no excuses, I should have talked and listened to you," she began. "Instead, I’ve been trying to find the words to address this and apologize in a way that that won’t further hurt anyone, and educate myself on how to handle this properly. i am so sorry that came with any silence."

She continued, saying there were no excuses for her behavior and she's trying to grow and educate herself. "I want to be the best version of myself who continues to grow. But I know that just educating myself isn’t enough to truly grow, and I need to take accountability for my past actions, and address them in order to truly grow."

She also apologized to Kahlen for "anything [she] ever did to make him feel that [she] was being micro-aggressive or racist."

Kahlen, though, wasn't pleased with the apology. "If this is ur apology I will be very disappointed," he tweeted. "I'm still trying to give u a chance to really fix things but u still don't seem like ur open to listening...it's sad to watch."

In a third video, Kahlen said he found Tana's apology to be "manipulative, very deflective and also gaslighting and invalidating." He also called out Jordan for his apology, saying the manager was trying to shift the blame to Tana.

It seems like Tana has since reached out to Kahlen privately. "I would love to talk to you," she said in a private DM tweeted out by Kahlen. "I want you to feel heard desperately." When Kahlen asked for her number, though, she seemed to not respond. As of this afternoon, Kahlen said she still hasn't responded.

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