Look, we get it, none of us want to hear about another drama involving Jeffree Star – there are so, so, so many – but here we are anyway. 

Yesterday, beauty influencer Kameron Lester called out the YouTuber for tokenising and silencing him when they worked together. Posted on his account via an IGTV entitled ‘Fear and Manipulation within the beauty community’, Lester explains that Star often promised to help him with his career, but never followed through. “I just felt like it was never a friendship, it was never a friendship in the beginning to start with, it was always just something like I was the kind of like the token black kid,” he says. 

He goes on to detail being put on the spot by Star about whether he liked James Charles – who he says supported him early in his career – and then being told “Well, you don’t fucking owe him forever,” when he said he didn’t have a problem with him. From then on, Lester says he was no longer supported by Star or Shane Dawson and was outcast.

“I felt like this was a game. Even with Shane Dawson posting me on his platform, I was grateful,” he says. “But I felt like it was kind of to silence me to be like, ‘We’re gonna keep giving you breadcrumbs and hanging you by a string and manipulating you so you can stay quiet.’ I felt always silenced.”

Despite being “so scared” of Star, Lester wanted to speak out and promises: “I will no longer just be the Black boy that is there to make you look good or speak up for you”. You can continue to support Lester (and other Black creatives in the beauty industry) by following them on their social channels, as well as checking out this extensive (but not exhaustive) list of Black-owned beauty brands that you can give your money to. 

Watch the full video below.