KSI Involved in Racial Slur Scandal in Wake of WWE WrestleMania Cameo

By Ashley Turner

KSI, a YouTuber-turned-boxer, has apologized for using a racial slur on YouTube. Taking a break from social media is also on the agenda for the British rapper and recent WrestleMania participant, real name Olajide William Olatunji. During a Countdown challenge, he made the slur in a YouTube video with his group, The Sidemen. KSI became famous as part of the crew and is frequently featured in sketches on their YouTube channel, with over 18 million subscribers. KSI created a four-letter word derogatory to people of South Asian descent from his selection of letters."There's no excuse, no matter the circumstances, I shouldn't have said it and I'm sorry," the 29-year-old tweeted.

"I've always said to my audience that they shouldn't worship me or put me on a pedestal because I'm human. I'm not perfect, I'm gonna mess up in life, and lately I've been messing up a lot." The Sidemen have since deleted the video from their social media and were criticized for laughing after KSI made the slur. Later on Monday, The Sidemen apologized for the "completely unacceptable and inexcusable" slur. "The fact the incident was made light of on the show was wrong and compounded the hurt," they tweeted. KSI apologized in March 2021 for past use of "transgender slurs," tweeting: "Honestly didn't even know they were slurs. I know now though."

The incident comes after he wore an enormous Prime suit at WWE's Wrestlemania, an homage to his hugely successful energy drink. At the event, KSI was accidentally pushed through a table by his former rival and now Prime business partner Logan Paul, who was facing Seth Rollins at the event. In order to keep his appearance at the major wrestling event a secret, the star posted a fake image showing him flying back to training camp, according to The Mirror. However, observant fans noticed he had an appearance scheduled in Los Angeles with Paul, preventing him from returning home. "Nobody knew it was me," he said on WWE's YouTube channel following the show. "I guess a few fans were speculating being like, 'could it, surely not.'" 

"So I tried putting something on my story to be like, 'oh, I'm leaving LA' just to trick some of my fans, but then when I came in out the ring being like, 'what's up' down the ramp, they were like 'who is it?' "There was one point where I was just blocking people's way, and people behind me were screaming to get out of the way because I was too big. I started kneeling to try and stop blocking people's view. But then I was like, 'no, Logan needs help,' so I came through, dragged him out, and Seth is a scary, scary dude gripping me up and everything."

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