MrBeast accepts the award for favorite male creator during the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards on Saturday, March 4, 2023, at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Richard Shotwell, Invision via Associated Press
MrBeast is under fire again. This time, it’s because the YouTube star gave shoes to 20,000 South African kids.
“For hundreds of thousand of kids in South Africa, the only thing standing between them and an education is a simple pair of shoes,” MrBeast explained in a video posted on Wednesday.
He went to to explain that many kids in South Africa have to walk barefoot for miles over harsh terrain, broken glass and contaminated water to get to school.
MrBeast teamed up with Johannesburg charity called Barefoot No More. The nonprofit makes shoes “out of an innovative material designed for durability, comfort and flexibility.” The shoes are also waterproof and stretch to fit a growing foot.
Once he acquired the shoes, MrBeast traveled to Cape Town to “find the schools whose students are in the most desperate need of help.” He then gave out 20,000 pairs of Barefoot No More shoes to South African students.
This is not the first of the social media star’s philanthropic efforts. Earlier this year, he funded cataracts surgery for 1,000 people suffering blindness — an act for which he was called “demonic,” per the Deseret News.
In 2020, MrBeast said be planned to “use my main channel’s influence to one day open hundreds of homeless shelters/food banks and give away all the money.”
“That’s my gameplan and if you don’t believe me, just watch. I promise I’m dying with 0 dollars in my bank account and I refuse to live a materialistic life,” he wrote in a followup tweet.
I want to build other channels like beast gaming and beast reacts so I can run my main channel at a loss and grow as big as possible. And then use my main channel’s influence to one day open hundreds of homeless shelters/food banks and give away all the money.
That’s my gameplan and if you don’t believe me, just watch. I promise I’m dying with 0 dollars in my bank account and I refuse to live a materialistic life.
To make good on his claims, MrBeast created a channel called BeastPhilanthropy where he posts videos of his philanthropic efforts, some of which include: saving an orphanage, building wells in Africa, cleaning the ocean and rebuilding homes damaged by tornados.
Fans criticize the YouTube star because they claim he profits off of his videos. One fan called his donation of shoes a “millionaire bandaid.”
People praising things like this like “good guy Mr Beast” ignore the reality that he makes a profit from these types of videos.
This isn’t really charity. pic.twitter.com/tSYW7wp0Eo
Millionaire philanthropy is a bandaid that covers the core issues that force people into terrible conditions in the first place. People are not mad at Mr. Beast. They are mad at the system. https://t.co/fXrYHFTymF
I don’t wanna get yelled at again but you guys know this is all really weird right? Like… can you look beyond the “X thing is good” and think about the wider context in which all of this happens, including the nature and incentives of charity content https://t.co/Ygg9CVNDb2
Loyal MrBeast fans shared their support of the YouTuber’s philanthropic efforts.
Mr beast found an infinite money glitch where philanthropy pays for more philanthropy. Yall need to chill on him lmao
Mr. Beast: *Gives away millions of dollars through philanthropic efforts*
Internet haters: "He's doing it for views/money"
Mr. Beast: "I don't keep the money from this channel, I just give it away to help more people
Moral of the story: Haters gon Hate…DO YOU!
I'm pretty confident the kids in Africa who now have shoes are pretty happy with MrBeast.
So are the people who are now, literally not blind anymore.
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