Pewdiepie was terrible before all this
I mean, I dont personally think kids should be exposed to swear words as young as his fans are. But thats the world we live in where internet usage is unmonitored by parents
But yes, the racism is incredibly damaging to a child because we know that schools and parents cant break the internet culture that is teaching children unfiltered things
Its a serious concern that just doesnt get attention because of how the internet is
To be fair, I think he himself is a byproduct of the Internet, and the kids who are watching him are basically feeding off the same behaviour he himself picked up while growing up on the web.
Back then, when going through image boards and the like, it was very easy to find people treating each other on these terms. Asshole this, n word that and so on, so forth. They were absolute cesspools, and I imagine they must remain so. But then, people grow up and they start living in society and realizing that kind of behaviour is both childish and unacceptable.
That said, when you're Pewds, you don't really grow up. Despite his age and popularity, the guy still seems hell-bent on behaving like a teeanger. And he is passing down the exact same kind of content that shaped him up to become what he is today.
I don't want to say he isn't racist, because a behaviour like this would qualify as an act of racism, but I'm willing to believe that PDP wouldn't mistreat a POC in person nor does he harbor actual maliciousness towards them. Rather, I don't think he truly believes that POC are inferior to him or whatever. He uses it because it was the sort of joke he found funny when he was younger and unfortunately he didn't outgrow that phase. What he lacks, however, is empathy and a conscience to realize that even though for him this is harmless, this is a word that can and will cause hurt to a gigantic number of people given its weight and dreadful past.
As such, I am all for the guy getting called out, because if nothing else, the noise people make is another weapon in helping people realize that even this sort of behaviour is still racism, even if the perpetrator himself isn't someone who would go around beating POC on the streets or whatever. Behaviour like PDP's has been around the internet for a long while, and I'd estimate a large portion of kids who were exposed to it back then managed to fix themselves. That in an age where people were much less conscious and loud about these issues. So, the best way to fight it is indeed call him out on the BS.