On Racism and Twitch
“Go back to Africa u monkey”
That statement was directed towards me in chat during my stream a couple nights ago when I called out a troll. He tried to make fun of me for being terrible at a certain character in Overwatch, and after I openly admitted to being terrible at said character and corrected his terrible grammar, he proceeded to lob even more insults in my direction. I didn’t have a real problem with it until he uttered the above phrase. The banhammer swung and I moved on.
When I started streaming on Twitch, I automatically prepared myself for behavior like this. It’s sad, but such is life on Twitch. Such is life on the internet, really. While racism is certainly a huge issue and negative part of society, it seems to be even more prevalent on the internet. There is something about sitting behind a keyboard that gives people a certain confidence to be especially terrible.
Despite it being a problem everywhere, it largely goes under the radar on Twitch. Sure, it may get attention whenever it happens during a high-profile event. But on a day-to-day basis, it doesn’t get much attention. Instead, many people tend to focus on “issues” of a completely different variety.
A huge point of contention with many out there centers on the prevalence of so-called “titty streamers” (their term, not mine). Essentially, people are up in arms that women are streaming in Twitch’s new(ish) IRL directory while using their God-given anatomy to their advantage. I personally have no issue at all with any of these streamers. Twitch is here for people to produce and consume whatever kind of content they like (to a certain extent of course). If someone wants to watch a women in a sports bra and short shorts work out, more power to you. If you want to stream yourself working out in a sports bra and short shorts, go for it! If I looked that in a sports bra, I’d probably do the same, honestly. She worked for that body, so flaunt it, girl! Who am I to tell anyone else what to do with their channels.
The fact that so many people are so bothered by this problem, though, means that other issues, racism included, get brushed aside. Which is pretty sad since racism should be more important than what is essentially a non-issue in my opinion.
While it may be sad, it’s not surprising in the least bit. Racism in a general sense is something that is largely ignored by society. I can guarantee you that there are people who still think that racism ended with the Civil Rights Movement. Shit, some probably think it ended at the conclusion of the Civil War. Anyone who thinks that is either white or oblivious, usually both, because if you ask any person of color whether racism is still around, they will surely have a wealth of stories to tell you about how that isn’t the case.
This exact thought on the existence of racism can be applied directly to Twitch. If you aren’t a person of color on Twitch, you may not know that the issue exists. The fact that I’ve already experienced this issue as a small streamer with a mere 70 followers who’s only been on Twitch for less than two months shows just how prevalent this issue really is.
Until we get more people to speak up about, however, nothing will change. I’m fully aware that it’s not like this is something that we can eradicate in the blink of an eye, but nothing at all will change if no one is talking about it.
We’re people, too, and we shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of abuse on such a regular basis.
Let’s get the conversation started.