Video games have provided many people an outlet to express themselves. This affinity for video games has never been more popular, with entire industries and communities connected by a shared enthusiasm for gaming. To the surprise of some parents, playing and making video games can actually be a viable career choice nowadays, too.
Sometimes, this passion and popularity for gaming can lead to the creation of wonderful opportunities that empower and uplift diverse groups of people.
For Jamie Collier, a recent graduate at UNC-Chapel Hill, playing video games on Twitch — a streaming platform mainly used by gamers — is a passion that she’s enjoyed throughout her years in college. However, as a Black content creator, and as a woman of color, things haven’t always been easy.
The George Floyd tragedy and its aftermath in the summer of 2020 sparked a new wave of online racial tensions among different communities in online gaming spaces. In particular, the video live streaming platform Twitch saw an increase in a phenomenon called “Hate Raids”, which are targeted attacks initiated by anonymous users that flood marginalized content creators’ stream chat rooms with insults and harassment.
“At that time, it would be... like, I don’t know. Let’s call them like, hate raider; one, two, three, four. They would go into, like, multiple creators of colors’ channels and start hate raids. So, like, they get banned on one channel, then just move on to the next. And that’s how that specific account kind of became known for hate raiding. So, people just made a list of all the known hate raiding accounts and were like, ‘Hey, you need to block these users because they’re not there just to be chatting, like, they’re there for malicious intent’”, says Collier.
Playing games online as a Black person is often a mixed experience. For example, when joining a lobby of strangers to play with in the popular video game Call of Duty, it’s not uncommon to hear the N-word or other racial slurs via microphone chat. If it’s discovered that you’re a woman by the way your voice sounds, the harassment is usually much worse. At other points in a Black person’s gaming experience though, some of the kindest people you’ll ever meet could also be in the same lobby. Streaming on Twitch is very similar for Black content creators, it’s a mixed experience.
In February 2021, the Twitch community took part in a month-long celebration of Black streamers, post-George Floyd, for Black History Month. It was an effort that was initiated and spearheaded by Twitch itself. “History doesn’t just happen. It’s created. And Black streamers are creating it live every day”, Twitch stated in a press release. “So this Black History Month, we want to celebrate Black brilliance by honoring, uplifting, and recognizing the Black creators who shape gaming culture and beyond everytime they go live.”
This was an opportunity to highlight members from the Black Twitch community creating interesting content and to feature them on the front page of the website.
However, by this point, hate raids had already become a known problem on the platform, and community members were optimistic but understandably cautious. Twitch assured users that their concerns in 2020 were heard and that changes had been made.
Also, it didn’t necessarily matter how popular a particular content creator was on the platform. If you’re identifiable as a Black streamer, hate raids were still an issue for them, too. KaiCenat, a very popular Black streamer who achieved the rare feat of amassing over 100,000 subscribers on Twitch, still faced intense discrimination from racist trolls whose primary objectives were to diminish his success. While Twitch had a plan to solve the influx of racism affecting its platform, it failed to fully prevent these attacks from happening.
To be fair, issues of toxic gamer culture aren’t exclusive to Twitch; however, the company is in a unique position as the top destination for gamers to watch and stream video games. They have a responsibility as an industry leader to enact effective protocols and changes that smaller companies can hopefully emulate themselves to make gaming better for everyone.
Despite the positive sentiments, crafty and determined trolls still found ways to get around the various tools that Twitch implemented for its users.
“Our goal is for everyone to have a safe, celebratory experience that introduces viewers to some awesome communities. We know more visibility can sometimes lead to unwanted trolling and harassment so we’re offering sessions on mod tools, best practices, and more to every creator participating in our Black History Month celebration. We’ve also implemented a clear escalation process for any creator in need of more support,” the company said.
Tanaya Ree, an actress, creative producer and Twitch streamer, knows from experience, as a Black woman, that the effects of toxic gamer culture is spreading.
“Gaming cultures that exist on other live streaming platforms such as Microsoft’s Mixer, Facebook Gaming, YouTube Gaming or that exist on TikTok, all of these avenues of social media where people can create content. As a woman and as a person of color, I’ve experienced misogyny and racism, this isn’t a Twitch specific thing,” says Ree.
In her view, Twitch has helped Black content creators in significant ways and isn’t the primary source of where others should place their blame for the influx of racism on the platform. A few of her friends have benefitted from things like the Twitch Ambassadors program, or were a featured channel during Black History Month. However, she wants to keep Twitch accountable for things that are exclusive to its platform as a result of the hate raids, such as the act of doxxing or swatting. This is when trolls find the real address or other private information of the streamers and then post it online for others to see. The result is sometimes violent as swat teams or police officers show up to the residences of the streamers to arrest them based on bogus phone calls.
“People...during the hate raids, people’s addresses were being leaked. People had to block their address in chat. And I’m like you got to do more to combat these things and have better safeguards. so your platform doesn’t get hacked by people who can easily take over and do these things.”
The impact of hate raids caused additional pain and suffering to a community of people that were already going through tough times as a result of the George Floyd murder and its aftermath. The extreme efforts of racist trolls to harm Black streamers continues today, despite Twitch’s implementations.
The bright side to the hate raids and Twitch’s letdowns is that the moment has united people within the Black gaming community closer together. It’s easy to find Black streamers of diverse interests and backgrounds, banding together in support of each other on Twitter or other social media spaces whenever something like this happens to a fellow community member.
“Any time you see a platform not doing something,” Ree said, “Just make sure you’re also being the voice to uplift and empower, and host and raid whatever you got to do to support the communities around you, if you feel like it’s not being done.”