Racial Stereotypes
Dr Disrespect, the self-proclaimed “face of Twitch” and an incredibly popular streamer, was confronted yesterday for his continued use of racial stereotypes intended to poke fun at Chinese gamers that he sometimes finds in Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. For almost a year now, Dr. Disrespect has disparaged players with Asian usernames or accents by speaking in what he calls a “hybrid” language meant to sound like he is speaking a Chinese dialect (combined with other Asian languages). , as if they were interchangeable). when he’s actually just speaking total gibberish.
Musician Jimmy Wong, brother of YouTuber Freddie Wong and an actor in a popular YouTube series like Video Game High School, collected several clips of Dr. Disrespect’s behavior towards Chinese gamers in a tweet that quickly gained ground as people weighed. whether the behavior was or not. really troublesome or just plain harmless comedy. “Young and extremely impressionable kids adore these influencers,” Wong wrote in a follow-up tweet explaining why what some think is a harmless joke is actually quite harmful. “They learn their gestures. They copy them. And they perpetuate them among friends, at school and in others.”
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds
Dr Disrespect’s behavior has come in response to games like Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds and H1Z1: Battle Royale that have become hugely popular in countries like China. Chinese players often play on North American servers, creating frustrations among Native North Americans due to language barrier, network connectivity issues, and cheating incidents. It’s an issue that has prompted some gamers to ask developer PUBG Corporation to block the region from Chinese players.
denigration
Dr. Disrespect’s reddit behavior violates Twitch community guidelines that state “Hateful conduct is any content or activity that promotes, encourages, or facilitates discrimination, denigration, objectification, harassment, or violence based on race, ethnic origin, national origin, religion or sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, medical condition, physical characteristics or veteran status, and is prohibited. “
Contacted for comment, Twitch told me that the issue was being “sent to the moderation team for investigation.” To celebrate his return this week, Twitch tweeted a video of DrDisrespect proclaiming himself “the face of Twitch.”
Dr Disrespect, real name Guy Beahm, is an award-winning former developer turned streamer who became the biggest name on Twitch, setting a viewership record last week when he returned to streaming.
