#TwitchDoBetter Anthem Video

Black creators are sick of being targeted, harassed, & attacked on Twitch.

COC has been working with Black streamers to put an end to the harassment, and Twitch still won’t listen.

We demand #TwitchDoBetter because Black people deserve to be safe off & online.

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

0:00
i’ve always wanted the best for twitch
0:01
and that’s why i put a lot of my heart
0:03
and soul into it because it has changed
0:05
my life for the better
0:07
but it hasn’t done enough to protect me
0:10
and people like me
0:11
my twitch handle is a underscore typical
0:14
queer i’m real mommy eagle i’m it’s
0:16
ladykit my twitch handle is i am brandon
0:18
and i’m here because i want to see
0:20
twitch do better for black creators and
0:22
marginalized communities across the
0:23
platform
0:25
when i first joined twitch it was
0:27
phenomenal gaming has really changed my
0:29
life and made me feel more comfortable
0:31
being myself the best thing about twitch
0:34
is the community aspect people on twitch
0:36
made me feel accepted and happy and my
0:37
skin and confidence and twitch gave me
0:40
the space to be
0:42
who i was unapologetically but that was
0:44
until twitch started to do harm to my
0:47
mental health through the hate raids and
0:49
things like that the first time i was
0:51
hate rated was early july i’m reading
0:53
the chat and i just see a wall of text
0:56
and it’s racial slurs i was getting hate
0:58
rated almost every time i went on stream
1:00
for a week straight the hate raids are
1:02
focused on
1:04
all parts of me not just the color of my
1:06
skin and focuses on my appearance the
1:09
way that i speak the country i come from
1:12
it got really traumatizing a lot because
1:14
it made me feel like why am i even doing
1:16
this like why am i putting myself
1:17
through all this stuff for someone to
1:19
just like see me see my skin and just
1:21
like i’ma call you this word and i want
1:23
to see how you react it hasn’t really
1:25
subsided it stopped me from streaming as
1:27
much as i used to i used to stream for
1:29
hours without even realizing now even
1:32
the thought of streaming gives me so
1:33
much anxiety there was a lot of
1:34
insecurity about
1:36
me and belonging it just made me think
1:39
like what did i do to deserve this or
1:41
what did other creators do to deserve
1:42
this it’s not the experience you come on
1:44
twitch for for most of us and for me
1:46
twitch is our escape
1:47
so when my community and me are
1:49
subjected to these hateful words it’s
1:51
almost like is that people saying that
1:53
we’re not welcome here we don’t deserve
1:54
to be here we don’t deserve to have our
1:55
own space
1:56
after the insecurity faded we ultimately
1:59
decided we don’t change the platform
2:01
and we don’t make it better by leaving
2:03
we stay and we fight it if you’re going
2:04
to build this wall to block me from my
2:07
success i’m gonna grab a pickaxe myself
2:09
and i’ll tear down the wall myself
2:11
because you’re not gonna do it why would
2:13
you tear something that you put up in
2:14
the first place because you know what
2:16
protects your interests i have always
2:18
said that twitch has one of the best
2:21
platforms to showcase diversity and they
2:23
don’t do anything with it you don’t see
2:26
a lot of different faces on the platform
2:28
there’s a lot of white streamers who are
2:30
featured on there for the black tag or
2:32
any tag right now it’s the way of
2:34
discoverability and you can find people
2:36
that fall within that category hopefully
2:38
but the black tags didn’t have the
2:39
safety measures that we should have had
2:41
if you want to be discovered then you
2:43
have to sacrifice your safety
2:44
something’s gonna happen where someone’s
2:45
gonna get hurt
2:46
and it will be on them to have to deal
2:49
with that the thing that twitch could do
2:51
better is actually doing better and
2:52
being transparent and supporting the
2:54
voices that are there you know the
2:56
community that is there i want the
2:59
platform to protect us black creators
3:01
that’s just my ultimate ending game with
3:03
everything that i’m doing my ultimate in
3:05
game and for us to be displayed on
3:06
higher level for us to be seen on the
3:08
front page not just because it’s black
3:10
history month or not just because it’s
3:12
pride month but
3:13
because
3:15
you want to show the platform that this
3:16
is a diverse platform where everyone
3:18
belongs
3:19
i’m demanding twitch do better for
3:21
people of color and for members of the
3:23
lgbtq community

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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