Streamer Bruce Ray calls out Twitch after being banned for saying "cracker"
Twitch streamer Bruce Ray, who goes by BruceDropEmOff on the platform, has had his channel suspended after using the term ‘cracker’ in chat. He has since called Twitch out for their failure to protect people of color as consistently.
On December 21, Ray confirmed the cause for his channel’s ban was “for saying ‘cracker’ in a chat.”
This word has been at the center of the most recent Twitch controversy, after one of the biggest streamers on Twitch, Hasan Piker, was banned for a week for claiming that the word is not racist, and using it openly on his own channel.
Subsequently, two other streamers were also banned over their use of the word. Hasan’s suspension has now been lifted, and he has returned to streaming – but Twitch’s stance on the word has not changed.
Bruce Ray banned over ‘cracker’ use
BruceDropEmOff on Twitch had over 400,000 followers on his channel at the time of his suspension, where he plays a variety of games and often is found in the ‘Just Chatting’ section.
After the ban, Ray posted screenshots of chat messages sent from his account, writing “you can’t be racist towards white people,” and “that word is not racist.”
What I got banned for #FreeDEO #BlackKing pic.twitter.com/Ffphu4S62Z
— Bruce Ray (@raycondones) December 21, 2021
Hasan supported Bruce, posting “Twitch needs to stop capitulating to white supremacists and those doing white identity politics, you are making the platform a worse place overall.”
twitch needs to stop capitulating to white supremacists and those doing white identity politics, you are making the platform a worse place overall. #FreeDEO https://t.co/YTCJhC9f3N
— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) December 21, 2021
Other streamers also backed Bruce, with QTCinderella calling the platform “big dumb dumb heads.”
Yo @Twitch I gave @raycondones the pass. Please fucking unban him you big dumb dumb heads.
— QTCinderella (@qtcinderella) December 21, 2021
Bruce Ray calls out Twitch
Ray followed up by expressing disappointment that Twitch is not as consistent with protecting people of color, as they were with handing out bans for the use of ‘cracker.’
I wish twitch was this consistent protecting people of color.
— Bruce Ray (@raycondones) December 21, 2021
Fans and others supporting Ray following the suspension have started the #FreeDEO hashtag, which was trending on Twitter on December 22.
It even broke out of the Twitch community, with rapper Lil Yachty (who has streamed on Twitch before and appeared on Ray’s stream) posting with the hashtag.
#FREEDEO stupid ass
— concrete boy boat (@lilyachty) December 21, 2021
Twitch has not yet made a public statement about the bans for using the word, and has not responded to requests for comment.
Twitch community guidelines state that “using hateful slurs, either untargeted or directed towards another individual,” is prohibited. However, it continues, “we allow certain words or terms, which might otherwise violate our policy, to be used in an empowering way or as terms of endearment when such intent is clear.”
The string of bans indicates that there is a low tolerance for the term cracker on the platform.
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