Due to Twitch’s avalanche of livestreamed content, it comes as no surprise that slip ups often happen during live broadcasts – but one IRL stream caught an exceedingly uncomfortable confrontation.
Korean Twitch streamer Giannie Lee was in the midst of a livestreamed meal in Berlin, Germany when she was accosted by two strangers, who began making racist gestures in front of her camera.
Lee was obviously made uncomfortable by the interaction, asking the men to stop as they pulled at the corners of their eyes and mocked Asian languages in a garble of exaggerated speech.
Despite the aggressive invasion of her personal space, Lee managed to keep her cool, giving the strangers a calm reminder that hundreds of viewers were watching them act up.
“Hey, that’s racist,” Lee calmly explained. “I’m in Germany, don’t become racist. …a lot of people are watching you. They will attack you. Be nice. …I love German people.”
Killing them with kindness
While the strangers left her table after hearing her explanation, some members of her chat asked Lee to call the police or security, fearing for her safety – but Lee appeared to brush off the altercation, labeling the bystanders’ behavior as childlike.
“I explained [it], so he’s gone,” she said of the incident, going on to ask her viewers to forgive his behavior. “But it’s okay. It can be okay. He’s just a kid to me, right? He’s too young to…. Forgive him.”
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Some viewers speculated that the two men were drunk, while others congratulated Lee’s calm behavior and kind explanation in spite of the strangers’ vitriol.
“Her calm response really made him look like an even bigger asshole, which, let’s be honest, was a pretty hard task,” one commenter wrote.
“What makes it even worse is that he is invading her personal space, something that is considered super rude and offensive in Germany,” another said of the altercation. “Those guys are scum.”
Racism caught on Twitch
This is far from the first time that racism has been recorded on Twitch, either; TwitchCon Europe saw a racist stream sniper shout a slur into another streamer’s camera as she passed by, prompting a tense altercation that ultimately ended with her issuing an apology.
Another streamer was banned from the platform around the same time, after applying blackface makeup for an Apex Legends cosplay.
