On Twitch, the streamer Sweet Anita (Overwatch, Apex Legends) is a phenomenon. The young woman has Tourette’s syndrome and her speech often slips. Now, people have demanded that she should be banned from Twitch for saying a racist word. Sweet Anita says she developed this new tic thanks to the Twitch chat.
Who is it about? We reported on Sweet Anita in December 2018. She is now a 29-year-old Twitch streamer from the UK. She suffers from Tourette’s syndrome.
A year ago, she was just starting on Twitch and was playing Overwatch. In just a few weeks, she had more than 238,000 followers.
The young woman often blurted out vulgar expressions, in addition, she whistled uncontrollably and exhibited several other tics.
How has Sweet Anita fared? Sweet Anita has become a staple on Twitch. She has 565,679 followers. Last year, she was live for 705 hours, most of the time in “Just Chatting”, occasionally playing Overwatch or Apex Legends as well. (via sullygnome)
What triggered the uproar: In a Twitch stream, Sweet Anita showed a new tic and said the “N-word.” This is a prohibited, racist word on Twitch, for which people are regularly banned.
Everyone knows this: It is the word that you absolutely must not say on Twitch. Along with some homophobic words.
This caused an uproar: People demanded that the streamer should be banned from Twitch.
Black streamer supports Sweet Anita
This was the reaction: A black Twitch streamer who is friends with Sweet Anita and also has Tourette’s syndrome stated that there is nothing racist about her. He would put his hand in the fire for her. She is incredibly nice.
As a “certified Negro” who has had trouble with the police because he is black, he can say: Anita is just nice and friendly. No one should assume she is really a racist.
Twitch chat triggers new tic
This is what Anita herself says: The streamer explains that she would never have had this tic of saying the N-word before. But since she is on Twitch, she has developed this tic, apparently her chat wants to trigger it intentionally.
She says: Just because one knows what the N-word means when spoken, does not mean one is a racist. Everyone knows what the word is called.
Sweet Anita is glad that this incident is helping to raise awareness about Tourette’s syndrome and spark discussion. However, she says she cannot promise that this will never happen again. She cannot control her tics.
The more pressure people place on her not to say the word, the more likely it is that a tic will make her say it.
Currently, there is no indication that Twitch is planning to ban Sweet Anita. Another streamer who had demanded Sweet Anita’s ban has since apologized to her after receiving criticism for calling for a ban.
