There is trouble around the Twitch emote “PogChamp”: Twitch has replaced the face of the emote after 9 years and is now changing it with different streamers. However, the politically charged atmosphere in the USA makes the situation difficult.
What’s going on with PogChamp? The emote “PogChamp” has been around since 2012. It shows the streamer Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez looking extremely joyful.
The emote was meant to express a state of “joyful surprise.” It was used on Twitch to express hype and to show that something exciting has just happened.
This emote was removed by Twitch after 9 years because Gootecks made a statement regarding the attack of demonstrators on the US Capitol in a way that Twitch interpreted as Gootecks calling for more violence.
Now Twitch is introducing different streamers as the face of “PogChamp” in a new campaign. This is based on an idea by Sean “Day 9” Plott. Every 24 hours, a new streamer is supposed to become the face of the popular emote.
Shortened Twitch clip portrays black streamer as a racist
This is the conflict: The first two streamers went through without major conflict. Then it was Omega Jones’s turn, a streamer known as “Critical Bard.”
Omega Jones is a black streamer. He had a feeling of what was about to come (via twitter).
He said:
“I expected the usual hate and racism. Because every time a black person is showcased on Twitch, there is a backlash. What I personally did not expect was that my words would be twisted to fit an agenda and that I would be attacked from all fronts.”
Omega Jones
A clip from Overwatch was shared online, in which Critical Bard said: “White lives don’t matter because there’s no such thing as white lives.” Then the clip was cut.
This clip apparently was meant to prove that Omega Jones is a “racist.”
This Twitch clip has over 400,000 views.
However, Omega Jones is not a racist. He then shows the whole clip in question. Here it becomes clear that he wanted to say something completely different: White is not an overarching term for a people like black because white breaks down into Italians and Scots and other nationalities.
While “black” would have the commonality that they were stolen from a land they love, that their heritage was stolen from them and their identity. All that would have been left for them would be being black.
So Omega Jones was willfully misquoted to create a false image of him. He wanted to say something completely different than what the short clip suggested. That only served to misrepresent him.
This is the discussion: It is being discussed that every time Twitch tries to promote a marginalized group, there is a strong backlash, and then they are too soft in protecting streamers and punishing aggressors.
Jones tells Polygon: Twitch needs to ban people who add fuel to the fire and make it harder for people to simply create accounts just to harass others. Lip service to tolerance is easy, but clear stands against racism and hate must be taken.
How difficult Twitch is in including and protecting marginalized groups was shown in a discussion from 2020 about the streamer FerociouslySteph:
Twitch appoints a streamer to the Safety Council who behaves like a deer
