The Twitch streamer Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker was banned from Twitch for a week in 2021 for using a word considered a racist term for white people: “Cracker.” However, in 2022, a snack company is now using this ban as a marketing opportunity and gives the streamer a “Cracker Pass.”
What kind of insult is that? It is the word “Cracker” or “Cracka.” In German, it is a completely innocuous word that describes a “biscuit-like snack,” which is something that is nice and crunchy when you bite into it.
In the USA, the word has this meaning as well, but also another: It is used as a derogatory term for white people. The reason why “Cracker” is used as a derogatory term for white people is unknown, but there are several theories:
- One theory suggests that the racist meaning of the insult originates from the early 19th century when poor white farmers were described as “Corn Crackers” because they cracked corn kernels to feed themselves.
- Another theory states that it comes from white overseers who would crack their whips on the backs of slave workers: In English, to whip also means “to crack a whip.”
The exact origin of the word in its racist connotation is somewhat unclear, but in any case, “Cracker” has established itself as a racist and derogatory term for “white people.”
What did the Twitch streamer do? HasanAbi is a political streamer on Twitch who positions himself strongly on the left spectrum. In December 2021, Piker said:
I get called a cracker more often than any of you other damn little cracker bitches in my chat, okay?
With that, he wanted to defend one of his banned moderators, but he was also banned from Twitch himself.
HasanAbi mocked on December 14 that he was banned for an “anti-white, racist word.”
Snack company grants HasanAbi official permission to say Cracker
This is the new twist: On November 18, the snack company “WheatThins” wrote to the streamer, stating that they had left a “little gift” at his door.
HasanAbi initially got upset about this – where did such a company get his address, but then he opened the gift:
Indeed, the cracker company gave him not only a bunch of snacks but also the permission to have an official “pass” to use the word Cracker in the future.
Piker then also said:
“This is official. I can say it, Twitch, I can say it damn right now. I can call someone the C-word and you can’t ban me. Do you understand that? I have the Cracker Pass.”
With the “Cracker” pass, the company is referring to a joke: the “N-Word Pass,” a permission to say a word that is generally used as an racist insult against black people.
Black people possess the “N-Word Pass” and are allowed to use the word. For everyone else, however, it is absolutely forbidden.
Why is this such a topic? For people on the political left, the discussion seems to be heated because, in their eyes, the harmless word “Cracker” is punished just like other racist insults.
For HasanAbi or sites like Kotaku , “Cracker” is harmless and certainly does not rank on the same level as racist insults directed at minorities.
You see Twitch in a dilemma: In trying to be fair in all directions, they are overdoing it – in the eyes of critics – with the penalties by equating things that are not the same:
Twitch streamer JustaMinx banned for letting a derogatory insult slip against white people.
