The Honest Truth About PewDiePie’s Racially Charged Comments
PewDiePie. This has become a name synonymous with controversy within the gaming community. If you’re not familiar with the latest scandal surrounding the Swedish Youtuber, this past weekend during a live stream, he made some racist remarks. To be precise, he said, “What a f–king n—-r. Geez, oh my God. What the f–k. Sorry, but what the f–k. What a f–king asshole. I don’t mean that in a bad way.” Is there honestly any ‘nice’ way to say that? He has since issued an apology for his behavior saying, “It was something that I said in the heat of the moment. I said the worst word I could possibly think of, and it just sort of slipped out. I’m not going to make any excuses for why it did, because there are no excuses for it.”
Am I the only one who thinks his apology appears forced? It seems just a bit convenient that it comes only after the Firewatch developers issued a DMCA take down notice of content from their game used in any of his videos. Instead of issuing an apology shortly after spewing the hateful word, he waited almost two whole days. Are we to believe he is actually sorry for his words? It seems more likely that he is going through the motions following the backlash from his behavior.
Many have tried to rationalize his comments over the past few days, and yet the fact remains there is absolutely no excuse for racist comments or any similar hateful behavior, period. If you’re shaking your head in disbelief that people could actually try and defend his actions, believe it because there are. Some have said that because he used in anger, it’s not racist, it’s just an expletive. While this ignorance is bad enough, others are saying that he should not be criticized for his freedom of speech. You can check this one out below.
Sure, we might have all heard people use the phrase while playing online at one time or another, but have people really started to believe it’s interchangeable with the various cuss words? Or worse, that we should be able to say such vile words whenever we want? Let’s just pause for a second to acknowledge the fact that PewDiePie not only made the racist comment, but then stopped himself from saying it a second time, interchanging it with the word a**hole. Whether you want to try and defend his actions or not, he openly uses the N word the same way he would use the word a**hole.
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“The worst part, is that PewDiePie’s actions, and those of the defenders that came to his aid afterwards, point to an underlying issue within the gaming community.”
The worst part, is that PewDiePie’s actions, and those of the defenders that came to his aid afterwards, point to an underlying issue within the gaming community. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s likely we’ve all come across someone making racist remarks while playing video games, or maybe we’ve even been the ones to say them; hopefully not the latter. We’ve become numb to the hateful words and have even found ways to rationalize why they are used. But just to be clear, there is absolutely no scenario where these words are not meant to be disrespectful or where they exist only to build someone up. A word used to describe the historical injustices of an entire race, should not be thrown around whenever we’re feeling upset. Playing video games does not give you a free pass to use whatever offensive word you can think up, and unfortunately, some of the comments from those defending PewDiePie suggests this is not common knowledge. Let me repeat, anger is no excuse for hate speech. And for those trying to say that he should be able to say it, the same way that African Americans might, just stop. You quite honestly need to get your head out of your butt and bury it in a history book instead.
Now, this is the not the first, or even the second time that PewDiePie has stirred up some controversy over racist and inappropriate comments, and while he suggests he has learned from his previous ‘mistakes’, it does not appear that way. He continues to set a bad example of what we, as the gaming industry, represent. And how long will it be before some start to argue that his negative behavior is the result of the video games we all enjoy? So the question remains, how do we stop it or distance ourselves from the few who give the industry a bad name?
We can stop giving people like PewDiePie the time of day. We can remind them that the use of such hateful language is wrong. Maybe, these individuals can try and better themselves and look up the history of the word, and educate themselves on why it is disrespectful. While they’re at it, they should probably also read about slavery and the oppression of certain ethnicities that still occurs today.
I don’t have time for people like this in my life, and neither should you. Those within our community should take a stand against racism, and much like the developers of Firewatch, we should stop giving individuals like PewDiePie the opportunity to have such a large influence in the industry. PewDiePie may or may not be a racist, however so far the evidence certainly points us to believe the former is true, and regardless his behavior is outright embarrassing.
What are your thoughts? Do you think we should stop giving him the time of day or does he deserve another chance? Let us know in the comments below.