Black Twitch streamer gains thousands of viewers after using picture of white man instead of his own face
Topics: News, US News, Twitch, Technology, Social Media
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Twitch/Just Relax Kid
Topics: News, US News, Twitch, Technology, Social Media
A black Twitch streamer claims he saw his views increase massively, after streaming a picture of a white man.
Twitch streamer Zach, aka Just Relax Kid, switched over from his camera to a cartoon of a white man during a stream.
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Following the switch, Zach said that his views increased dramatically with the picture of the white man showing.
Zach has been streaming with Twitch for more than ten years, and for nine years he has had a partnership with the site.
His content sees him streaming himself playing video games with a camera and green screen showing his funny reactions to the games as he plays.
The incident happened when he decided not to switch on his camera, and instead put up a generic illustration of a bearded white man wearing glasses,
This is a fairly common thing to do for 'faceless' creators on the platform.
But the result of using the drawing instead drew a wholly unexpected result.
Zach would normally have between roughly 300 and 800 views.
However, when he switched to using the image, he found his views rocket from less than a thousand to some 22,000.
Zach's subsequent post about the stream has since gone viral, drawing in some eight million views.
Speaking to Dexerto, Zach said: “Honestly, I’m hurt, ’cause of all these Black creators who were like, ‘I’m not using my camera anymore. I’m not doing it.'
“And they were serious. So, I feel bad, because I feel like I’m kind of responsible for that. I don’t want people feeling shame just for being who they are.”
He added: “There’s thousands of people that are DMing me like, ‘Yo, how can I set up this PNG?’ There’s so many Black creators who I’ve watched since I’ve tweeted who don’t use their camera anymore and use a white PNG. And I’ve had three of them tell me, ‘Yo, my numbers have gone up.'”
Sadly, a similar situation unfolded with Tenisha Tate-Austin and Paul Austin.
The couple had their California home valued in 2020 at $1 million, less than expected.
The family went to a different company for a new appraisal, but this time had a white friend pose as the property owner and removed any trace of themselves such as family photos from the house.
This time, the value shot up to $1.5 million.
Speaking to CBS in 2021, Ms Tate-Austin said: "I mean, it's the financial impact, but it's the emotional impact.
"It's the feeling every day like, the tax of being African-American in this country, like, you don't know, it's a coin toss."
UNILAD has reached out to Twitch for comment.