It’s been a while since we got a bad Ninja take, but now’s he’s saying that teaching kids about racism and white privilege isn’t on him.
Tyler Blevins, the popular video game streamer who goes by the moniker of ‘Ninja’, has had his share of bad takes in his day, like saying he doesn’t stream with women because it’ll start rumours or telling gamer kids to give into their rage.
But man did Ninja drop a clanger and a half in his latest New York Times profile in which he said it’s not his job to educate the millions of kids who watch him about racism and white privilege.
Blevins was asked several questions about his career as one of the world’s most popular streamers and he noted how the ability to be anonymous on the internet has emboldened people to say anything and think they can get away with it.
“I don’t think it’s gaming,” says Blevins. “I think it’s internet culture. People are behind the screen.”
“They say what they want and can get away with it. You have complete anonymity. Your information and data are precious and should remain private, but it sucks that there are kids who can say racist things and be incredibly aggressive and threatening to women online and have zero repercussions.”
But when one line of questioning focused on what can be done to mitigate the flurry of offensive and inflammatory comments made in the chat of his livestreams, something definitely worth noting due to how young his audience base is, Blevin’s response is basically “it all comes down to parenting.”
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“You want to know who your kid is? Listen to him when he’s playing video games when he thinks you’re not,” says Blevins. “Here’s another thing: How does a white kid know he has white privilege if his parents never teach him or don’t talk about racism?”
“If they’re gaming and their first interaction with racism is one of their friends saying the N-word and they have no idea what it is — what if it was on my stream?”
Things then quickly go downhill as Ninja then says it’s not his responsibility to teach all the young kids who watch him about racism and white privilege because it’s the job of their parents to do that.
“Is it my job to have this conversation with this kid? No, because the first thing that’s going on in my head is, ‘This kid is doing this on purpose to troll me’,” Blevins says. “If someone says a racial slur on someone else’s stream, it can potentially get that streamer banned. It’s awful, but that’s the first thing I think of.”
Blevins has a point about parents needing to educate their kids about racism, but that’s not all that can be done here, especially on his part.
As much as Blevins tries to tell everyone that he’s an entertainer and not an influencer, the fact of the matter is that he has a huge audience made up of young, impressionable kids. Whether he likes it or not, he is in essence an influencer so what he says and does matters. When you have a community like that, it is ultimately your job to make sure that community is a safe space.
To really make a difference, people need to straight up be anti-racist. It’s not enough to just say “racism is bad.” So for Ninja to say it’s not his responsibility to educate kids about racism and white privilege just reeks of his own ignorance of the issue at hand. This doesn’t diminish what he’s done in the past, but it doesn’t paint him in a flattering light either.
This whole Ninja/racism/white privilege thing is perhaps best summed up by Twitter user @blackgirlgamers, who had their own heated interaction with Blevins on Twitter about his stance on staying silent about racism rather than be anti-racist.
Where does the buck stop, where does the fight for inclusion begin with those of the demographic with the most privilege? When will they see it also as their job?
Because the most oppressed do, all the time. Regardless if it is in fact their actual job or not.
— Black Girl Gamers (@blackgirlgamers) January 26, 2021
Just as a cherry on top of his “it’s not my job to teach kids about racism” stance, Blevins also talked about his previous stance on not streaming with women and it’s, uh, not great as he still stands by it: “I still stand by not having a lot of alone time with a woman, in general, if you are a married man. I mean, they could be your best friend, that’s totally cool. But if I randomly start playing with a woman no one knows, people are going to start talking. So if I am going to play with female gamers, I do it with a big group so it’s not that one-on-one interaction.”
Don’t worry though, he does think that guys and girls can be friends. Sorta.
“Of course a guy and a girl can be friends without getting intimate. But it’s like, temptation, man. Actually, I don’t like that word, because I have control of myself and 100 percent respect for my relationship, but—I don’t know how to word it. I know people are going to potentially take this now like, ‘Oh, he can’t trust himself, blah blah blah.’ Dude, no. But when you’re not ‘Joe’ anymore, who can have a drink with his co-worker and no one gives a [expletive]—I don’t have that luxury.”
For a guy who goes by the name Ninja, he’s not very good at staying silent.
