Gaming superstar Tyler Blevins, also known as “Ninja,” weighed into the debate over online toxicity over the weekend, telling The New York Times that it is not his job as a professional gamer to police “racism” and “sexism” among amateurs in his sport, and suggesting that parents need to be more aware of how their kids are behaving online.
Ninja has “amassed 16.5 million followers on Twitch, 14.4 million on Instagram, 6.5 million on Twitter, 24 million subscribers on YouTube” the NYT reports, and pulls in a reported $500,000 per month from streaming alone. He’s also one of the most-watched gamers on the planet, and millions of amateur gamers, many of them children, tune in to watch Ninja’s streams on the regular.
But, Ninja told the outlet, he feels no sense of obligation to use his platform to lecture his fans on “racism” or “sexism” or demand they follow a code of conduct online. In fact, Ninja says he has no intention of using his access to millions online to teach social justice concepts, even if he had the power to help curb online toxicity.
“Streaming makes you super self-conscious,” Ninja said, acknowledging that his industry is rife with harassment, bullying, and trash talk that often goes too far. “If I didn’t have my wife and my family to talk to — everyone’s like, ‘Don’t listen to what people say.’ All right, but when you’re reading ‘You suck [expletive]’ 20 times in a chat, it’s going to get in your head.”
“People are behind the screen,” he continued, referencing a push to unmask bad behavior online. “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.”
His job, though, he says, is to play video games, not to teach kids how to behave. If critics are concerned about how amateur players are conducting themselves online, he says, they should look to parents.
“It all comes down to parenting. You want to know who your kid is? Listen to him when he’s playing video games when he thinks you’re not,” he said. “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?”
“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,” he added. “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.”
Leftists, of course, had an issue with Ninja refusing to use his platform for “social good.”
“Streamer or not, it’s 100% your job as a cisgendered, white, straight man to educate *your audience/ppl around you* when possible on racism & white privilege (+sexism/homophobia/transphobia) because those issues are HISTORICALLY & SYSTEMICALLY cis/het/white men’s fault,” one critic noted.
“Correct, but hopefully you can see YOUR privilege, @Ninja, as a influencer who has the platform of 24+ million & educate yourself & subscribers on the civil rights issues in the world — some of who look up to you, and not their parents, as a role model. That, is your job,” another claimed.