IRL Twitch streamer confronts racist passerby for mocking him
Twitch streamer ‘JoeyKaotyk’ was left shocked during his IRL stream, as he encountered a racist passerby, who mocked him for his Asian ethnicity. Joey made sure to catch up with the man and confront them.
The dangers of IRL streaming are obvious; you’re broadcasting your every move on the internet, meaning anybody could be watching. Over the years we’ve seen countless streamers been put in terrible situations, as streamers are vulnerable to all sorts of pranks, ‘stream snipers’, and even SWATting.
Unfortunately, also carrying a backpack with a camera attached draws a lot of attention, with many IRL streamers being harassed by the public, which is exactly what happened to Asian streamer Joey Kaotyk.
Over the past three years, Joey Kaotyk has gained a following of almost 100,000 from traveling the world while carrying his streaming backpack, broadcasting almost everywhere he goes.
JoeyKaotykDuring a stream on August 9, JoeyKaotyk was streaming in downtown LA, when a man walked past him and mocked the streamer’s Asian ethnicity as he passed by.
The racist man passed Joey on the sidewalk, clearly mocking Joey’s Asian descent with derogatory phrases, leaving Joey fueled with rage, responding sarcastically, “that’s very funny in 2021 sir.”
Joey followed the man into a store, continuing to say “That was kind of funny, you kind of had me there, but just saying it’s not funny to be kind of racist in 2021 alright? Get that sh*t out of here bro.”
After the stream, Joey tweeted about his encounter with the racist man, saying “This is for sure not his first time doing this, and if I don’t say something, he’ll do it again.”
this is for sure not his first time doing this, and if I don’t say something, he’ll do it again.
The rest of the stream went fucking amazing, we said our piece & moved on. Don’t let others steal your energy, but especially don’t pull that racist shit around me, period.— JOEYKAOTYK (@JoeyKaotyk) August 10, 2021
This is far from the first instance of streamers being racially targeted during IRL broadcasts. One infamous incident saw Korean streamer Giannie Lee mocked in a restaurant by two men in 2019.
And in July 2021, another popular streamer Korean streamer Jinny was targeted by a racist stream sniper, who told her to “go back to Wuhan” – a city in China.
On August 9, the ‘TwitchDoBetter’ hashtag was started to ask the platform for better protection for marginalized content creators. However, when it comes to dealing with the public in IRL streams, there’s nothing the platform itself can do.