Twitch bans one of its biggest streamers for painting his game character black

Major Twitch streamer Sodapoppin has been banned from the platform. A clip of his stream, which gives the speculated reason for the ban, shows him painting a video game character black. He then explains his behavior on Reddit.

Why was he banned? Sodapoppin played a game during a live stream on Twitch. There, he was able to “paint” the video game character’s face with makeup.

Sodapoppin chose a dark black and brown shade and painted the character’s entire face. In the meantime, he uttered the word “blackface” without a coherent sentence.

This clip is now circulating the internet with suspicions that Sodapoppin was banned for using the video game character to perform the racist act of blackfacing. (Clip of the incident via Livestreamfails.com)

Sodapoppin’s statement on Reddit

What does Sodapoppin say about the incident? In a statement on Reddit, Sodapoppin stated that he did not intend to act in a racist manner. He didn’t want it to sound or look like that.

My brain doesn’t really think beyond that when streaming. I’m just trying to draw a potato. In hindsight, I see how that is. It’s like extreme blackface. I didn’t want it to sound/look racist but yeah I was just being naive and didn’t see how the mouth is related to the skin etc.

Sodapoppin via Reddit

In the statement, Sodapoppin states that he thought of the comic and game character Mr. Potato-Head, who is particularly well-known from the children’s film ToyStory, when designing the character. He explained his actions as follows:

• It was only during the coloring process that he noticed that he could only paint the face.
• Sodapoppin then realized that he was painting a so-called blackface.
• Sodapoppin kept thinking it was just a harmless bug.
• He then added an exaggerated smile to the face with red lipstick.
• Sodapoppin didn’t realize that the lipstick would make the face look even more racist.

How long is Sodapoppin banned? Sodapoppin’s ban is indefinite. Until the ban is lifted, he will not be able to stream on Twitch.

The current ban is the second ban that Sodapoppin has experienced on Twitch. He was already banned for nudity in 2020, but was unblocked a day later.

You can read everything about the first Twitch ban from Sodapoppin on MeinMMO:

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