The incident occurred on January 17th, 2021. During the Twitch stream, Fitz can be quoted as saying “What am I actually doing? I’m r*tarded” while playing Minecraft. He then proceeded to follow up the statement by saying “Can I say that? Are they gonna get mad at me on Twitter?” This of course upset many people watching the stream, as it is often utilized as a slur against people with disabilities.
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Many witnesses to the event took to Twitter to voice their disapproval. While many agreed with Fitz’s word choice being wrong, others felt that people being upset about slur usage was blown out of proportion. Of course, Fitz responded to this criticism himself, as well.
Many of those who were originally upset were not happy with the streamer’s response, due to there being no apology or any sign of acknowledgement that what he did was wrong. Considering the size of Fitz’s loyal fanbase, however, as well as people defending him, it is very likely that neither will actually appear.
The gaming community is filled with gamers from all walks of life, including those who have disabilities. It can be incredibly disheartening for many to witness streamers that they watch and possibly look up to use derogatory slurs without care. This is especially worsened by the statement following up the slur, showing that Fitz knew that the word can be incredibly upsetting to some people, but choosing not doing anything about it.
Using an ablest slur of course isn’t the first piece of controversy that Fitz has found himself in the middle of. He previously was called out by fellow streamer Pokimane after Fitz made a joke that claimed the two were in a relationship. This resulted in harassment being sent toward Pokimane during her own streams and toward her on Twitter.
It is unknown if Fitz will be seeing and kind of repercussions for his words. No matter what happens, there will likely be at least one large group angry and outspoken at the result of it all. Until then, however, there are plenty of other streamers out there who haven’t been hit by controversy yet on both Twitch and YouTube.
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Source: Dexerto (1, 2)
