You all can read our community statement here but I'm going to take some time to talk about predatory behavior in Black communities specifically in preparation for my stream on the subject later on today. https://twitter.com/TheCookoutORG/status/1277812634281218049

When it comes to people like Zero and Chaotic, there is a clear pattern of how they use positions of influence in the communities that welcomed them to manipulate situations and gaslight black women in their circles.

Zero was a mod for The Cookout for several months. Very energetic and helpful in answering questions, assisting with stream events, etc. He was also quick to take WOC both in and outside of the community under his wing. Helping them build consistent moderation for their channels

What was brought to our attention was how he would start what were essentially public conversations in different women's DM's. This is a red flag as somebody who is a moderator, you have authority and women will be more likely to engage or remain polite about an interaction.

Women who did reach out knew that he was helpful in the community and worried that by outting him, they may put the community at risk. This is another reason why predators in communities like ours are so harmful. There is fear of a safe space being lost because of one bad apple.

This makes the people being harrassed question every situation and can lead to certain stories never seeing the light of day. I also notice that he would not engage with the streamers he modded for in creepy ways but would reach out to other WOC in their communities instead.

This is a pattern of behavior I am calling "the shield". By implanting himself in several WOC's streams as a mod or authoritative figure, it naturally makes other's think twice, "well all of these women trust him with their streams so Im sure this message isn't really a big deal"

From what I was told about Chaotic, he would exhibit similar behavior. Going for a cool uncle vibe with younger women in other communities and moderating for several streamers. Had alot of time on his hands to build a wall of loyalty while attempting to groom women half his age.

Often times I would see how women were spoken to in other communities esp ones Chaotic would pull up in. The amount of flirtation from men toward female streamers made me cringe and I got the sense that some of these women didn't wanna seem like they couldnt hang with the fellas.

It's a problem because when you have situations where WOC come forward. There is higher sense that they won't be believed or even if they are, nothing will happen because the person is such a big part of the clique. "Believe women" was def not the average male response 2 yrs ago.

Also for other women who are told these stories, its easier to whisper among friends that some dude is a creep than be the reason why he is kicked from a community or loses an opportunity by going to leadership. And with how WOC are treated, the chances of retaliation is high.

Even this week I've seen random black male streamers asking women, why didn't they say something when it happened or "she just tryin to get my friend outta here for clout." Add in larger streamer's with this mentality and who wants to risk that kind of harassment?

So moving forward we can't take a stance of "that's just how it is" when it comes to Black women and WOC and how they are treated in our communities. A few years ago unfortunately, I had a similar kind of attitude when it came to the FGC because Twitch chat was always toxic.

It took WOC in community to call me out for my stance to change. But really it shouldn't be that way. I speak up now but back then I knew plenty of male players who would shrug it off and I just accepted that's how things were. Men need to speak up to other men to break the cycle

Alright, so now that we've acknowledged there's a major problem, how did we address the issue in the past, was our approach successful, and how can we prevent similar issues from reoccurring in the future?

For starters, improvements and commitment to safety have to be ongoing conversations even if an agreed upon procedure has been established. My first attempts at this during our 1st yr as a community were more reactionary than preventative which is another point I wanna talk about

Due to my lack of experience, I saw the community as a space that needed protection from outside forces; racist trolls, homophobic communities, etc. And I focused more on screening potential members. I did not spend enough time working on how to protect members from each other.

Its important to do the work towards building a solid foundation and making sure that those in charge of safety are on the same page. In the early days, any problematic member was removed with no warning. If I heard someone was hittin on female members after joining they were out

The problem is that when thinking through preventative options, I didn't correctly inform the public of these weirdos or work out a way for both the victim and the accused to be notified of what the decision was. I didn't keep records of the every accusation. Ban button was quick