![]() ![]() Twitch has long struggled with people spamming the Trihard emote, which features the face of Black streamer Trihex, to harass Black streamers. The Claudette Leatherface skin is another example of racist players using things designed to be representative for Black people as a tool of harassment. One Claudette Leatherface user incited a protracted harassment campaign against a streamer who disconnected upon seeing the skin, sending racist and toxic messages to the streamer’s Discord, Twitter, and Instagram profiles. The incidents of harassment got so bad that Black players, upon seeing a Leatherface wearing the Claudette skin, would immediately disconnect from the game as a protective measure, which, ironically, led to even more harassment. Another player recounted an incident in which a Claudette Leatherface would grief them, exclusively toying with or killing them while ignoring other survivors. SistaKaren described how a Claudette Leatherface sent her messages saying, “I hate Black people,” and other messages that were ostensibly slurs but censored by chat filters. The video contains numerous anecdotes of Black streamers being targeted by killers wearing the Claudette Leatherface skin. In November 2021, SistaKaren, another Dead By Daylight partner creator, released a video breaking down the problem she and others have had with Blackface Leatherface. Milad圜onfetti and other Black Dead By Daylight players began a campaign advocating for the cosmetic’s removal citing its uncomfortable closeness to the racist act of blackface and its abuse by players targeting Black streamers. “I knew it was the players because after being harassed in the game, they would come to my stream and call me slurs and acknowledge that they were the killer.” “I was harassed by players who knew I was a streamer particularly with the Blackface Leatherface cosmetic,” Milad圜onfetti told The Verge. Black Dead By Daylight streamers reported killers who would wear the Claudette version of the Leatherface skin - which they had taken to calling it “Blackface Leatherface” - and harass them. In addition to the skin itself evoking the specter of blackface, the way the skin was used caused an even greater concern. She described the skin as “horrific” and originally thought the game was glitching as she didn’t believe a skin like that - one that involved a white man wearing the skin of a Black woman in a literal case of blackface - could exist. Milad圜onfetti is a Black streamer and a member of the Dead By Daylight partner program. “We are not comfortable having these masks in the game when they are used as a tool to spread hate.” Blackface is a racist trope in media in which non-Black performers make themselves look like caricatures of Black people by darkening their skin, drawing on huge, exaggerated red lips, or wearing unkempt kinky-haired wigs. Black players expressed unease about the Claudette version of the skin as it seemed like an instance of blackface. The cosmetics allowed Leatherface to wear the faces of one of the four original survivor characters, one of whom is a Black woman named Claudette. Introduced to the game several years ago, the cosmetics were special skins designed for the “The Cannibal” killer, also known as Leatherface from 1974’s horror movie classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. To that end, we will be removing The Cannibal’s unlockable faces in this upcoming Mid-Chapter.” We are not comfortable having these masks in the game when they are used as a tool to spread hate. These reports were disheartening to hear, and we absolutely condemn this behaviour. “Members of the community have shared their experiences with people targeting and harassing them while using some of these masks. In its update, Behaviour Interactive wrote: Announced as part of a developer update, the cosmetics will be removed in a forthcoming patch, and players who have unlocked the cosmetics will be compensated with in-game currency. Behaviour Interactive, developer of co-op survival horror game Dead By Daylight, has decided to remove certain cosmetics from the game after years of complaints that they were being used in racist harassment against Black players.
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