It would be great if, in the year of 2019, we were all done with racists and the racist things they do, but it’s clear that we’re not. If anything, the racists seem to feel emboldened of late.
But the thing about racists in 2019 is that cameras are absolutely everywhere , and chances are their abhorrent statements and acts are going to be caught on video.
Take, for example, Giannie Lee.
She’s a popular Twitch streamer originally from South Korea, and she’s generally known to be a nice, kind person. However, that kindness was put to the test when she was visiting Germany for a Twitch convention.
While out for a bite to eat, Giannie was approached by a couple of random locals who interrupted her meal to do racist things.
She got the whole encounter on video and streamed it on Twitch.
It’s about as disgusting and cringey as you can imagine. And, rather than being deterred by her camera, these guys decided to get right on camera. First, one guy shoves his way into Giannie’s personal space and pulls his eyes to the side in a mocking, racist gesture.
And it wasn’t just for a moment or two, and it wasn’t just the eyes.
He sat there and made rude, racist noises, too, leaning into Giannie as he did so, while one of his friends made more noises off-camera.
When the first guy has had his fun, another one of his friends decides he needs a turn being a racist scumbag.
So he also sits down beside Giannie and does the eye thing as well.
It’s kind of surreal to see two grown men acting this way towards a woman who was just minding her own business.
Even more surreal is how Giannie handled this situation.
It’s probably fair to say that most of us would have had pretty visceral, impassioned reactions to these guys.
Just to the personal space violations, let alone the racist garbage, right? But Giannie handles the situation so much better than that, merely saying “That’s racist. There are a lot of people watching you.”
“Hey, that’s racist,” she continued when they didn’t stop. “I love Germany, don’t become racist please. Be nice, I love German people, be nice.”
As she killed the guys with kindness, they did stop their racist mockery, although it’s hard to say if they were suitably ashamed of themselves afterwards.
Sadly, this was not the first time Giannie’s had to deal with something like this. It’s not even the first time it’s happened on her stream, like the time a guy ran up to her on the street, got into her shot, and started saying “ching chong, ching chong” to the camera.
And then there were the guys who just wanted to say random Asian words into her camera while she was streaming.
And capped it all off with “kung fu, kung fu.” How she manages to smile through it all is incredible, but maybe that’s a reaction intended to avoid escalating the situation into something much worse.
Amazingly, these jerks have not soured Berlin for Giannie.
As she explained on her Instagram , she had just decided to stay in Germany for a month longer following the convention when the restaurant encounter happened. However, she’s focused on all the kind people she’s met, not the two or three who have made things uncomfortable.
You can watch the whole uncomfortable exchange and Giannie’s remarkable kindness right here .
