I’ve been trying to write this post for about a year, but the words have escaped me. Until now.
On August 4th, a Twitch streamer by the name of Kai Cenat invited his fans and friends to Union Square in New York City for a giveaway including Playstation 5s and PCs. With more than 11 million followers, Cenat is one of the most popular Internet figures in the world. For three hours, this poorly-planned giveaway went from a gathering of about two thousand mostly Black and Latinx fans of Cenat to a riot involving more a thousand police officers, tools from a nearby construction site, and a fire hydrant. News cameras from local and national stations got most of the angles for eyes across the country.
(Read the reliable recap from Wikipedia yourself.)
In the aftermath, the NYPD arrested and later released Cenat after being charged with inciting a riot and unlawful assembly. The mayor, police commissioner, and chief of police all had press conferences with a consistent message: these kids are out of control. We saw images of kids jumping on cars, climbing to the top of the subway gazebo, and running away from heavily armed men in riot gear. We saw a young and famous Black streamer in handcuffs, dreads hanging off the side of his face. Helicopters gave us aerial views of the gathering over those fateful three hours with mixed messages from reporters and commentators alike.
To Cenat’s credit, he paid close to 60-thousand dollars to the Union Square Partnership (USP) for the mess they made. To the district attorney’s credit, the charges were dropped. After that, it feels like we need a rethinking of the whole incident. Or, more broadly, our society needs to think about our relationship with youth. Because from an educator’s point of view, it looks like we hate kids. Let me explain.
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