like man everyone’s saying their condolences and are being like “RIP etika” but like maybe if a lot of people had stopped seeing him as just a meme instead of an actual human being none of this would happened. none of this would have escalated so fucking quickly.

saying stuff like “take care of your mental health” in light of stuff like this doesn’t really mean shit when it was a toxic culture (twitch and YouTube) and a fanbase who could have given less of a shit that led to all this in the first place

I want to add that Etika’s race should also be a factor in this.

It’s unfortunately very common for people (even fellow black people) to assume that mental illness is not a big deal among us. We’re told that we’re faking it, we’re mocked and we’re treated with far less understanding and sympathy than mentally ill white people.

Part of what was pushing Etika over the edge was that he felt like people were over analyzing every little thing he did and didn’t enjoy being watched to such an unhealthy degree. Anyone with common sense would assume that he was suffering from some kind of severe depression or paranoia, but instead all people did was yell at him more and accuse him of being manipulative and making “excuses”.

I’ve seen white YouTubers who aren’t mentally ill that people keep assuming are depressed, anxious, have ptsd, etc without displaying any noticeable symptoms for it. None of that was given to Etika until his hospitalization, and when it was, people made fun of him some more

It’s definitely worth discussing how ableism had a hand in people not taking Etika seriously , but please don’t forget that racism and anti blackness also had a hand in this