BleachGate

BleachGate was a controversy taking place in late 2018 involving KidSmoove and various others in the community. The incident began when Smoove noticed a trending story about the infamous stripper and alleged gold digger Blac Chyna who was promoting a brand of skin lightening cream on her Instagram page before her upcoming trip to Nigeria. Smoove took issue with the post, as did many others, but took things too far when he made a post that appeared to disparage black women in general for having a supposed "attitude problem"

In the tweet in question Smoove appears to be inferring that black women who indulge in skin bleaching do so as a means of attracting black men, as many black men are known to prefer lighter skinned women to their own. Smoove then claims that the reason so many black men prefer non-black women has nothing to do with skin color, but rather the "attitude" of black women, playing on the stereotype of the "angry black women" that many see as a hurtful stereotype. He then ends the tweet by advising any black women suffering such an identity crisis to "change their attitude"

## Response

KidSmoove was met with an instant and fierce backlash upon posting the tweet, gaining over a hundred replies within 24 hours of its publication. He spent a lot of time on the defensive, explaining that he wasn't criticizing all black women, merely a particular sect. He then followed up with a slew of tweets attempting to clarify his comments and put them into perspective, even @ing the infamous black conservative Tommy Sotomayor in an attempt to gain help, though people were none the happier. Some of his fiercest critics included the likes of MelonMatt and NoahjOsbourne, a frequenter of the BroadBandBullies discord, both of whom were eventually blocked by KidSmoove. Others in the community took a lighter response to the controversy. BrokenGamezHD being one example, BlackBond also retweeted a few people poking fun at Smoove, including a post by RedInfamy who responded reminding Smoove that black women are the reason for his very existence..

Phatgamer also responded, claiming that he would do a new episode of Phat's Road Trip talking about Smooves tweet and explaining why he agrees with it, though after mass exposure by the Dracord and criticism by Zaire and the BBB podcast the episode never materialized.

The incident lead to Smoove to begin arguing with Resurrection after a troll account named "Teneshia Brown" (thought to be a member of the Dracord) clipped a segment from one of Smooves most infamous songs "She's only 15" and inserted it into the discourse in an attempt to smear Smooves image further, to which Resurrection responded saying the song was disgusting. Smoove then responded that the song wasn't what it seemed and the two of them had a back and forth on Twitter. The argument eventually lead to another sock account being created, this one thought to be by Resurrection who tweeted racist statements in the guise of KidSmoove.

## Aftermath

Smoove spoke on the topic in Weapon Wheel Podcast episode 169, clarifying his comments further and maintaining that his comments were not meant as a means of demeaning black women, to which BrokenGamezHD responded that he and the other podcast members don't co-sign any of the things Smoove says on the subject.

The incident resulted in Smoove becoming more vocal on political matters on Twitter, particularly involving matters of race. Two days after the incident Smoove commented about the Dwight Howard incident, in which a NBA player allegedly had romantic involvement with a trans-woman, claiming that he wouldn't speak on it in case he offended the LGBT community, meant as a jab at Twitter's increased political nature in recent years.

Not long after this he stirred even further controversy when he shared a viral video of a black woman using her young children to help her steal from strangers in public, sarcastically referring to her as a "beautiful black queen" who was "setting a good example". Smoove then responded to the video itself referring to the woman as a "purple bitch" who was "raising more criminals", purple being a derogatory term for dark skinned black people, famous examples include the British urban legend Purple Aki, the man who squeezes muscles. With this even some of Smooves most ardent supporters such as Puertorock questioned his motives, saying that he was becoming flat out racist, to which he continuously denied. Not long after, KidSmooves twitter account was officially suspended on 29th of November 2018 due to his apparent racism, total replies to his controversial tweet numbered almost 400.