Kai Cenat takes issue with list of AAVE words: ‘The internet is soft’

Following the drama surrounding Valkyrae’s use of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), xQc earlier this week found a list of words and phrases that might fit under that category of speech in an attempt to educate himself and his chat.

But once Kai Cenat saw the list, which was published by The Tab two years ago, he immediately found its limitations on others’ speech to be overbearing. Talking to xQc in a voice chat, Cenat couldn’t believe that some of the words on the list could be interpreted as inappropriate appropriation.

“You can’t say ‘chill,’ ‘bae?’” he said. “OK, who is stopping somebody from saying ‘bae?’ Come on.”

XQc took the conservative route in responding to Cenat’s issues with the list, saying that it’s “not my call” and adding that “it’s not my culture.” But Cenat seemed to have so much frustration with the list of words that he took his assertion one step further—and maybe even one step too far.

“Felix, you’re Black,” he said.

While xQc, a caucasian Canadian man, vehemently denied that he is Black, Cenat went on to joke about how the former Overwatch League pro had the right to say the N-word. XQc didn’t take the bait, but he did continue to show Cenat some of the odd situations in which people like Valkyrae have gotten in trouble for using AAVE.

Linking Cenat a YouTube video, xQc showed him a clip of Valkyrae repeating the phrase “no cap on a stack” after someone else said it to her.

“That clip just confused me,” he said. “Wait, she just repeated what he said, right? The internet is soft. The internet needs to grow some balls. … Valkyrae, you need new mods, bro? Just hire me, that’s it.”

Valkyrae last week apologized for the use of AAVE language during a stream, and while she didn’t specifically mention what she said, Reddit sleuths deduced that it was likely that instance of her saying “no cap on a stack, for real, for real.”

Cenat and xQc weren’t the only ones that believed Valkyrae had no reason to apologize. Speaking on the topic just a couple of days later, Nick Polom, who is Black himself, said that Valkyrae shouldn’t have apologized or even acknowledged the perceived issue.