Members of YouTube's staff have an issue with YG's 2014 song "Meet the Flockers" video, saying the context of the track is anti-Asian, but it appears that the streaming company refuses to remove the record from their platform.
According to a report from Bloomberg on Tuesday (March 30), employees at YouTube recently shared their grievances on the company's message board, criticizing higher-ups at YouTube who decided against removing "Meet the Flockers," which references burglarizing predominantly Chinese neighborhoods.
"First, you find a house and scope it out/Find a Chinese neighborhood, ’cause they don't believe in bank accounts," YG rhymes at the beginning of the first verse.
Considering the recent increase in violence against members of the Asian community, including the shooting on March 16 that killed eight people, six of which were Asian-American women, at three spas or massage parlors in the Atlanta area, members of YouTube's staff are arguing the violent message YG's track promotes.
Apparently, the employees and executives clashing over "Meet the Flockers" all started when a staff member asked the company's Trust & Safety team to remove the song from YouTube. An exec from that specific department along with a content policy leader denied the request via email on March 22.
"We find this video to be highly offensive and understand it is painful for many to watch, including many in Trust & Safety and especially given the ongoing violence against the Asian community," the email reads, according to Bloomberg. "While we debated this decision at length amongst our policy experts, we made the difficult decision to leave the video up to enforce our policy consistently and avoid setting a precedent that may lead to us having to remove a lot of other music on YouTube."
Meanwhile a spokesperson for YouTube said in a statement, "YouTube has an open culture and employees are encouraged to share their views, even when they disagree with a decision. We’ll continue this dialogue as part of our ongoing work to balance openness with protecting the YouTube community at large."
The company's refusal to remove the song also is due to their exception for "educational, documentary, scientific or artistic" (EDSA) content.
"Meet the Flockers" appears on the Compton, Ca. native's debut album, My Krazy Life. The song is currently available on his official YouTube page and can be found below.
XXL has reached out to a rep for YouTube for a comment.
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