Latoya Peterson of The Root has a great article on "E-Race: Avatars, Anonymity And The Virtualization Of Identity" the SXSW panel I participated in last Sunday, focusing on our discussion of racism that emerges in various online games and communities, including Second Life. Here's a fascinating if depressing excerpt on the talk by my co-panelist Professor Lisa Nakamura:
Nakamura repeatedly framed the cost of racism online in terms of how it harms those who attempt to participate. She brought up the example of how Quinton Jackson, a mixed martial arts fighter in real life who quit playing the game Halo 2 online because of the excessive racist chatter over the game's voice channels, which players use to talk to one another.
I like to imagine Mr. Jackson getting to meet some of these slur-spewing gamers in person, so that they might have a more productive exchange of views. But Second Life isn't exempt from such behavior:
Au also noted that many African-American Second Life players often practice virtual skin lightening... [and] choose a skin that looks more "Latino" -- still identifiably brown, but lighter-skinned -- in an attempt to lessen the discrimination.
Anyway, read it all here.
Sadly this isn't usually something that usually take place publicly, but rather in IM. For that reason, I'm sure it goes on a lot more than people are aware.
Intolerance is everywhere and without taken the spotlight away from the article above, racism is only part of the issue.
Homophobia, racism, sexism, ageism (since the introduction of teens on the main grid) and prejudiced based on religious belief are all daily occurrences.... and it shouldn't be happening!
Better protection for people who are receiving prejudiced behaviour/remarks from others should be implemented. That said, it still isn't a 'cure-all' for the problem and I'm not sure there is one sadly. Rather sad if you ask me. :(
Posted by: Chaotic | Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 11:04 AM
If there's anything more petty than judging a person on the color of their skin, it has to be judging a person on the color of their pretend skin.
Can't we all just get along?
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 11:32 AM
Griefers will look for the most obnoxious way to be irritating. Racism and homophobia, being such taboos in real life, are obvious outlets for their frustrations, or for whatever it is that drives them.
The amount of racism in some places is very high indeed. Waterhead, Violet, Korea, those kinds of hangouts. By far most of it in voice and yes I do report with copy/paste any idiot stupid enough to typechat their racism. The Lab acts very swiftly to those, to their great credit.
I must say that elsewhere I do not encounter much if any racism at all - apart from the odd spam object spewing racist and homophobic nonsense.
My reply to an increase of racism across the board would be to darken, not lighten, my skin. But that's just me. I'll break before I bend.
Posted by: Laetizia 'Tish' Coronet | Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 11:46 AM
The people you AR are back in the welcome area mins after you've wasted your time filling it out. These places are supposedly horrible places but they're always crowded. People come to see the show because they know it's only a show. The only people who get "hurt" there are people who take themselves too seriously. RL isn't sanitized so why should anyone assume that SL will be also? If people don't like it they can TP to thousands of other places on SL or log off.
Posted by: Table Spoon | Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 04:45 PM
No, they are not back within minutes; not on their main account. Don't tell me your little lies designed to make people think writing ARs is a waste of time. You wish. Been around since '06 and it has never been a waste of time.
People shouldn't have to "TP out or log off". Who are you to dictate what people should do? Newbies often do not know how, anyway.
If LL wants new people to hang on to SL, then welcome areas should be welcome areas for everyone - not a theater stage for moronic goons who hang around until deep in the night with apparently nothing else to do and then tell me I "take SL too seriously". Fail.
And anyway, I don't give in to idiots. You don't like me there? YOU go. YOU have the mental problem. Not me.
Posted by: Laetizia 'Tish' Coronet | Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 12:13 AM
The only people who get "hurt" there are people who take themselves too seriously.
And here we have a perfect example of how systemic racism remains in place. Good show, Table Spoon! Fantastic job demonstrating racism in action.
You, of course, won't be hurt or offended by this of course, since you're someone lucky enough to not have to take racism "seriously".
Posted by: Deoridhe Quandry | Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 01:09 AM
Is "take themselves too seriously" NuKlanSpeak for "uppity"?
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 07:41 AM
I've found the attempts at racism directed at me to be very funny. Most Americans are not fully versed on the wide variety of racial groups which exist in the world.
I have dark skin but my family is of Indian descent, and my avatar looks like my RL self. The funny thing is that most Americans think a dark person is African-American. So whenever a griefer tries an insulting griefing on my sim, it usually involves pics of African-Americans floating all over the place. But I never get the chance to tell them that I am not African American.
Once someone IMed me and called me a stupid Indian f*ck, because my sim has an Indian theme. But I had to tell them that I'm from the Caribbean. Caribbean countries have whites, blacks, Chinese, and Indian immigrants.
Posted by: Machine | Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 08:32 AM
What you're missing is the fact that most of the racism or hate in SL is fake. What I mean by fake is if I know that saying a certain thing will piss you off I'll do that even if I don't believe what I'm saying. I've seen gay people in W.As bash gays. A gay person who hears it gets pissed and starts a protest that lasts for hours not knowing the person they're arguing with is gay also. All the while w.a. regulars are laughing their asses off at this person crying bloody murder over internet nonsense. The pay off is the reaction. The people who usually handle this best are those who shrug it off, mute, tp out, or joke back (not necessarily joke back in a racist or hateful way). You could do that or you could hide in a corner and AR people you don't know or try to know even though they'll be back 5 mins later. I could really care less what you waste your time on. Most of the people in Waterhead, Ahern, and Violet have been there for years some since 2004. How effective are these ARs other than clogging the system from more serious SL issues?
Posted by: Table Spoon | Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 05:47 PM
Ah, I see. Being an ass by pretending to be a bigot is somehow better than being an actual bigot.
How ironically meta.
Enjoy the reroll.
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 08:04 AM
You're a tool Table. You cannot expect from a newbie who enters SL, and immediately gets jumped by two WH regulars for being a 'Paki', to react in some way dictated by the "rules" of your sorry little gang of idiots.
If you want a space for you and your buddies to be total asses in, you pay for your own sim. Leave the public alone and stay the f--- out of the Welcome Areas.
Posted by: Laetizia 'Tish' Coronet | Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 09:25 AM
Table Spoon is such an "anonymous" moron that he doesn't even use his SL name to react here. The name "Table Spoon" does not exist in SL.
Little coward.
Don't take it too seriously, but hey let's not put my SL name here lest they close my account adn I lose those Lindens / gadgets / friends whatever. Now who's taking this seriously?
Posted by: Laetizia 'Tish' Coronet | Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 09:30 AM
Yea I'm crying. As if my SL name isn't "anonymous" when compared to my RL name...
You didn't refute anything I said though.
Posted by: Table Spoon | Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 05:36 PM