On the bottom right column, I'm starting to add classic New World Notes posts from over the years, most of them written as an embedded avatar journalist. Today's post is "The Skin You're In", a story which illustrates how racism crosses into the virtual world through realistic avatars and customized avatar "skins":
She spent three months in the skin of a Black woman. Some of her friends shied away, she believes. Then there were the "guys that thought I was an easy lay, for lack of a better term. It scared me honestly, some of the assumptions made. Especially here where everything [in avatar appearance] is changeable with a click. I lost a couple of what I thought were good friends [who] stopped IMing and chatting. They were polite to a fault when I showed up, but [it] was weird. You know how you interact and something changes and no one tells you. Some were subtle, some weren't." She laughs without mirth, recalling how some friends would ask her questions such as, "'[L]ike, when you going back to being you?'"
I feel like this only happens to people who don't know their friends well - if you aren't aware your friend is a racist - perhaps you weren't as close friends as you thought.
Posted by: Adeon | Monday, August 29, 2022 at 02:43 PM