Gender And Race Online Summary

Within the rise of new media and digital technologies nowadays, there are many issues of race, gender, sexuality and the transformation of identity throughout Internet. In her article “Gender and Race Online”, Lisa Nakamura argues that” racism and sexism have continued to flourish on the Internet, and indeed to some extent have even come to define it, despite our supposedly “post-racial” historical moment” (81). In my opinion, the author makes this claim because racism and sexism on the Internet are the case verified by both users and numerous studies exploring the issue. Particularly, it relates to online gaming. At the same time, an idea is expressed that games have the potential to stimulate kindness, creativity, and collaboration, as well

One of the reasons for this state of affairs is the efforts of game studios to ensure that the culture of game production remains male (Nakamura 83). Another reason includes the fact that gamers tend to view abusive discourse as an intrinsic quality of gaming culture. For example, gamers differentiate between profanity, or “trash talk”, and “discourse that crosses the line” (Nakamura 85). While some people think that “trash talk” is an inevitable part of gaming competitions, others believe that racism should be ignored, making a receiver personally responsible for discarding it. Thereby, the main paradox of game, race, and gender studies reaches its climax in revealing that abuse acts as discursive waste and an intrinsic aspect of gaming culture at the same time (Nakamura 86). This way or another, people are still confronted with racism and sexism within gaming environments, and activists contribute to an increasing media campaign against racism and sexism in gaming culture. Finally, user-generated websites are created to expose sexism, racism, and other kinds of oppression. The sites encourage gamers to report abuse for the purpose of showing the ridiculous nature of any oppressive discourse in gaming culture (Nakamura

Thus, the representation of the racist discourse can be found in all gaming genres. For example, non-Western culture is portrayed as cruel, superstitious, and irrational in Civilization series. Racist imagery of Caribbeans, Orientals, and Native Americans is reprised in World of Warcraft as well. In Grand Theft Auto, bodies of color are depicted and treated as violent stereotypes and expendable targets (Nakamura 83-84). In this way, video games ensure social practices that enable the use of racist speech inappropriate in other contexts. Even the practice of excluding women and non-stereotyped people of color from the content of a game is considered to represent a racial discourse as well (Nakamura