Rant about Race and Online Gaming
So this is where I am furious about the unintentional and intentional racism in this society. I play a video game called World of Warcraft. It is a online community mostly made up of men say between the ages of 16 to 35. The game is a rich an immersive experience that blends well gameplay with visuals and content that moves the game forward.
This is where I start to get a little angry, I have played and did not hear a lot of stuff, everyone seemed pretty polite and there was a sense of comraderie. I then joined a 'guild' (a loose association of players) called Serpentis Infernalis. I started to hear a fair amount of homophobic, sexist and racist material. The final straw came for me yesterday when one member started talking about 'wiggers'.
Now I am pretty tolerant but this person was adamant that what he was saying wasn't offensive and I was being pissy. I lost it as I realized this was probably a kid who had no sense of history and wasn't listening to me as well as other people telling him to cut it out. He was threatened by the leader of the guild with expulsion.
Most white people are uncomfortable with talking about racism with People of color especially african heritage people. I have had lots of white friends talk to me about how thay are not racist and the like. The truth of the matter is they are. Racism is not something they chose but it has affected the way they see the world and what they expect of people. I was trying to explain to this person that the term 'wigger' is from 'white nigger' as a way of describing a white person who is acting black. I have heard also 'sand nigger' for people of middle eastern descent, 'prairie nigger' for Native americans and so on. The common thread is 'nigger' and the fact it is being used to describe african heritage people and people considered close to them.
To me the fact that I can discuss this relatively calmy is a sign of how much work I have done around how racism has affected me. I certainly admit that there are times when I lose my calm but on the whole this situation and and others has proven to me that it is us as african heritage people to heal the hurts of racism.
More to come
This is where I start to get a little angry, I have played and did not hear a lot of stuff, everyone seemed pretty polite and there was a sense of comraderie. I then joined a 'guild' (a loose association of players) called Serpentis Infernalis. I started to hear a fair amount of homophobic, sexist and racist material. The final straw came for me yesterday when one member started talking about 'wiggers'.
Now I am pretty tolerant but this person was adamant that what he was saying wasn't offensive and I was being pissy. I lost it as I realized this was probably a kid who had no sense of history and wasn't listening to me as well as other people telling him to cut it out. He was threatened by the leader of the guild with expulsion.
Most white people are uncomfortable with talking about racism with People of color especially african heritage people. I have had lots of white friends talk to me about how thay are not racist and the like. The truth of the matter is they are. Racism is not something they chose but it has affected the way they see the world and what they expect of people. I was trying to explain to this person that the term 'wigger' is from 'white nigger' as a way of describing a white person who is acting black. I have heard also 'sand nigger' for people of middle eastern descent, 'prairie nigger' for Native americans and so on. The common thread is 'nigger' and the fact it is being used to describe african heritage people and people considered close to them.
To me the fact that I can discuss this relatively calmy is a sign of how much work I have done around how racism has affected me. I certainly admit that there are times when I lose my calm but on the whole this situation and and others has proven to me that it is us as african heritage people to heal the hurts of racism.
More to come
posted by Khaled at
9:34 AM
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