Gray, K. L. (2011). Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: examining the experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live

Gray, K. L. (2011). Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: examining the experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live

This article claims that minority gamers, mainly male African-American, are labeled deviant within the gaming community of Xbox Live arguing the stigma of blackness through profiling and identifying the process that leads to racisms.

The author examined the process that leads to African-American gamers as being labeled deviant within Xbox Live. The researcher found it useful to the experiment to interact as an observer and participant in the community which allowed for “open-ended format of interviewing where the participants could tell their stories as well as provide direct evidence when the labeling, stigma, and deviance process”, to occur. Interviews with a semi-structured schedule allowing for conversational dialogue and observations took place over a period of 8 months. The participants were selected through snowball sampling, due to Xbox live terms of service restrictions preventing the researcher from soliciting to a larger community, only led to four participants. This would create a baseline for future studies on the experience of minority gamers. “All four have been members of Xbox Live for more than six years, and they have witnessed numerous changes within the community.” The gamers were given pseudonym gamertags and played the games Halo Reach®, Gears of War 2®, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2®, and Call of Duty: Black Ops®.

This article compares to, Yang, S. (2014). Effects of avatar race in violent video games on racial attitudes and aggression because they both did research relating to the depiction of Black characters as violent and the negative effects it has on Black people. Brock (2011). ‘‘When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong’’: Resident Evil 5, Racial Representation, and Gamers is similar as well because it examines the responses of white game players to black stereotypes and how it relates to white privilege.

Keywords: Video games, Virtual gaming, Virtual ethnography, Race, Racism

Is racism learned?
Are these people genuinely racist or just trolls?

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