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I've been concerned about virtual worlds, ever since I saw my first presentation about Second Life where black people were represented as ‘cool’ but also bank robbers. Apparently, the stereotypes prevalent in this world seem to have been carried over to a virtual one. I am anxious to see how these kinds of distortions might be corrected as well as being curious about the potential for deracination that alternative realities present. Now, faced with the opportunity of hosting my distance class in this virtual world, I am faced with existentialist type issues and questions such as what would choosing a white avatar mean and say about me? Franz Fanon tells us that black people are forever marked and marred by their blackness, a process cultural theorist Stuart Hall calls ‘epidermalization’. Second Life has the potential for removing this stigma, not by erasure of societal prejudices but through an individual’s avoidance of them. With this in mind, it seems I may have to don the armor of my black skin yet again to challenge the injustices in Second Life. What do you think?
I've been concerned about virtual worlds, ever since I saw my first presentation about Second Life where black people were represented as ‘cool’ but also bank robbers. Apparently, the stereotypes prevalent in this world seem to have been carried over to a virtual one. I am anxious to see how these kinds of distortions might be corrected as well as being curious about the potential for deracination that alternative realities present. Now, faced with the opportunity of hosting my distance class in this virtual world, I am faced with existentialist type issues and questions such as what would choosing a white avatar mean and say about me? Franz Fanon tells us that black people are forever marked and marred by their blackness, a process cultural theorist Stuart Hall calls ‘epidermalization’. Second Life has the potential for removing this stigma, not by erasure of societal prejudices but through an individual’s avoidance of them. With this in mind, it seems I may have to don the armor of my black skin yet again to challenge the injustices in Second Life. What do you think?