Was reading this post today: http://www.blackweb20.com/2007/10/18/where-are-the-black-web-professionals/ and that had me thinking about experiences in virtual worlds ( namely Second Life ) where a Black avatar isn't always driven by the same race. The same applies to gender. In fact, it's become such a joke that 'if there is a highly anonymous, female avatar that never changes her clothes, it's a dude).
To that end, I do know personally different same and different races who power black avatars. How does this come into the mix with perception based on race, etc?
I moved this conversation off of Twitter, mainly because its 'simplicity' does not do a good conversation any justice when we need to look back upon it. Apologies if this bothers you, but I refuse to let Twitter's technical limits get in the way of dialog.
I was shocked by how male the ALA survey respondents were. My experience is apparently unusual but most of the people I work with directly at Yahoo and elsewhere are female.
I really don't know what to think about the lack of black designers and developers in the web industry. I work with a lot of asians that come from pretty seriously disadvantaged backgrounds, so I find it difficult to explain it based on economics. It must be cultural, but I'm at a loss to explain it further.
As far as people choosing "other" races for their avatars, I'm not really sure where you're going with that. I just changed my Jaiku avatar to a little green blob with an eye patch, but I'm definitely not a little green blob in real life.
I think it might be related to uncanny valley effects: obviously we know you aren't a green blob. The avatars in a virtual world are human by default and for those that choose to design them, there's a psychological push. Why do my two 'me' avatars look the way they day? For the most part they match me, one is a bit more tougher and tattooed, something I'm not in RL, something I prolly wouldn't be, but I can project on the polygons.
Humans are the majority by far (and furrydom is a separate conversation), so what makes a white male human choose to be a black male human?
7 comments so far
Was reading this post today: http://www.blackweb20.com/2007/10/18/where-are-the-black-web-professionals/ and that had me thinking about experiences in virtual worlds ( namely Second Life ) where a Black avatar isn't always driven by the same race. The same applies to gender. In fact, it's become such a joke that 'if there is a highly anonymous, female avatar that never changes her clothes, it's a dude).
To that end, I do know personally different same and different races who power black avatars. How does this come into the mix with perception based on race, etc?
2 years, 2 months ago by ericrice
I moved this conversation off of Twitter, mainly because its 'simplicity' does not do a good conversation any justice when we need to look back upon it. Apologies if this bothers you, but I refuse to let Twitter's technical limits get in the way of dialog.
2 years, 2 months ago by ericrice
I was shocked by how male the ALA survey respondents were. My experience is apparently unusual but most of the people I work with directly at Yahoo and elsewhere are female.
I really don't know what to think about the lack of black designers and developers in the web industry. I work with a lot of asians that come from pretty seriously disadvantaged backgrounds, so I find it difficult to explain it based on economics. It must be cultural, but I'm at a loss to explain it further.
As far as people choosing "other" races for their avatars, I'm not really sure where you're going with that. I just changed my Jaiku avatar to a little green blob with an eye patch, but I'm definitely not a little green blob in real life.
2 years, 2 months ago by jasonw22
I think it might be related to uncanny valley effects: obviously we know you aren't a green blob. The avatars in a virtual world are human by default and for those that choose to design them, there's a psychological push. Why do my two 'me' avatars look the way they day? For the most part they match me, one is a bit more tougher and tattooed, something I'm not in RL, something I prolly wouldn't be, but I can project on the polygons.
Humans are the majority by far (and furrydom is a separate conversation), so what makes a white male human choose to be a black male human?
2 years, 2 months ago by ericrice
sixwords short answer: "black men ski ted.com"
2 years, 2 months ago by cervus
thanks for moving this conversation here. keeping a thread together is a good thing.
2 years, 2 months ago by lynneluvah
here's the video: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/119
2 years, 2 months ago by cervus