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Emily's Race Switch

Page history last edited by emily.schworer@richmond.edu 14 years, 4 months ago

I'll admit I felt a bit nervous when I first logged onto Second Life with the intention of changing my avatar's race.  I just started to become comfortable in the skin of my original white avatar and now I had to step outside of that comfort zone.  Not knowing how people would react to my new look made me incredibly insecure.  After reading about people like Erika 's Thereian's experience, I knew that the potential existed for prejudice actions to occur.  I prepared myself for the worst.  However, I was pleasantly surprised with my experience.  Even though I expected to be treated worse than before, I found overall, people actually treated me better as a black avatar than a white one.

 

raceswitch1_002

 

 Despite the fact that I didn't have any incredibly negative occurrences, my encounters with people were all slightly different.  There was definitely a range of how receptive people were to me, but it cannot be proven that that is not the way they would treat any new person they meet.  It was clear from my profile that I was a new avatar, but even that didn't seem to turn anyone away from speaking to me.  When I first met another avatar in my new skin, I asked him about different, fun places go on SL.  I'm sure he gets asked that a lot, but there are so many places to go it's only natural to ask for a few recommendations.  However, this man went above and beyond just answering my question in a polite manner.  He asked me if I knew how to use the search bar in order for me to actually go to the places he was telling me about.  This conversation was far from one I expected to have as a black avatar.  I felt so terrified of being verbally assaulted on SL and  instead I had a perfectly normal conversation with someone.  

 

At this point my fears were not as intense, but still lingering.  This was when I encountered the only slightly negative experience I had while on SL as a black avatar.   When I questioned a man about what there was to do on SL,  he simply gave me one-word answers.  I tried asking questions that would spark a conversation, but he persisted in being uninterested.  Even this example does not show any clear-cut signs of racism.  Maybe he was just busy and didn't have the time to make a new friend.  Looking back on the situation, he could have been a lot harsher if he had not wanted me to chat with him.  Telling me to go away or calling me a mean name would have been solid evidence for prejudice, but without that there could be a million different reasons he treated me in an acceptable but not overly friendly fashion.  Had I been a white avatar he might have treated me the exact same way.   

 

race1_001

 

In my next setting I was actually greeted by a fellow from Serbia the moment I teleported to the Memory Bazaar.  He was incredibly friendly.  His English wasn't the best, but I had a good time chatting with him anyway.  He asked what I was doing on SL and I explained to him how I was switching races to see the different effects it would have on people's perceptions of me.  He thought it was a neat idea, but then changed the subject.  It seemed as though race was not important to him.  This was when I began to think that I was just getting lucky by meeting such non-prejudiced people and became discouraged at the lack of evidence for racism I found.  Then I realized that I shouldn't be feeling discouraged, but rather I should be happy I was being treated humanely.      

 

 race1_002

 

Next I went to a pub in Dublin.  I felt a bit self-conscious here because I surveyed many people dancing.  Having never danced before I was nervous to ask simply because of my fear of being labeled a "newbie".  I also didn't want to draw excess amounts of attention to myself because I was still not completely comfortable in my new skin.  This marked the turning point in my journey.  A nice woman asked me if I wanted to dance in her group.  I admitted I didn't know how and before I could even ask for help she gave me the simple instructions.  I then began chatting with others I was dancing with and breaking down some moves on the dance floor.  I felt welcomed and suddenly very comfortable with these new people I had just met.     

 

race1_005

 

The last place I went was a techno club, ToonTopia, suggested to me by my friend I was dancing with in Dublin.  Here I truly got a new perspective on the way I viewed racism and all other prejudices in SL.  I met a woman I'll call Sandy.  After speaking with her for a few minutes I commented on how diverse and extravagant the people at the club were.  Without even bringing up my race switch project she responded, "lol yes this is a great place. Everyone is so friendly. Doesn't matter if you're gay, purple, a furry, a neko, a robot, whatever :), we embrace everyone because that's what makes our family here :)".  At this point I knew I had to ask her permission to quote her and took the opportunity to ask her if she had known anyone who experienced prejudice in SL.  She explained to me how it is a "bit of a replication of our RL (real life)". This put things into perspective for me.  If SL is a model of RL, then how could we expect there not to be prejudices in SL when they still exist in RL?

 

Upon reflecting on my experience I was blown away by how accepting everyone I met was of me.  It was my most positive SL adventure to date.  Now the question arises, do I change back into my regular white avatar skin? What would the great people that I met think of me when they find out I only switched my race for a school project?  I had such a good time as a black avatar I don't know that I would want to risk changing back to the way I looked before.     

 

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Comments (2)

Joe Essid said

at 2:33 pm on Nov 14, 2009

Like Amanda and Chris F last year, you might decide to keep your new look. They both found that overt racism did not occur to them, though they did get ignored at times. This can have many explanations. The man at the first area (looks to be the Morris Welcome Area) might have been deep in an IM conversation and did not want to be bothered.

Notes:

--"it cannot be proven that that is not the way they would treat any new person they meet." Excellent qualification to any claims that might follow. After all, in public areas in SL, even being an "old resident" may not guarantee that folks warm up to you.

--"The first man that I talked to I asked what different": some odd syntax here. I'd make yourself the actor here, as in "When I first met another avatar in my new skin, I asked him..." or "I asked the first man I met about..."

--" I'm sure he gets asked that a lot, there" has a "comma splice" because you need a connecting word after the comma. See http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/comma.html

--"non-prejudice people" uses "prejudice" incorrectly (it's the noun). You want "prejudiced," the form as an adjective.

--Do a slow read-aloud session here. I found a few errors you will catch quickly.

Caroline R said

at 8:16 am on Nov 20, 2009

You went to some really cool places!!
Read aloud to catch some errors! :]]

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