Switching Races in Second Life

What is it like to switch races or genders in Second Life? The article "The Skin You're In" describes Erika Thereian experience after she switched her race. Erika was a tanned skinned, blond hair, female avatar and then, at the request of a friend to model his latest skin design, she put a different color skin on. This skin transformed her into an African American female. A complete metaphorphasis from her previous self took place. She was now dark skinned with black hair and Erika spent three months in the African American woman skin. After three months, Erika related her experience dealing racial slurs and derogatory comments in the article. She also said some of her Second Life friends abandoned her by not talking to her anymore. Influenced by her story, my English teacher, as descibed in the article "The Skin You're In, Too," challenged my class to change our avatars race and conduct our own experiment in Second Life. So my avatar Cinderella became African American and I wondered around Second Life with a friend's avatar, Thumper Starsider, partially expecting to be discriminated against, but my experience was the opposite. 

This is what my avatar, Cinderella looked like before.....                         and this is what my avatar Cinderella looked after....

After initiating the changes to our avatars according to our schemas of how they should look being a different race or gender, our trip commenced. With our new skins, we teleported to Welcome Area on the Mainland. Upon arrival, we wondered around and found an empty bench to sit on and silently listened to the conversation of the avatars that were present. Once we felt comfortable, we joined in the conversation, but the other avatars were too engrossed in their conversation to acknowledge our presence. While trying to catch the other avatars attentions, my friend's avatar was muted and called an idiot. While my friend's first experience was contemptible, my avatar, Cinderella, experience was quiet contrasting. I recieved a personal greeting from an avatar that walked right up in front Cinderella. I was excited to speak with this avatar and explain about my project, but I never recieved the opportunity. After the avatar's initial greeting, he was silent. Even though my initial thought was the avatar is ignoring me now beacause I have black skin, however the avatar continued to stand in front of Cinderella. Since our conversation seemed to have reached a roadblock after hello, my friend and I decided it was time to take our avatars to a different place. I tried not to be discourage about the result of my avatar's first encounter with another avatar in her new skin. As far as being discriminated against, I do not believe the avatar stopped speaking to me beacuse of my race. I concluded that this experience was just an anomaly that would be left open-ended. It was time though to move on to the next location. My friend and I teleported our avatars next to Orientation Island. Orientation Island is the area where new members of the Second Life community rezz for the first time after joining. Here, new members learn the basics of how to control their avatars in Second Life. My friend and I directed our avatars around the island looking for avatars to speak with. With a stroke of luck, we encountered a a female avatar sitting with her friend that was a Furry. We initated a conversation with the female avatar about being new and looking for exciting places. She responded to our inquiries with the suggestion to search for a club called SLeek. She said to was a fashionable place in Second Life. My friend and I thanked her for her assistance and searched for SLeek and clicked teleport.

Arriving at SLeek, I knew it would be a defining experience for our project, because their were an abundant amount avatars there. Our avatars joined the other avatars on the dance floor, but there was no dance ball hanging. I initiated myself into the conversation by asking how to animate my avatar, so Cinderella could dance too. My question was acknowledge immediately by the avatar that owned the club and he informed me that I had to click on the stones on the floor to dance. We followed his instructions and soon our avatars were moving and shaking like the rest of the avatars. I struck up a conversation with one of the avatars that was dancing next to me. We spoke about how I was new to Second Life and I learned that he had been a member for three years. This avatar also taught me how to hear the music that was playing and while we were speaking, the avatar that owned the club joined in our conversation. I spoke with both avatars for a while and received invaluable advice from experienced Second Life avatars. I was in no way discriminated against and I even these avatars even flirted with me by complimenting my appearance. After this delightful experience, it pained me to tell them that I had to leave and move onto my next location. The avatars both told me to come back again anytime I desired.  

After an extensive search of the landmarks in our avatar's inventories, we decided to take Thumper and Cinderella to a place called Xstreet. We resolved to go here after frantically searching for a place where there were numerous avatars to speak with. Xstreet was not crowded, but our avatars were fourtuante enough to find someone to speak to right after we arrived there. The avatar was dressed in a way that I would label a cat. The avatar sported a long, pretty tail that I implored her to tell me where her avatar purchased it. She told me that she could not tell me where her avatar purchased the tail beacuse her daughter had created and dressed the avatar for her. I was dis]sappointed by her answer because the tail was awesome and I desired one very much. She apologized for not knowing about the tail and we talked for a few minutes. This avatar did not not seem to mind that I was African American and was very amiable. So far, not one avatar that I had met mentioned anything about my race or made one derogatory to my avatar. I was not experiencing the same woes that Erika Thereian dealt with. I was determined to continue my trip and show how welcoming avatars in Second Life could be. Off to the next place Cinderella and Thumper!  

At this point, Thumper and Cinderella teleported back to Richmond Island to regroup. After a brief discussion, a decision was reached to search for a more eclectic place, a Furry club. We have heard about the Furries in Second Life and decided to investigate about them and their avatars that resemble animals. The club we found was very different from SLeek with pole dancing instead of regular dancing. Thumper and I parted ways here for a while, with me exploring more inside the club. Thumper found charming Furries outside but, the ones inside did not even talk to me. I desperately tried to strike up a conversation with one of them in the club, but none spoke to me. They seemed preoccupied with something else besides me. I once again cannot determine if they refused to talk to me because I was African American or for what reason they did not. Furries, I was told usually speak to human avatars, but these Furries did not speak to me. Since I was just a bystander, I decided to have Cinderella joing Thumper outside. When I caught up with Thumper again, we teleported back to Richmond Island and finished our concluded our adventure together. 

My race swich experiment in Second Life can be considered a success. I was never once the victim of a derogatory remark. Every avatar that I encountered was helpful and those that did not speak to me, I cannot with any confidence say that I was treated this way beacause I was African American. I will have to return to the Furry club as the original Cindrella to see if she can evoke a response out of them. If they still do not speak to me then I know it was not the color of my skin that turned them off to me.  I wish that all African American avatars experienced the same pleasant adventure that I did with Cinderella. Linden Labs should ban those that utter racial slurs and and use derogatory words. Second Life should not be a place where racial comments are allowed. I hope that African American avatars find equality in Second Life just likeI did.

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