If this is your first time being introduced to me, my name is Kelsey and I’m a huge lover of First Person Shooters (FPS) like Valorant and Apex. I play them almost daily. I love the movement, game style, and strategy behind them. They’re exciting to play and the competitive nature of the game keeps me coming back. However, as a Black Woman, my experiences in these game spaces haven’t always been positive. When I’m not playing with a group of trusted friends, the games can go south quick. It starts with “Are you black?” “You sound black lol” and continues into darker places. I have had male gamers wishing various fantasies of sexual harassment onto me to telling me there are certain places that women, Black women in particular belong. The number of times I’ve had to leave mid-game, mute, report, and end the night angry and frustrated are more than I can count.
Before I continue, let’s review some words that I’m sure we have all seen used in various different ways.
toxic (adj.) very harmful or unpleasant in a pervasive or insidious way
Example: There is a consistent trend of toxic behavior towards women, especially Black women, within the gaming community.
intersectionality (noun) the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage
Example: When discussing toxicity in gaming spaces, it is important to also discuss the role of intersectionality. Not only do Black women experience sexism, but they can experience racism, colorism, and classism to name a few. Comments such as “you sound black”, “you must be a virgin”, “you’re too poor to afford a good mic” are all direct attacks at more than just one’s gender. They target your sexual orientation and financial status.
white supremacy (noun) the belief that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society, typically to the exclusion or detriment of other racial and ethnic groups, in particular Black or Jewish people
Example: The historical impact of white supremacy is pervasive and can be seen in all spaces. Whether its recognized or not, the inherent belief that white people are superior to others, especially Black people invades the gaming space. Racially-charged commentary in voice and text under the guise of “joking” or “amusement” create hostile environments for Black gamers. Noticeably it is white men who continue to perpetuate ideas that Black Women have a particular place and standing. I’ll give you a hint. It is not playing video games in equal setting, but being abused, used, and disrespected.
You can’t address these issues without calling it what it is. The men that I myself have come into contact with are not just “toxic”; they are inherently fueled by racist ideology and perspective. The number of times I have gone into a game and after the first call I give it is “Are you black?” leading to a series of derogatory jokes and name-calling is more than I can count. It has become pervasive to the point where I have to proactively mute the players I am not queued with in order to protect my mind and remove the privilege of being able to communicate with me at all.
Unprovoked harassments in games that allow player to player communication has somehow become the norm. I don’t move fast enough, I’m a b*tch. I don’t clutch a 1 v 5, I’m a worthless n-word go back to the kitchen. There is no winning with people who find enjoyment in pushing their hate onto others. How long do we have to be threatened with different forms of abuse while being specifically highlighted to me that these things should be done to me simply because I’m a Black Woman. It’s more than a little frustrating. It is enraging.
Gaming companies such as Riot Games, Ubisoft, Microsoft, etc. continue to make games based on communication and interaction without reinforcement of their own rules. They fail the gaming community and more specifically Black Women when they fail to create a system that allows them to adequately mod and protect these spaces. It’s come to the point now where I feel like I cannot enjoy any game that is multiplayer unless I’m playing with a full group of people. That in itself is difficult to come by because of skill-levels, scheduling, etc. There needs to be accountability. Take what we are saying seriously. Take these reports seriously. Take action immediately. Stop giving ground to people who are hateful and intentionally hurtful. These are not new instances. They will continue to persist unless we stop pretending that the problem will go away on its own without combined effort.
Black Women have had to continue to create their own safe spaces, set their own boundaries and reinforce our own rules, and we will continue to do so. This does not excuse the larger community from also speaking out within their own groups about the unacceptable nature of spewing hate speech and prejudice.
Every time I go online to play, every time I go live to stream, I’m deal with the anxiety that I’m going to experience more verbal and text abuse. In the moment, I’m vocal, not only out of frustration but out of fear. Frustration that leads to burning anger because at the end of the day people are becoming too complacent. To put it bluntly, why does it fall on the Black Women to call the racist horse for what it is? Racist. Too often I queue with other people only to find them quietly saying “I can’t believe they still say this type of stuff.” Time period is irrelevant. These ideas are so rooted in the minds of people that it takes aggressive anti-racist stances to even begin to see change.
Normalize making these games and communities unwelcoming to right group of people: gamers who insist on recycling misogynistic and racist ideas that were sown into them by their parents and their parents parents. If you as a non-Black gamer are present during these moments, stop sitting silently by and allowing these things to be said. Call it out. Educate. Report. Repeat. Maybe it’s useless, maybe you calling them out while also reporting them might in the moment seem moot, but imagine if we started making these spaces so uncomfortable for them the way they do for Black gamers and other marginalized groups. I honestly think we would begin to see a difference in the long term. It’s not enough to have #BLM in your bio, or post a scripted “We stand with you” message on your company’s page.
Stop creating safe spaces for racism and honestly all the -isms under the sun to thrive. Stop creating safe spaces for people who go out of their way and find enjoyment in dragging people down to the sad place they are at because they themselves are unable to find joy in anything. Stop ignoring what we’ve been saying which is that there needs to be active change. It’s not one or the other. You can’t protect the abuser while simultaneously saying that you are for the oppressed and the degraded.
There is responsibility on both ends. When you decide to make a game, you should also decide to commit to making that game as enjoyable for your players as well as safe. When you decide to play a game, especially one reliant on communication like the predominantly FPS games that I play, you decide to make that space a safe and enjoyable one for everyone. Leave that racist, misogynistic, homophobic bull shit at the door.
