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How the Black Girl Gamers Community became a rescue

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Jay-Ann Lopez knew it he could have done better. He was in college, and his two friends were piling on views on YouTube, with a game channel that was offensive at worst, mediocre, at best. They used the same African-American English for nice points, made jokes that turned femininity into a point, and generally threw one part of the topic after another. It was disappointing to see them gain popularity. Lopez decided it was time to start his own chain. What she created became a platform that connected players from black women around the world.

Born and raised in London, Lopez He started playing video games when he was just 6 years old, after receiving his first console, a Nintendo, from his uncle. He was hooked, but — as with movies and television — he rarely saw himself depicted. “On screen, I almost never saw Black characters. When I did, they were there for comedy. They were black women with a macho or attitude problem, a black woman with a fake troop, ”he recalled. “Growing up with lack [Black characters] I liked to play games, I thought the games weren’t for me. ‘ Lopez tried to find a place in the games with his YouTube channel, but eventually gave up. He felt annoyed, rejected, invisible, and there were a lot of players like him.

Lopez started in October 2015 Black Girl Gamers, The Twitch channel, which has since become a secure network space and platform to increase the visibility of black women in games. BGG has more than it has today 7,000 members on his Facebook group and about 35,000 followers on Twitch. The team organizes IRL events and creates online content to support diversity in the gaming industry. What started as a small Facebook page with four community managers has been dedicated to the growing Twitch channel with 184 team members. The organization now offers events, workshops, advice, mentoring opportunities and a talent agency to replace streamers. Recently, the team teamed up with Facebook Reality Labs to offer members a three-month mentoring program to conduct commercial augmented and virtual reality missions.

according to Entertainment Software Association (ESA) are currently about 227 million players in the US. Most of these players are white (73%) and identify as male (55%). For players who are not in these teams, the game is not easy. A 2020 Anti-Defamation League Review 64 percent of online multiplayer players between the ages of 18 and 45 in the U.S. found that they had experienced some form of bullying, most of which was related to gender, race / ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or abilities. “Women and girls don’t play as much as men and boys and not because of a lack of interest or ability,” she says. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, associate professor of media and information Michigan State University. “Despite the stereotype that women and girls are not as good at games as men and boys, when we see skills increase over time, women and girls do well as well.” Ratan’s research, which focuses on harassment in the culture of the game, shows that women do not spend so much time playing because of the toxicity they suffer on online platforms.

And it’s not just harassment. Black women players are subject to what is known as a stereotype threat, as Ratan describes it: “When you are reminded of a stereotype that applies to your team, you are more likely to fit into that team while the memory is subtle.” It’s the kind of thing that can also cause distancing from STEM areas – black women players also suffer double discrimination from racism and misogyny, and at the same time face reactions for trying to deal with it. ”When we created BGG, people always said,‘ Why do you need a page? Black girl gamers? What if I did [one for] white male players? ‘”says Lopez. “Every time someone said I would have a pound [that] I would be rich right now. ‘ As Black Girl Gamers grow, it’s becoming increasingly clear why it’s so crucial.

When it started, it was one of the first channels on BGG Twitch, a single person that featured multiple players instead of a single face, a view that has become commonplace ever since. Having multiple players allows for more collaboration, and when a specific player isn’t connected, BGG uses its own current group, a list of personal accounts of team members that allows people to learn more about BGG and connect with individual players that go live on their channels. Although Lopez is the founder of the organization, he is not rigid about how the community is managed or what games can be played. These choices are made collectively by members of the current group, and this freedom of choice hardly goes unnoticed.

In 2018, in the hours TwitchCon, A talk for Twitch streamers, “I came across a white woman. He told me, “I love what you do with BGG, but I’ve noticed that you all like to play violent games,” Lopez recalled. The woman seemed to be trying to make a connection between the race and the types of games the team members played, but it was costing Lopez to see what it was. Like movies and music, Lopez understands that everyone has a taste for video games, but to think that there is a connection between race and gaming preferences couldn’t be further from the truth. “Black women play games of all kinds,” she says.

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