life is short

Hey cabell, I don't know if you've seen this, but I thought it might be of interest: White woman wants to know if it's "OK" to play as a person of another race in MMO.

Given that you can play as a talking cow, a troll, or an elf in World of Warcraft, I'm not sure that skin color should be as much of an issue as this woman seems to make it. In an MMO, skin color is usually a question of aesthetics, not of the assumption or appropriation of the experiences of a certain ethnic group, which is where I think this woman's discomfort stems from. Not to say that people don't make assumptions based on appearances in MMOs, but in an environment where anybody could be behind your avatar, it doesn't seem like it should be that big a deal.

Random links that I have not read yet but look interesting: Review/critique of Lisa Nakamura, Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet - the concepts of "identity tourism," "techno-orientalism"

The Internet as a way of re-evaluating and exploring parts of personality, and how people of color have been doing this forever