Researchers find racial bias in virtual worlds

I think that while we may bring our racial bias into SL we get a much more worldlier and tolerant view from within SL. We get the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of people from around the world. We can see how people are without prejudice of their real world appearance. We can switch our identities and put ourselves in the shoes of others. That's some good stuff. We don't get those things in RL.

Funny - I've had nationalist abuse from a British citizen towards me as an American. He felt I was too stupid to understand the subtleties of the point he was trying to make because Americans aren't quite as evolved as the UK. The knife cuts both ways. I don't really understand why anyone is surprised that there is racism in Second Life. Hateful people are everywhere, and as long as they have access to the internet, they will filter into Second Life, bringing their biases and prejudices with them from wherever they are from.

I'm not endorsing it. it's a horrible, hateful, devisive thing. However, it doesn't surprise me that it's there.

I had a Brazilian guy on Help Island call me an "Araback Terrorist" and curse me up one side and down the other. Trout has dark hair and a darker skin, so I guess he could be mistaken for Middle Eastern, but I wasn't going for a specific racial profile when I put him together. He just sort of came togehter that way.

Weird tidbit of info:

The town I live in & grew up in, I never saw a black person till I went to college in the "big city". I found it fascinating. Ok, so that charm has worn off and I just see "people". Even our town now has a few families of different colors & nationalities.

Even in High School, there were no black kids till after I graduated. How ever I did get a few nasty remarks here & there about being the only Irish kid. Now that I think of it, even if you take out the colors, people will still find a reason not to be nice to each other.

Speaking of sexist, someone at an office hour this afternoon used the T word (derogatory female term just one notch under the C word) out of the blue and unprovoked as part of his so-called clever banter. He seemed to confuse "freedom of speech" with sexist and demeaning. Personally I think he should have apologized to the women present for using it. This wasn't the time or place. Poseball sex with his mistress is the perfect time and place.

Some people do this because they can't in real life. Or they can't anymore. They think they're totally anonymous.

To get totally geek on you for a moment...

My persona for the last 8 years has been an EMH (look it up [you might get one of my sites LOL]) or - in Dutch or German - an MNH. Basically an artificial intelligence who in Trek lore was developed beyond the usual holodeck character because they had to adapt to real life scenarios as a stand-in physician. The result was hundreds of fully realized individuals inadvertently created. This has been the stuff of speculation, debate, philosophizing... You look at an advanced and allegedly enlightened society in the 24th century as depicted in Star Trek: The Next Generation, who are killing, maiming, plundering, and raping artificial people in recreational holodecks, doing god knows what in whatever scenario they've punched in, and just about the only moral consideration which seems to be addressed is whether the holodeck character resembles an actual living being. That society does not seem so enlightened when you look into how they compensate for their civil behavior in public.

There's a definite parallel. I don't think you can escape some things unfortunately, and it's not likely to go away anytime soon.

sadly racism has no geographical boundaries...

but on SL i have had the unique opportunity to be discriminated from both sides..

while standing around and chatting in japanese .. i have seen ppl pass comments about the bloody japs taking over SL... or guys openly discussing what hentai anime perv they have for asian chicks..

and then also standing around chatting in english with friends.. i have overheard the most shocking remarks made by people who think noone around them can read japanese..

Wow, I didn't know all this went on in Second Life. I am shocked and livid.

Would also like to state that this goes hand in hand with the females being sexually attacked Verbally by some men within SL. It happens just like RL, sadly. Whatever happens in RL is bound to happen in SL, as sad as that sounds.

Its not a Utopian society and I don't think SL will ever be that. Much like RL you have to find things out the hard way then adjust things so that you can lead a happy SL.

Racism in the Elevator

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=p95zWsAmTyw

the tops of digg.com today...lulz, don't say I didn't warn you...

Edit: “This study suggests that interactions among strangers within the virtual world are very similar to interactions between strangers in the real world,” said Paul W. Eastwick, who conducted the study at the Northwestern University."

...there's an entire book written by an anthropologist about this already:

http://sl2rllove.blogspot.com/search/label/Tom%20Boellstorff

Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human

Try walking around as an animal, or openly gay, or a woman, my god.

Plenty of hate and opbnoxiousness to go around for all. Everything I read here I've gotten very frequently just shopping for dances or what not in my sea lion av.

People shoutting "COOK THE FOOD" and setting you on fire and a thousand other things...

The "problem" with SL is the "Problem" with the web n general. When people think they are untouchable, thre REAL animal comes out.

I don't think it's specifically racist, it's just plain "not me" hate and probably 5-10% of the people on SL openly "share" it every chance they get.

It's human nature, and humans can really suck sometimes.

The only thing that's stupider are reporters or researches (Researchers?) that are shocked to find this out and think that it is somehow news. It's been this way for 20 years on the net. Why would SL be any different?!?

Well said! Where's the friggin 'agree' buttons around here??

we don't get BBC updates round here

Umm, I once been told off that it was wrong for a white person to have the appearance of a kangaroo, because it was a spirtual icon for their people. Of course the same person using electricity and a computer told me everything my people have done to the country has destroyed it and took offense when I called them a fellow Aussie.................... I don't bother arguing with people like that.
Overall I tend to take people as they appear here as who they want me to treat them, and I'm not knowingly racist and have no problems associating with people from a multitude of countries. As far as I see the sooner the word gets more mixed and people encounter, acknowledge and respect others cultures the better.

Really? I use a black skin and I've never recieved anything negative. On the contrary, I get told how beautiful I am and various other compliments - Even if sex isn't the goal.

Can honestly say I've never seen anything like that in the places I've gone to. Almost wanna go snoop around those bad SIMs and see if anyone pesters me. Lol.

I rarely have any problems being a black avatar (with giant afro no less). Though I also let many negative things slide right off me so maybe I just don't notice. Words lose their power if you ignore them.

Try an infohub, that's where I've seen it happen the most (griefing in general, actually)

I always blame it on "kids" (noob kids usually), but who really knows?

Sadly, I think some of the misbehaved "kids" are in their mid thirties.

Welcome Centers and Help Island Public are great places for it. Knock yerself out.

You know, I get a lot of "treatment" because my avatar is balding (in RL, bald is what people do to avoid looking balding lol). It took a while to figure it out because I'm not in RL.

btw I think the griefers in the Linden social spots ARE kids. So many of them are too fascinated with their own audio outputs, just like a teen.

I really think so too. I suppose, if one is just discovering the wonders of sound gestures , someplace like Waterhead is as good a place as any to try them out, one at a time, repeatedly, but when the same avatar is still using the same junk gesture day after day, either it's a RL kid or a very disturbed individual. When they add voice, it's usually pretty clear that no high school has bestowed them with a diploma--yet or possibly ever.

Come to think of it... maybe welcome areas and info hubs shouldn't be voice-enabled. (Ha! fat chance of that getting Linden support, enamored as they are of being another pretend phone company.)

You know I agree - it doesn't take me long to work out if someone is a kid. It's often attitudes and language that give it away.

Anyway I don't care what colour your AV is, your skin is, everyone is welcome on my land.

My solution to all this nonsense is to verbally abuse everybody i meet, that way nobody misses out and nobody can accuse me of any *isms

Yep, that was the article.

UR MOM LOL

The best posting in thread was the one from Farralon: As soon as people think they are untouchable, the real animal comes out. They know they can get away with it, so they do. They might even not be racist, but is is "cool" in their eyes to behave like that.
As said before, they are children. Whether they are in the body of a teen, or just did not grow up mentally, they are children and not the brightest ones.

Still, there should be more governance on especially infohubs, those are the places many newbies visit first. Monitor them, and ban everyone making those remarks without any discussion. If necessary, an IP ban. Enforce the ToS.

If they do not, the statement "Your world, your imagination" is a lie. As long as you try to look like barbie and ken, it is. But if you want to be a furry, or have the wrong color in some peoples eyes, it is their world your imagination. Getting things like racism out of SL is impossible, but at least make an effort.

O yes, a YAY for the researchers. Must have been some very educated people, that they managed to find this out. Whats next? Don't tell me there is still ageplay in SL? And then to think, who pays researchers like this.

Me too. Unless your av was strobe flashing fullbright glowing and spinning.

Considering all the other colors people are here (pink purple blue striped etc) it's pretty silly. It seems if someone was black black and not human black, they're revered. Okay, maybe just respected lol.

Because censorship and thought control are the way to deal with this.

There's a difference.

And people forget that freedom of speech is conditional and does not include acts of discrimination and defamation.

btw I too often when someone plays the "freedom of speech" card, that also points to someone who might have JUST crossed over into legal. Teens run from concepts like responsibility and consent, and like to lean on words which they feel justify inappropriate and/or oppressive behavior.