Cite as: Fletcher, Akil. 2019. Research Program Description. University of California. November. http://centerforethnography.org/content/akil-fletcher-research-program/essay
Akil Fletcher is a PhD student in the Anthropology department at the University of California Irvine. His research is based within online communities across games such as League of Legends, Final Fantasy 14, and online communication programs like Discord. Seeking to understand how blackness and race at large shapes the experiences and communities of black players online, Akil applies a lens of critical race theory and games scholarship in order to discover what games and games communities may reveal about online interaction and community structuring. His dissertation will explicitly focus on what forces allow or prevent black online gaming communities from surviving and examine how even when blackness is not present or apparent it still serves to inform the shaping of online cultures.
My research looks to examine the navigation and expression of black individuals within online gaming spaces, while heavily looking at what forces threaten or allow these spaces to exist. This is because while online spaces may boast a "for everyone" or colorblind ideology, race often comes to be a key factor in how online spaces are shaped. I have chosen games ideally for this reason, because gaming spaces have come to be viewed as predominately white and Asian in the public consciousness—thus examining how black people manage these space will reveal not only how black community is formed and survives online, but will speak to a larger conversation of how individuals online interact in the face of oppressive forces.
In understanding how blackness is viewed by players in online pc gaming, it is imperative to look at how blackness and black people are viewed and portrayed in AAA industry titles. While, these two categories are not always in direct contact, there exist an undeniable connection between games spaces and the games industry, in that AAA titles often set a precedence for what is and is not acceptable for other games. While, there are forms of resistance from entities like Indie game companies, popular AAA titles still work as the hegemonic umbrella which informs the rest of the games market. Thus, it is imperative to examine how blackness is portrayed within AAA games to see how smaller markets and spaces may have been informed.
For a examples click the photo above or read an examination of Mortal Kombat here.
My research features a heavy focus on digital/online ethnography. By exploring black spaces within online games, I see firsthand how race effects them and how they deal with such during play. The above picture displays one of my avatars within the game of Final Fantasy and marks the personal instrument through which I experience the space. Each digital body comes with its own history, biases, and expectation which further serve to influence how people react within the game.
Race within the community is also influenced by a market push for esports. Esports works to create popular gaming figures within the community, however, with a lack of black esports players and racism hurled at the ones who do exist, this works to create a toxic enviroment for black players. This phenomenon is covered within the articles, Why aren't more black kids going pro in esports? by Latoya Peterson and esports has a racism problem by Tim Mulkerin.
