When is the N-Word Cool on XBOX Live? Never.
Lerone Wilson in a post over at Blackline is tired of hearing "white young men" use the 'n' word while playing XBOX Live. Wilson claims he hears it "at least twice a day while gaming," and indicates that he's both offended and concerned that it's "giving the many children who also use the service the false impression that it's an acceptable word to be used in the world of online video games."
"I assure you, it isn't," says Wilson.
He admits that when he hears the word on XBOX Live, it "usually isn't targeted towards African Americans," but that it "clearly mimics the way young African-American men use it." As a sort of macho term of endearment, in other words.
I can't tell exactly where Wilson stands on this, but it's always seemed to me that the 'n' word is either off limits to everyone or it's off limits to no one. Making exceptions for groups of people just informs a different kind of segregation. Telling one group it's okay to use a word may for that group in some sense deprive it of its "power," but in a broader sense, it reinforces its power due to the culturally charged double standard. It's the flip side of multiculturalism, where celebrating cultural differences can simultaneously and often deleteriously reinforce them.
But to the broader point, online chatter can certainly be toxic. I've heard far more (and arguably far worse) than the 'n' word flipped off while playing against random opponents in games like Mech Assault and Halo 3. Anonymity is this great big dare to test boundaries and cross lines considered off limits in conventional offline social situations. For whatever reasons, people seem inclined to take that dare as often as not.
In a sense, that's both the triumph and tragedy of gaming. Games invite gamers to try things they wouldn't in so-called real life. Dealing with language used both with and without intent to harm is, at least as long as we allow people the option to mask their identities, part of the complex and sometimes rewarding, sometimes poisonous tradeoff.
Replay
Agree? Disagree? Have your say below in comments, visit Wake the Happy Words for expanded dialogue, or pelt me with emails here
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Thankfully the ratings and zones features built-into Xbox Live make it so you rarely if ever hear such evil.
so what he is saying issss....... black people can use it but white people cant? how isnt that racist? but wait! we white people cant say that blacks are racist because that would make us racist and not the black people! hahaha, this guy is a joke! maybe he should tell his fellow black people to not use the word as a "macho term of endearment" and maybe the white people wont use it either. thats just being hypocritical and racist. so either he do that or get over it because no one cares except the black people who say its their word and not ours too.
I agree with Matt.
If black people continue to use it then it can't be as bad as people make it. You either have to make it a "curse word" that should never be uttered or allow everyone to say it. You can't have double standards.
And how is someone so emotionally hurt when they hear it from a white person and sing along when they hear it from a rap song? Give me a break.
I think if " Lerone Wilson" (i am using my intellect and guessing thats a black name) complains enough then there will be affirmative action policies in Xbox spotting minorities kills.
fo shizzy my nizzy
Actually it was the language on XBlive that drove me back to PC gaming. I play on servers which are no swearing no porn and no racial slurs. Life is good again. people that break the rules get banned permanently from the server and we never see them again.