Meaning of Race in Digital Media

In the essay "Race and Identity in Digital Media," the author posits that modern day racism has become far less common and has taken a more subtle form, one which disappears for the most part, from the public sphere of discussion. However, there exists the problem of "microaggression" and "microracism," existing in online social spaces and virtual worlds in which, although less direct, have the potential to harm those exposed to it. This is especially important to note as social networking sites and virtual communities "are becoming part of a public sphere, where ideas and intimacies are exchanges, relationships formed and maintained, and identities are constructed and sometimes policed" (Nakamura, p.2). As consumers of digital media place increasingly more value into their media experiences, the Internet, once hailed for "[producing] a sense of self that seemingly transcended nation, race, and gender," has now become an true-to-life extension of the real world (Nakamura, p.2).

"The neoliberal position maintains that social disadvantage is a result of an individual's failure to 'make themselves' correctly, and that inequality is due to this poor personal choice rather than other people's prejudices against particular races, genders, sexualities, or class positions" (Nakamura, p. 3).
The neoliberal ideal takes a position as unrealistic as the utopian perspective, claiming to offer virtual communities "color-blindness," or a "disembodied space where gender and race cannot be seen." On the contrary , however, this outlook in and of itself is rooted in the hegemonic perspective of class and race and although ideal, is unrealistic and acts in detriment towards the understanding of race in the digital world. Moreover, while digital games commonly allow their players to design and create avatars as representations of themselves, too often, players are given numerous options all within narrow constraints that serve to further the aforementioned hegemonic order. This, along with the underrepresentation of minorities in key roles in video games, has resulted in a video game world which is "'highly unrepresentative of the actual population and even of game players,' and that a lack of media representation 'can have identity and self-esteem effects on individuals from these groups'" (Nakamura, p.5). Moreover, such misrepresentations of minorities within the world of gaming have led to instances such as that experienced by professional gamer Danny Montaner as real-world racial stigmas bleed over into the digital realm.

As players place more meaning into their regular consumption of digital media and the interactions within, it is important to understand the social implications of race, class, and identity representations within such virtual worlds. Are digital media in general constructed with race and discrimination built into their foundations? In other words, are such problems inevitable or is it possible to manipulate how race and gender are seen through such media?