Questions for race

While Nakamura touches on a number of points in regards to race and the web, I would like to focus on the 'Sorting People' activity of the Race: The Power of an Illusion site.

Nakamura writes about her frustrations with the US Census, in that it does not provide proper coverage of all possible races a person can be. There is no box for "native-asian-african american" or "white-puerto rican-american" but rather, just a box for "other".

In addition, Nakamura talks about the limitation of racial representations based on web searches.

"I entered the term racial and was directed to a page that

contained a list of clickable categories that i was encouraged to 'try first'. The list of ten categories reads as follows" African Diaspora, Asian American, Gay and Lesbian, Community Service, Latino Culture, Men's Issues, Native American Culture, Religion, Virtual Worlds, Womens studies" (Nakamura, 2).

So, based on the above example of how limiting the web can be on 'race identity', I turn to the 'Sorting People' game.

I proceeded to analyze the faces displayed and associate their physical characteristics with just one racial category. I made my selections as best I could, although it seemed some of the people were of mixed race, and went to see my results.

Well, I misplaced about 6 faces and at first felt a little ashamed of myself that I had incorrectly placed people. But then I thought....'this activity is meant to show you how stereotypes of physical characteristics associated with race can be wrong' but then I ALSO thought, 'but at the SAME time this game is forcing you to make assumptions about people based on a limited array of categories!"

How do you know one of those people was half black-half asian? And how do i know that this game didn't force me to define them as black instead of asian? And who decides which race gets to be the dominant one? FURTHERMORE, why do I even have to categorize people in the first place?!

It seems this activity was another example of how the web limits racial categories and only represents people based on limited categories, as Nakamura showed in her web search.

I would also like to touch on something that bothered me in the article.

Nakamura, makes complaints about sites like AsianAvenue and BlackPlanet and says that, "the visual style of portals tends to be flat, generic and undiverse" (Nakamura, 6). She is associating the LOOK of the sites with their ability to serve their purpose, which is to bring together a community of people sharing common backgrounds.

If she is going to tear apart "Ethnic Portals" then isn't she tearing apart the people who use them? How does she know people aren't gaining something positive by being a part of these online communities?

Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print. 101-35

blog #7

The moment I saw that we would be playing Super Mario 2 to analyze the gender roles represented by the characters, I knew it would be difficult for me to do so.

I look at the characters in terms of how easy they are for ME to control and utilize. I know that, from gaming experience, different people find different characters more preferable to use. This is a combination of your personal gaming style and the attributes of the characters.

I personally prefer to choose Princess Peach and Toad for Super Mario 2. Peach hovers for a long time which allows you to float over enemies and gaps. Toad is simply easy to control in all aspects, his legs don't flail wildly (like Luigi's) and he isn't as bulky as Mario.

ANYWAY, this aside. I feel the easiest way to analyze the characters is to go one by one.

Mario: Although Mario is shorter and bulkier than his brother (Luigi), he is the most distinguished character - even if for no other reason than his history with Donkey Kong and the fact that the games are named after him. He is FIRST in the lineup of character selection, indicating perhaps that he is the "leader of the pack". His character is relatively easy to use, although I find him to be a little slow moving.

Luigi: Mario's taller, more oblong brother. If you squished Luigi and put him in a red shirt, he would BE mario. But instead, he is the 'goofy' older brother. I say goofy because he flails his little legs all over the place and seems to be hypersensitive to all button movements. This seems to allude to the fact that males are either Alpha (dominante; Mario) or Omega (subordinate; Luigi).

Toad: Obviously not human, but rather some sort of mushroom which we have anthropomorphised. How often do we remember that Toad is not human? How often do we remember that Toad is not a toad? And why is he wearing pants and a vest but no shirt? Honestly, I feel that Toad is almost a-sexual. Neither male nor female. He is dressed in sort of an Aladdin-esque outfit, which is male but other than that I see no defineable gender qualities. But I sure like to choose him because he is small and agile and easy for me to control!

Princess Peach: Ok, well this one is just FULL of gender stereotypes. She is female. She is wearing pink. She has long hair. She is wearing a dress. She is a PRINCESS. She has a crown. For some reason, in this game, the Princess is not in distress but actually a player in the mission. However, her attire remains the same. Whether she is in her Castle, in the enemy's grip, fighting bad guys with vegetables, or just hanging out she is STILL wearing her pink dress, her hair is STILL groomed and she still looks good. This makes me think that perhaps the creators of the game are saying that females should look presentable and pretty regardless of the circumstance, which is simply not true!

I would also like to note that it DOES seem to take the Princess more effort to pick up the larger vegetable/items than the other characters. As if to say that being female represents a lack of strength.