Credentials, respect, and STEM fields diversity: How I relate to DNLee

I just read about what happened to DNLee, a blogger for Scientific American. Have you not heard what happened to her?  Well you can read about it here on her blog.  There's also a decent rundown of the incident on Buzzfeed.  The short of it is that a gentleman for a not so well known science blog asked DNLee to write pro-bono for his website.  She politely declined and the response attacked her profession, background and gender all in one horrible sentence: Are you an urban scientist or an urban whore?

Quick list of how ridiculous this response is:

1) It's super personal for someone who never met this person
2) It's racist and sexist in one fell swoop
3) It's certainly not professional
4) It ruins any chance of potentially changing a potential blogger's mind in the future

DNLee actually did a pretty good response about not only why she declined the proposal sent to her and how she felt about the response to her:


I am sure there are plenty of people who can relate to the feelings expressed in the video. The idea that one should feel "lucky" to share their expertise they've worked hard for and should just share their talents for free.  It can happen because you're a minority, or a woman, or even because you're education is considered "below par" for your field despite many proven accomplishments.  Or sometimes you just deal with someone who's being a complete jerk.

DNLee makes some good points.  Don't settle because someone decides you should.  Figure out what your baselines are for your work.  Stick to them.

But she shares a struggle that happens all the time for people in many science fields, and again in minority groups.  Although we may like to believe there is, in America there is not a lot of varied representation of people in STEM careers.  Most of them are white, most of them are men, and there is a lot of overlap with those two groups.  On top of that there is a lot of the public who will freak out if it turns out that it isn't the atypical person who's actually knowledgeable, let alone interested, in anything scientific or mathematical.  Does anyone else remember when the internet exploded because it found out the person who runs the I Fucking Love Science page on Facebook is a woman?  I do mean people freaked out.  Was it the combo of her being a woman who didn't mind cursing on the internet who also really fucking loves science?  I don't know but I remember being ashamed not only that people were reacting poorly to it, but that I was surprised a woman ran the site.  What the hell was wrong with my head that I assumed that Facebook page was run by a man?

It's a societal thing, and it's a societal thing that is due to get in the way of a better future.  We need to have people invest in science, be interested in every scientific field, to help make the future fantastic.  We can't be discouraging anyone from the field.  For every DNLee who knows her worth, there are a ton more people who've been wrongfully turned away from a field because someone thought they didn't "fit the profile".

Did I ever mention to you guys that ever since junior high, when a teach in eight grade told me I never needed math again, I sabotage myself in my math skill all through college?  Those little things make a difference throughout life.  I'm not going to make excuses, and I am glad there was a a professor at college that pointed out how ridiculous that whole premise was and did his best to smack me out of it.  P.S., random shout out to Robert Rebelein, who despite his not very well updated website was possibly one of the best professors I had the pleasure of working with in my undergraduate career.  He treated me like an adult before I realized that's how I should be treated. He let me know if I wanted to be an economist, I could be despite getting a C in my first economics class.  I wish I had more people earlier in my life (outside my awesome parents) that told me I could do whatever the hell I wanted with hard work.  That I could do math--it wasn't just a guy skill or "not relevant" to the rest of my life.  You'd be surprised how those little influences change you.

Getting back to my point, if we just convince ourselves that only a small group of people are able to do science, let alone be respected in the field for it, we are doing future science a disservice.  For those of you who do have STEM talents, take it from DNLee: people are lucky to have your expertise around, not you being lucky to share it.  We need you around and you are valued.  We don't care what you look like, where you came from, or even who you love.  Just keep being awesome.  We need your STEM goodness!

One last thing: Everyone should be encouraging the next generation to take up science fields.  Not forcing, mind you.  But nudging.  It's really the only way we can secure a better, brighter future for ourselves.

A short discussion on biases in video game production

I was bad and I didn't write every day.  I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you somehow.

In the meantime, let's briefly talk about something that has been on my mind for a while.  Cracked.com is a great source for amusing articles that make you think.  One that got me thinking was this one about prejudices that still exist in mainstream movies.  It got me thinking about video games, namely because the two are always compared to each other.  To be honest I don't think it's a fair comparison, but that's a different essay for a different day.

My first thought is that video games are better than movies when it comes to some of those stereotypes.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that video games tend to have their own problems, for different reasons.

One of the things that has been pointed out before (and of course as I write this I can't find the image I'm thinking of) is that many modern video game heroes look the same:  Well built Caucasian male with brunette hair and dashing good looks.  Unfortunately, like most of the opinions I'll be sharing, here, I'm not able to determine anything with any research.  But my assumption would be that it's because many of the people who have started in the video game industry, and many of the people who work in the cvdeo game industry, are white males.  Even if you have the marketing demographics in intense details saying that he demographic is leaning toward another audience, it's hard for someone creating something to create something that he or she would never be interested in.  And with video games, the appeal is that you are the hero.  If the "you" is a white guy, you're going to idolize what you can relate to--a  more handsome white guy.

I will say though, that a lot of good video games have been good at letting the player decide who they are idolizing.  I have never played a "white" character in any bioware game because I haven't had to play one.  I made the hero to whatever specifications I wanted.  Hell, I had Barack Obama Shepard save the universe in ME2.  This doesn't, however, mean that the developers are forward thinking.  This merely means they are willing to have their audience shape their own experience, and even then to a small extent compared to everything that they have shaped for their audience that won't change.  This isn't necessarily a sign of forward thinking.  This is however, a sign of acceptance that different people, for whatever reasons, want something different out of their gameplay experience.

Even then, sometimes games that mean well can use stereotypes and old ideas to shape the stories they tell.  Or they don't realize exactly what they're doing and what horrible history they're tapping into.  I've spoken about this a couple years ago when I was belatedly addressing the Resident Evil 5 objections.  It's not the only game to have touched upon that either.  I'm not real pleased that the evil Karma side to Cole in inFamous 2 is black swamp tribal lady Nix.  I can tell they tried to make a complex character in Nix, but the problem is that she plays to many of the stereotypes that western society has had for centuries about black people, and stereotypes that people still play to this day.  I'm not going to say these developers are inherently racist, that would seem unfair to label a whole team of people like that.  But I do think they are unaware of the societal norms they've played into, and how best to fight them for the betterment of mutual understanding among every human being.  It makes breaking stereotypes hard when they are validated over and over again in the media.

Speaking of stereotypes, lets not just pick on racial issues.  Gender is also something that video games has a hard time dealing with in a neutral way.  Again, I'm not trying to say the whole industry is (intentionally) sexist.  There is a lot of stuff that is buried in our societal norms that are going to be hard to fight.  Like the severe attraction to waify women who in reality are not strong enough to hold huge dense metal swords or traverse in caverns with arms that have no upper body strength. I have no problem with women being able to do these things.  It's just these women have arms like me, and I know I can't do that stuff.  Maybe a woman built like this could do all that stuff, but they're not idolized in these games.  We're still going for the frail frame build when women are in video games, because in video games women are sexualized 95% of the time.  The kind of sexualization process that mass media will do is making women weaker and more frail, something that you still want to protect from something.  Games do that stuff because it helps sell the game to their mostly male demographic.  In fact, you'll find in some games when they don't intentionally do that to the character, there is a fanbase who will.  Dont' believe me?  Talimancers.

Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya, now in the cannon Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, is probably one of the strongest, independent female characters in the video game industry, possibly up there with Jade and Alyx Vance with female characters who were not put in just to be sexual objects to oggle at while teen boys killed things.  Okay, maybe not that revolutionary, but she's up there.  When you meet here in Mass Effect, she is a pilgram looking for something that would help her people in fighting the geth, willing to take big risks on her own.  She's nerdy, sleeping in the engine room and able to hack AI from a mile away.  And by Mass Effect 2, you find her confidence and her duty has only grown.  You first meet her young and hopeful, then you find her again determined and steadfast.  She grows up to be an independent woman who chooses to help humanity fight the reapers merely because Shepard is a good friend.  Sure, you can romance her, but it's a mutual respect, a love that grows out of admiration that Tali and Shepard have for each other.  It's not all about allure, it's about deep feelings.  It has to be when you can't even see her friggin face!

Seriously, are you automatically attracted to a space suit?  Because you may want to speak to a professional about that.

On top of that, when her family's honor is on the line she has not problem cursing out her elders while in court.  She a tough, smart woman.

But that is not what you get when you read through some of the posts of her most "loyal" fans, the talimancers.   They talk about how they want to protect her, how she's shy, how she needs to be comforted.  Excuse me?  This girl has fought the geth off on her own and you think YOU can protect her because she occasionally stutters?  It's like they only are attracted to this intelligent woman if she's socially awkward and needs to be nurtured.  Don't worry, Bioware boys, you got you wish, just in a different universe.

No need to project on Tali, Merril will help you with your insecurities.

It's frustrating.  The archetypes of what makes a woman attractive have become so ingrained that if we can't find on that fits it in our preferred fictional universe, we project what we want on one of those characters that would seem to fit it the most. Why wouldn't the industry cater to that if it gets them money?

This is one where even the choices still don't affect the build of the character.  You can have a different look in the hair, skin tone, and face, but the body will always be the same, and it will always appeal to the male demographic, or what the developers will feel appeal to that demographic.  I know that not all men want to oggle at small waists and big boobs, and it's not a crime to like that.  I'm merely asking for some better variety and support complex characters.

Like movies, video games have their tropes that they stick to, some of them prejudiced.  However, because of the custom aspects that games have introduced, and how it's more integrated with feedback from the fanbase, it'll be easier for games to evolve past these things in some respects.  Then again, it's hard to fight industry norms, especially when you're in an industry ruled by giants (console and developer-wise).  What's really going to matter is what we, the gamers, enjoy over time and end up going back to.  If we don't like what's become the standard, we'll just have to gravitate to games that break that standard.  Video games have thrived in a capitalist structure, and we'll have to choose what we want in that structure.  

With that in mind, support all kinds of games, the big and the small.  Choose the big production games carefully, and sing praises to the indie developers who are doing something you love.  This is true for all aspects of video games, not just the prejudice issues I've just discussed.  It's the only way the industry is going to have what you want to play.

Discovery!

I didn't realize Tank from the Matrix was played by African-American/Chinese actor  Marcus Chong!   Crazy discovery!

As multiracial person I always get excited about finding out about more cool mixed people.  And this one was in a fantastic nerdy movie!  Smart move to bank out before Matrix 2 and 3.  Dear God those were train wrecks.

And if you look him up on imdb like I did, you'll find out he comes from a family of mixed actors.  Awesome!  So awesome that I can't stop using exclamation points!!!!!

This gives me a chance to say that I am going on a trip to visit family.  I may not be blogging as much as I'd like.  But I will be talking about a new project soon. :D

Left 4 Dead 2: Why I am NOT offended.

The media is at it again!  Another debate about race in video games.  I'm a little late on picking up this one but that's okay, I was late with the RE5 issue as well.  

Again, this is coming from a GamePolitics article that read a post in a blog by a writer from the Houston Chronicle who's saying that Valve is being insensitive by putting black zombies in their Left 4 Dead sequel that takes place in New Orleans.

Okay... what?

Let's take a look at some game play, shall we?

Video Games | Left 4 Dead 2 | E3 09: PC Gameplay Part II

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Did you watch?  Okay, did you see anything that offends you?  I didn't.  If you are offended let me know because I might be missing something.  But I don't find anything that's inheriently racist.  There are zombies.  You are trying to shoot at them.  Or beat them with a frying pan, which makes a very satisfying PANG on a zombie's head.

The writer for the Chronicle says that Valve should be more careful about using the former disaster zone in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with the remembrance of "bloated bodies".  I understand that, but almost every story has a tragedy.  Should we not have games that have fires in Chicago, or earthquakes in L.A.  Yes, Katrina is recent, we're approaching the 4 year anniversary (I remember because I had just moved into my dorms as a freshmen in college).  But we have to give valve the chance to deal with the situation appropriately.  If we don't you know I will whine about it on the internet.

I think what ticks me off is that unlike the RE5 incident, there aren't any instances where the game play has racist images or messages.  Yes, there are black zombies.  But New Orleans has black people in it, and I don't see African Americans being immune to a zombie outbreak.  Although that would be pretty sweet.  Anyway, there are also two black protagonist that don't seem to be overt stereotypes either.  There's just nothing for this writer to cement his assertion on.  Luckily the developers of the game are calling it "utter insanity".  Because it is, not every game with black zombies are racist.  In fact, none of them have to be as long as people think things through, and hopefully Valve will prove that they have thought things through.

I invite you to look at all the media available on Gametrailers here.  To be honest I haven't watched anything, but I have watched a substantial amount without seeing anything that is offensive to me as a black person.  Although, their standard redneck character might offended someone.

If you go to the article in GamePolitics, you might see that one commenter says it's a way to gain readership for the Chronicle.  I will say if it is, it's probably working.

Colbert gets it right.

I know this blog is less political and social issues oriented, and we care more about gaming than campaigning, but last night's Colbert Report had a great speech about racism.  Specifically, how racism and farts are very similar.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - He Who Smelt It, Dealt It
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Tasers

I invite you all to think of great analogies that go along with this.  That's right, I d20 Sapphire encourage you to share your juvenile humor!

RE5 Trailer Gives Me (some) Hope

I watched the new RE5 trailer on Game Trailers.  It definitely looks like the game has a good plot and good villains.  Just a couple things I would like to note that still kind of tick me off.

In the same vain of why do all the good guys have to be white, why do all the leading bad guys have to be white too?  Can't black people be arch-villains?  I'm not going to get too hung up on that because it seems a lot of the nemeses are people from previous games (don't know the series well so I can only speculate) and those had a lot of white characters.  Also, as much as it is racist to say that Africans are taken advantage of for the benefit of some white guy, elitists dicks do that all the time, no matter any color.  Maybe we can pin all the racism on this one douche of a baddie exploiting Africa like so many Europeans and Americans have done before.

However this is a trailer in the right direction for Capcom.  Its a lot more obvious that there's a zombie process going on, with the visible red eyes changing.  I can imagine it's hard making people who are dark look undead, so you have to go with whatever is available and realistic enough.  Does this mean I'm not offended by the images described in my last blog post about this stuff?  No.  It just means I can see that Capcom is just ignorant, and the racism isn't intentional.  Or at least it seems that way.  Capcom should probably learn from this and be a bit more sensitive if they don't want to make such a faux pas again.  Although, for all I know they did it just to get attention to the game.  Marketing executives sometimes have horrible ideas.

One last thing to worry about: cutscenes seem to be all over the place.  I did see some game play, and I hope that's the majority of the game.  But the majority of that trailer was cutscenes of the story.  It just makes me wary where we are going to have an MGS4 situation where you play Snake for 5 minutes tops and then CUT SCENE.  You play for another 5 minutes and then a LONGER CUTSCENE.  You sneesze, CUTSCENE FOR DAYS!  Don't believe me, watch it here.  I just don't want Resident Evil, which is a good franchise on it's own, to fall into that trap.

2/15/09: EDIT

If some of you feel that I'm not expressing my ideas eloquently enough (haven't gotten complaints, but still) I found an interview here that I think explains my concerns well.  Read it if you don't understand how this game is offensive to some and would like to know why.  

Why Resident Evil 5 Still Offends Me

Do any of you remember this unfortunate video that came out for E3 2007?  If not, take a look at it here: 

Okay, now if you're looking at this for the first time, did you see anything that might be considered offensive? Anything at all?  How about the part where the Caucasian hero is basically mowing down a bunch of animalistic Africans that have only their fists and primitive weapons to fight back?  And how in the whole trailer you can't tell that these savage acting Africans are supposed to be zombies unless you know the series?

Those of you who have seen this video before know what I'm getting at.  The racist undertones are undeniable, even if they do not offend you.  I'm not asking you to be offended.  However, I have no problem admitting that I was when I first saw that video.  Of course, I knew that the Africans are zombies so I didn't go writing to Capcom about how they were release a genocide simulator.  However, if someone didn't know what the Resident Evil franchise is all about, you couldn't tell that there were zombies in that entire thing.  Bad marketing indeed.  

I don't think there is an excuse for Capcom to put out something like that.  I understand that the company is based in Japan, however they should have been able to look at their American branch and ask "Since your culture is racially sensitive, is there anything here we should be careful about when it comes to this trailer?"  And in reply, the American branch should have replied "You have to be careful about how you represent blacks in marketing.  Make sure the audience knows that they are zombies, not rabid Africans just starting a riot for no clear reason."  Of course, one part of this easy plan fell through and we got an offensive trailer for people to rage on about through the internet.

Now I would've thought that Capcom would've learned their lesson and tried to make things a bit more appealing to a sensitive American audience. More sensitive to gamers like me who are already reminded every day about how race affects them.  I was hopeful when I saw some game footage with a more diversified color scheme of enemies.  At least Capcom was trying to do something to combat the earlier images of white guy fighting through seass of rabid Africans.

But then I hear of a sneak peek play of the first three chapters that was reviewed by Eurogamer.  Apparently the game is good, but the racism is still there.  And we're not talking undertones.  You can read here on the last page of the article about a few images that harken back to the good old days of bigotry, including a blonde white woman being dragged away by a bunch of black men.  Yes, that image is there.  Why didn't anyone stop to think about how this might look to the target audience, I don't know.

Capcom, I'm disappointed in you.

The United States of America has an unfortunate history riddled with the violation of human rights and the refusal of dignity merely because someone is physically different than the majority.  As a member of one of the many minorities in this country (a country I do love very much), I'm reminded every day about how white is the norm while everything non-white is abnormal or unusual or "exotic" if you want to be somewhat politically correct.  I'm also reminded every day about how easy it is for those people who are "normal".  It sucks to have to think about it every day.  Do you think I want to encounter that in a game that doesn't seem to be approaching the debate with any kind of intelligence?

There are many things that offend me from these first looks, but lets talk about the one counter-point that Capcom could've utilized carefully.  I'm talking about Sheva, the African who is supposed to help Chris Redfield throughout his mission.  Yes, an African who is very light skinned with straight hair and speaks with a British accent.  Is this the message we want to send, that the only black people that are useful are the ones that approach an anglo look and speech pattern?  I'm not deny she's black.  I'm just saying that the only good African is the most caucasian looking and english speaking African.  That's not sending a good message to the rest of us black women, especially those who are more the coloring of the African zombies that Sheva helps Chris shoot down.

I was hoping that Capcom would have analyzed the situation and dealt with the previous concerns professionally.  But they haven't.  The Africans still are adhering to outdated stereotypes, the main hero is an educate white guy who's must kill the "savages" around him, and the "one good" African is the only African I've seen so far that has a british accent and could potentially pass for white on the street.  Way to take back African Americans five to ten years back.  Dammit.

I hope that when the game is finally released, there is actually a reason for all of this prejudiced imagery, and that I was wrong the entire time posting this.  Wrong in the sense that Capcom actually thought things through instead of not thinking at all.

Congrats to Obama: President and Confirmed Trekkie

I really do want to congratulate Barack Obama for becoming the 44th president of the white house, and the first African American President of the United States.

Some of you may know that Barack is also a confirmed Trekkie, and believes in the final frontier.  I can see why too--Star Trek has forever been talking about people like him and I.  People who are from two extreme distinct backgrounds that may not always get along.  I think this is one of the many reasons Gene Roddenberry is a genius.  He was talking about interracial people and their identities  before there were a lot of us in America to talk about in the first place.  It's a big deal for me.  Today, in honor of our President's many backgrounds (and hopefully a finer appreciation of mine)  I want to discuss how being interracial was dealt with on Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation, two shows from my childhood that in some ways taught me how to accept who I am.

Gene Roddenberry dealt with a lot of issues dealing with different alien races because the censors back in the day didn't like dealing with real race issues.  For example, when he first thought of doing Star Trek, he wanted the first commander to be a black human.  This would be a great way to talk about race relations.  However, he knew it wouldn't fly with the censors.  So instead he tried to make Majel Barrett first in command as a woman and put Spock on the bridge in the pilot.  The censors didn't like a woman first in command, stating that is wasn't believable to the audience.  When the first season aired, there was Spock as first in command, a half human half Vulcan.

Spock was the archetype of "the other" on the ship.  He constantly was representing his Vulcan heritage, choosing  suppress his emotions as is standard custom.  He was logical in thought and hardly ever let his feelings dictate who he was or his actions.   This played well against the over emotional McCoy, who says some nasty things to Spock.  If I were part Vulcan I wouldn't want someone just going around calling me Green-Blood, even if it is true.  I have a name, thankyouverymuch.  But Spock looked past his ignorance and merely carried on his customs.  He even had to defend his heritage in the great episode Balance of Terror, having to aid his ship being attacked by Romulans while at the same time suffering prejudice because he looked just like them.  

What I think allowed me to relate to Spock the most was the episode where his parents were on the Enterprise.  Sarek, his father, was a Vulcan Ambassador known for his many achievements.  It seemed his mother, Amanda, was being the dutiful politician's wife but also a caring, loving mother.  The tension between Sarek and Spock at the beginning of the episode was thicker than butter.  Sarek was disappointed that his son went to Starfleet instead of becoming a scientist on Vulcan.  It seemed that Spock could never be Vulcan enough.  Here we have the classic struggle for interracial people seen time and time again: Never could Spock be human enough to Starfleet peers, nor Vulcan enough even to his own father.  Spock chose to be more Vulcan than anything else, and was embarrassed to let his human emotions out.  Yet he could never satisfying either side of his heritage.

Would I say Barack can relate most to being Spock?  Actually, no.  Although a lot of interracial people can understand what's happened to Spock by finally picking a background to stick to, I don't think Barack has done that.  He isn't just black, and he isn't just white.  He's both.  He accepts both sides and how each of them have affected him as a person.  I can relate to that 100%, because that's how I feel about the issue too.  Unfortunately Spock never gets to that point in the series, unless of course you're awesome and you see the director's cut of the first Star Trek movie.  But that's a rant for another day.

Who has accepted both side of their heritage in the Star Trek universe?  Deanna Troi, that's who.  She's half betazoid and half human, and accepts both of those cultures as part of her own.  She even helps Worf's ex-wife(who's half Klingon and half human) with the question of how to deal with one's heritage.  Deanna's character is all about acceptance, and because of that she accepts herself, every part of it.  Of course there is the episode where she loses her empathy powers and doesn't know how to relate to people, but that's something she's always had so it's almost like if I had lost my left eye or something like that.  

Barack is more like Deanna.  I'm more like Deanna.  I didn't choose to be more black or more white.  I'm both.  My history is from both of those culture in America.  And I'm glad I have the opportunity to appreciate both to the fullest.  Barack does the same.  I think with that idea of acceptance, he has become one of the most relatable and open presidents that America has had in a good time.  

Also he's a trekkie, so I trust the next four years of America are in good hands.