Stanford Perry: Stanford Perry. I’m currently a worker at a fast-food restaurant called Chick-fil-A uhh taking a break off semester and I am African American. And I do do enjoy gaming here and there.

Oscar Torres: Alright great to have you on here and so to start off with the first question I would like to ask you what was your Did you ever had like a first experience in racism when playing a game?

Stanford: From a personal view? No, I’ve never really played any game game where I’ve experienced personal racism, ism. Even though I have experienced, you know, some people who do often get very vocally aggressive, but never any personal racism towards me.

Oscar: And what about like, with a friend like, have they gotten like the experience or nothing that you can remember?

Stanford: Nothing from the top of my head, at least I can.

Oscar: Alright, so the one bring up like with some with some points of with aggressive racism like, is mostly due with stress or anger? That’s one of the main reasons why people will get like aggressively or actively say like, racist thing do you think that is to be the case?

Stanford: In all honesty, that could be the case. It could also be the fact that when in terms of being you know, through the Internet, and all that you’re not doing it face to face, there’s this sort of level of, of being able to be unhinge and fully you know, just let it let that anger go unfiltered anger because essentially the who is really there to stop you outside of you know, maybe someone in the background hearing you like your parents or roommate or okay I feel like when it comes to that people more often than not more on page

Oscar: and do you feel like it’s more easier for people to get away with like saying these racist racist things towards like other other African Americans online on gaming or do they get like consequences later on?

Stanford: Uhh is it is very easy to get away with consequences it’s it can be easily said and sometimes you know, you think it could just be like them just saying it once and moving on is I know some I think I do believe some people will say repeatedly multiple times and just be able to get away with it consequence free.

Oscar: Oh, at some point like is going to like get caught like one day that one way or another people like on when you’re playing a game on Call of Duty you know, find out who you are through like a Twitter or Instagram they try to actively, like doxx or try to ruin like their career. Do you think it’s possible for that to happen?

Stanford: Maybe maybe to a person who has a platform but to the to the average person? I don’t really think think so. Maybe it can happen I wouldn’t genuinely be surprised because there are some people who would go out of their way to doxx a person. It’s sad to see and it’s also sad to see that it wouldn’t really surprise me. Because you know, again, people tend to be unhinged in these types of online environments.

Oscar: And when playing a game do you feel like people like are free like to say whatever they want like them don’t matter like if they offend people or they make people sad only because like they don’t you’re not physically talking to them, like face to face is more easier for them to like, say these to say these racist things?

Stanford: Yes. Any any slur out there that they know, you know, they will say if the chance comes up.

Oscar: and moving on to light to Twitch, do you feel like the black community is getting is strong on Twitch? Or is it easy for them to like not get into like these racist habits on Twitch?

Stanford: From personal experience? I don’t know much about the black community on Twitch, which maybe I haven’t searched around around a lot and to search around a lot, but personally speaking, I have not seen much problems with Twitch. I also but I also wouldn’t be surprised if there were problems.

Oscar: But do, alright, but do you think that Twitch has like a serious problem with how they’re handling like, like the plan like streamers or platformers in the as like the months go by?

Stanford: Hm, not too sure, not too sure. But they’re handling racism was a bit slow, they had banned the term simp before they had banned the you know, the N word with the hard R. R, which is like, it’s a step forward, but at the same time for them to take that long to actually, you know, stop all the actual racist and hurtful slur, it kind of shows their priorities.

Oscar: And that’s pretty much it because this shows like Twitch’s not doing a lot to tackle like, like racism for African Americans, the only they’re only focusing on like the minor stuff, instead of focusing on the bigger picture. And to me that feels like is a missed opportunity. They should, like follow or do something about this, because who knows, it may get worse and worse as time goes by, with like, what’s happening in the real world right now.

Stanford: Yes, people will find any, any way like sure, yes, you know, the N word with the hard R being banned is a good step forward. I feel like Twitch can do more we know they could do more. I don’t think Twitch is a platform that wouldn’t go against that. The thing is, it’s like, well, there’s got to be ways to monitor, you know, other types of slurs first, like a brown slurs or how, you know, black people can be referred to as monkeys without any filters, and all that, you know, some some person, you know, maybe the streamer or other people they have to get, you know, personal mods that they have to filter out the chat on themselves.

Oscar: And how do you tackle like a racist nature, whenever you’re playing an online game, like let’s say Call of Duty or Halo?

Stanford: A well, or personally for me, a, um, I’d probably be taken aback at first. And I probably get a little aggressive myself because, you know, due to the unhinged environment, mostly, I’ll probably just leave, you and then leave a report on the player. Hopefully, something happened, because, you know, stuff like that, that shouldn’t be gotten away with with. Yeah, that’s how I would, you know, mostly deal with it.

Oscar: Now, that’s smart. Because it’s better to like, just do a little thing and then to get like, physically angry cause, if they get angry. Or if you get angry, then that means the other person wins because he got you to the point of frustration.

Stanford: Yes.

Oscar: And have you seen any growth in the gaming scene? Or has it been getting better? Or has it been getting worse for African Americans?

Stanford: Ah, it really, it really kind of, it kind of depends because because there is a clear sign sign of people who are against you know, companies going political and all that like when you know, Sony did their little free Black Lives Matter banner thing, or they didn’t. It wasn’t a banner, but it was part of the background. And there was a surprisingly large amount of people against it. Despite the fact that A. it was optional, and can be ignored. and B it’s, it’s like it’s like it kind of it kind of shows that they they’re either too much into escapism, or an not for Black Lives Matter which in all honestly and I wouldn’t really be surprised ised you know if other companies did the same movement and they were people sort of against it.

Oscar: As far as he is something like that cause any end of the day Sony is a business they want to appease like their customers and with what they did with like the Black Lives Matter like wallpaper on the PS4. It makes it so that they only care about like they’re only using them like their feelings to make sure that they care which in all honesty not many people will fall for for that I seen a lot of people when that happened like not really liking Sony for that.

Stanford: I mean yeah, in terms of business appeal, most companies you know, like when LG, the LGBT month comes in Pride Month. That’s what it’s called Pride Month comes in a lot of companies switch to the you know, the rainbow flags and stuff like that, that they do it for the marketing appeal. And while I do understand, that is really just businesses appealing to people, people in all honesty, if it comes in business 101 sure behind the scenes, they can be all nasty. mean, mean, but in reality, it’s probably better for business to show their good side, you know, rather than always try to try to more or less just be neutral on these grounds, you know?

Oscar: Right. And one more question. As a community, what would you think that the gaming community would do to make sure that all races not just African Americans will feel more welcomed to be a part of that?

Stanford: I think, I think just more filtering and more ways to, you know, be able to punish people, people that get away with this sort of unhinged behavior, where you try to talk things out from people who see gaming as this, this sort of escapism, it’s been saying, you know, I don’t like politics in my games, when yet yeah, every almost every story in the world has some sort of either political meaning, or, you know, meaning about human nature. Even the basic stories, like, you know, going a little off topic, like Sonic was how his nature versus man, man kind of thing. But yeah, it’s a kids game. And most people won’t see that right away. But a lot of other stories have this sort of political meaning people fail to realize. And I feel like, you know, if people try and look into stories more, and all that, and also know, back to the filter thing, too, there has to be a way to at least monitor monitor, monitor some ways of vocal language, which not keep track of it, because, you know, we all have our privacy, we all have our talks and everything, but more more so public chats, chats, rather than private chats that way, you know, because that’s where more or less it happens. I’m more likely to be called a slur by some dude, dude. And who knows where he’s probably angry at me. He doesn’t know me doesn’t know my age. And I don’t know him. I don’t know his age, but I also don’t know his face, face and he’s not directly in front of me in front of me. So you know.

Oscar: I can agree to that. But like, at the end of the day is like racism is a very hard thing to get away with, especially in like online gaming, because nine times out of 10 you’re bound to talk or interact with people who would say these things and you can’t get away with it. Even if you leave like a lobby, there’s still gonna be people like that in life.

Stanford: Yeah.

Oscar: So yeah, that’s pretty much like a bullet that you can get get away with. Get away from.

Stanford: Yes.

Oscar: All right, that seems like all the time we have for today. Thank you, Stanford for joining me today. I really appreciate it.

Stanford: Apologies for not having the webcam.

Oscar: That’s alright. But is there any way we can find you like on Twitter or Instagram or something like

Stanford: that? Ah, that is for friends only…sadly.

Oscar: Alright, then. Appreciate again, thank you so much, Stanford for joining.

Stanford: Welcome.

Oscar: And this is Oscar Torres, A&E editor for Talon Marks, signing out.

Interview, editing and transcription by Oscar Torres.