Nakamura Chapter 1

I have a confession to make. Nakamura's article brings it up right away: the fact that the internet has the potential and anonymity to create a genderless/raceless environment. However the moment we enter (if we had not already boldly claim our identities), we are assumed to be white, able-bodied, cis males. Now here is where my confession comes in: no matter what video game I played, I chose to be a white male avatar. I am an Asian-American woman, and for some reason I was more compelled to be a white male when I had been given the chance. This reinforces my own oppression of my race and gender. However, while I still do this occasionally, I had to step back and realize my own wrong-doings. Being an Asian character is not bad at all. I had such deep hatred for my "Asian" looks (small eyes, a flat nose, dark eyes), that I believed the video game avatars were ugly when they were anything but white.

These racial-aggression only dug the self-hatred deeper. (And it does not help that any time an Asian character is, they are seen as a stereotype: kung-fu master, dragon lady, cute and innocent, a geisha, school girl, nerd, quiet, etc.) I didn't help my case by continuing to deny my own identity online. However this all changed when I encountered Tumblr where many communities of minorities are built to gain solidarity and support. I still create a white male character occasionally, but I took a conscious effort to create characters of another gender and race.

But there is always a double-edge to self-identification online. I had an OKCupid account at one point, and I typed in the fact I was Asian, and I received a shit ton of responses. And I strongly believe it is because I claimed my identity. I was flattered and getting a boost of self-esteem, but then I realized the amount of fetishizing I have encountered. Men enjoyed the fact I was Asian, which was really fucking creepy. So on Tumblr I found this graph of data retrieved from OKCupid:



Race plays a huge part online. Evident in dating websites. And this is just the surface of it. This stems from cybertyping, which came from stereotypes drawn in from the real world. Asian women are seen as exotic and submissive, a mail-order bride, or school girl, cute and small, so men gravitates towards them. And Latina women are seen as "spicy" and "sexy", while black women have been oppressed by even black men. (Proof on twitter where black men have slandered black women in favor of white or light-skinned women).

Nakamura also discusses the issue of the model minority, and I strongly believe it was a ploy by the white people to pit minorities against each other. There is no lie, the model minority term emerged in the newspapers in the 1960s (when the civil rights movement was ongoing), and ultimately it served no justice to the Asian-Americans themselves but rather has a warning, an attack on the African-American community. It was ultimately made to further support the white supremacy, while keeping the Asian-Americans quiet and degrading the African-Americans at the same time. Killed two birds with one stone. (Link to a short Tumblr article that sums this up better than me.)