Location: Help Island

I would like to think that Second Life can rise above the lingering “—isms” in our real world, and given the Community Standards set forth by its creator, Linden Lab feels the same way.  Imagine a world where you can be black or white, gay or straight, atheist or fundamentalist, and you just let each other be.  Not a bad dream.

So it was with a real shock that I discovered the sort of bone-headed racism I see all too often in real life.  I teamed up with a dark-skinned mentor the other day, helping newcomers as they appeared on one of the Lindens’ help islands.  The other mentor was in a Star Trek uniform; I wore pirate garb because I love celebrating Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day.

Two men—one from the US, the other from the Netherlands—popped in and began the usual fumbling attempts to walk and change their appearances.  One of them immediately greeted my fellow mentor with a “hi, [N-word delted].”  The other said the same.

There stood I, reaching for the virtual flintlock and ready to blast the two idiots, which is my instinctive reaction to racists in real life: beat the snot out of them all, preferably in public, until they are driven into the shadows and cannot spread their poison to young people and we outlive them.

The calm response of my partner, however, brought me back to a more temperate reaction.  He just stated, “no offensive terms in SL pls. That’s the rule.”  I managed to cough out the URL of the Community Standards and add “don’t use the N word in SL…that’s RUDE.” 

Then the two men quickly asked if were too late to apologize. It wasn’t, but the mentor’s words to them stick with me and I will remind my class that there is “always a real person behind any AV.”

Good advice, and I hope that more residents of SL would remember that…every time they meet a non-bot avatar.  My students will soon read “The Skin You’re In,” a 2006 New World Notes’ story about a designer’s experiences inside a dark skin.  Then, for a week, they’ll have to live inside the skin of an avatar who is a different sex or race, so see what it’s like and how others respond.

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

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