Nakamura, race, gaming, griefing, and Dr. Phill makes some people really uncomfortable in the name of building knowledge.

3. TODAY
1) Quick overview: Lisa Nakamura
2) If you’re easily offended, today might be
difficult, so a word on “why”– AKA Dr. Phill
talks about profanity and racism from his
soap box in Phillland.
3) Griefing
4) Racism?
5) Activity – how do we know the difference?
6) Homework – that proposal dealie thing I
asked for plus you get to read some of my
stuff.

4. Dr. Lisa Nakamura
Lisa Nakamura is currently a professor of American Culture at the
University of Michigan (formerly of U Illinois). She has written two key
books on race on the internet (I reviewed one of them for the journal
Kairos, if you want a brief overview of it).
Among her major contributions to thought about race in cyberspace
are the concepts of Identity Tourism and her current work on
griefing/race in griefing spaces.

5. Identity Tourism
A quick summary, granting that any summary of such an idea is going
to also be a reduction: in the book Cybertypes, Nakamura coins a
phrase: identity tourism. This is the theoretical concept that you can be
anyone or anything on the internet, most easily embodied by (though
certainly not the most interesting or particularly what Nakamura was
going for) the gentlemen who get caught on To Catch a Predator
pretending to be young women in chat rooms.
Nakamura’s point was that you can pretend to be anything or anyone
online without the dangers that exist in the real world. You can try on
races, genders, classes, etc.

6. Her talk
Again. In the hopes of avoiding a quiz, I have cooked up five
questions about the lecture (just her part– the Q & A was
cool, but I realize not hearing the questions very well might
have made it harder to follow).
1.What is griefing?
2.What are “the lols” as Nakamura talks about them?
3.What are “trolls” as Nakamura is discussing them?
4.What is “enlightened” racism?
5.Why is Xbox Live considered “homophobic?” as opposed to
“racist?”

7. Enlightened
Racism
As you might guess from my treatment of today’s
materials– having you watch her speak for so long,
attesting to having cited her heavily in my dissertation
and to having published a review of one of her books,
I think very highly of Lisa Nakamura.
I do think, however, if you’re not listening carefully,
you might miss something VERY important about
“enlightened” racism. She points out at one point,
near the end, “it’s just racism.”

8. I endorse this message
Now you get a little of my own theorizing– good prep for
your next set of readings. We could talk Critical Race Theory
all semester long (really, I love it, and I’m deeply into it), but
there’s something in particular I want to bring to the
forefront as we think about issues of race and griefing and
the internet:
There’s a tremendous gray area.

9. For example…
… I’m going to utilize another scholar, quickly, Dr. Keith
Gilyard. In the introduction to Race, Rhetoric and
Composition, Gilyard talks briefly about the movie
Barbershop. Warning– Barbershop is not a good movie.
But in it, one of the key moments is when one of the African-
American barbers allows the white barber to cut his hair,
symbolically conveying belonging/blackness upon him.

10. All rhetoric is …
…situated, based on a moment (kairos) and embedded in
culture.
So, too, is racism. I’m mixed blood Cherokee (did you all
know that?), and I grew up in an almost all-black projects in
rough and tumble Richmond (lolz). On those basketball
courts, I was called, and called my friends in return, the “N-
word” (let’s see if I can stop myself from commenting on not saying the word but saying it here)

11. In that moment…
… it was okay for me to use that word. It was an accepted
part of the discourse community and fully understood how I
meant it and why I was using it.
It is NOT by any means the same for me to just feel I can
blurt out that word in this classroom. This is a different
moment. There is a different expectation.

12. Time to muddy the water
Let’s look at a few pieces of pop cultural production.
I mentioned earlier that some of this might be uncomfortable.
If you feel like you can’t respond during the next segment of
class, I will understand. And I apologize if you’re easily
offended. But nothing here is subversive. All this stuff either
happened on TV or can be heard blasting from the windows
of cars (or dorm rooms) on this campus or has been on
numerous folks Facebook pages.
I’m not trying to make you feel on edge, but if you do, that’s
an important thing to remember rhetorically.

13. Now, on the 224 Network:
Is this Racist?
With your host, Dr. Phill Alexander

14. Trinidad James: All Gold
Everything

15. Long Duk Dong

16. The Boondocks vs. Real Life:
Teacher says “Nigguh”

17. Chief Illiniwik

18. Those Crazy Olsen Twins

19. The Chapelle Show:
Black Bush

20. Jar Jar Binks

21. Activity:
Enlightened Racism
In pairs, I want you to find an example of
something you feel is “enlightened” racism and
email it, along with a paragraph of explanation
of why, to me.
My email, should you have forgotten, is
alexanp3 at MiamiOH dot edu

22. For Tuesday
Two things:
1.Write your Multimedia Argument Proposal memo and
submit it. The format/directions for this are on the course
website.
2.Read the two pieces linked on the syllabus. They’re by
me, so if you don’t read them my questions might kill you,
since I know the work really well. Also, they’re early works
in my research, so they’re sort of sketchy. It’s meant to be
a mix of fun and learning.