The Power of Play: the Portrayal and Performance of Race in Video Games." the Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning.Edited by Katie Salen
Citation: Everett, Anna, and Craig Watkins. “The Power of Play: The Portrayal and Performance of Race in Video Games." The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning.Edited by Katie Salen. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 141–166. doi: 10.1162/dmal.9780262693646.141 Copyright: c 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works Unported 3.0 license. The Power of Play: The Portrayal and Performance of Race in Video Games Anna Everett University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Film Studies S. Craig Watkins The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Radio-Television-Film Introduction: Young People, Games, and Learning The growing presence of games in the lives of young people creates perils and possibilities. Games have been a constant source of criticism and alarm among parents, researchers, child advocacy groups, and elected officials. The potential harmful effects of gaming have been linked to society’s understandable concerns about the increasingly sedentary lifestyles of youth and childhood obesity, addiction, gender socialization, poor academic performance, and aggressive behavior.1 An area of growing concern is the role of games in the learning experiences and environments of youth.2 While there is growing consensus that learning takes place in games, the question we ask is: “What kinds of learning?” In this chapter we shift the focus on youth, learning, and video games generally to consider the extremely significant but often overlooked matter of race. Specifically, we address the following question: In what ways do young people’s interactions with video games influence how and what they learn about race? We present a critical framework for thinking about how popular game titles and the professionals who design them reflect, influence, reproduce, and thereby teach dominant ideas about race in America.
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