Analyzing Deviant Behavior and Racism in US Virtual Pop Culture

This essay delves into the issue of deviant behavior within the context of US virtual pop culture, specifically focusing on racial discrimination experienced by African-American male gamers on Xbox Live. The author examines how video games, rather than being a space for entertainment, become a medium for exhibiting racism, where white gamers engage in linguistic profiling and harassment, labeling black gamers as deviant. The paper highlights the social construction of deviance, the impact of such behavior on the victims, and the ways in which the marginalized group attempts to cope with and avoid the abuse. The essay draws on virtual ethnography and existing research to illustrate the pervasive nature of racial subjugation within the gaming community, emphasizing the emotional toll it takes on the targeted individuals and the need to address such behaviors.

Running head: DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR IN US VIRTUAL POP CULTURE
DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR IN US VIRTUAL POP CULTURE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR IN US VIRTUAL POP CULTURE
A formal or informal behavior which evokes a negative response and negates social
conformation is referred to as a deviant behavior (Goode 2015). A deviant behavior can be
voluntary or involuntary. It can take place in the virtual as well as in the real world. One such
virtual world is constituted by the video game pop culture in the United States. Video games in
US are not only games or the sites of stereotypes in US-they represent a space to engage
American discourses, racial dynamics and ideologies (Gray 2012). This space, however becomes
a medium to exhibit deviant behavior, where black Afro-Americans male gamers are at the
receiving end and their white counterparts are at the giving end. The paper thus, aims to find out
the workings of racial discrimination as a deviant behavior and its effects on the victims in the
virtual gaming community of Xbox Live.
Afro-American male gamers in the United States experience the biting tooth of racial
subjugation in the virtual gaming network of X-box Live (Ramos 2014). The resultant stigma
associated with racial hatred instigates the white majority to label the black body of the Afro-
American males as the site of deviance-and this is done through a course of linguistic profiling-
that the male black gamer sounds within the space. Researchers have used the method of virtual
ethnography in order to find out that in the midst of a series of instigating, questioning and
provoking, what comes to the fore is an entire gesture of racism. Thus, the labelling of the male
black gamer’s body as the site of deviance is synonymous to executing a deviant behavior-as a
result white masculinity is conserved. It is important to understand that video game is a
phenomenon which is socially organized- it is implicated to produce social meanings and power
relations, expressed by and sustaining those meanings. Thus, as a hierarchical structure race
manifests itself in the socially acknowledged culture of video games (Higgin 2015). In the sport
oriented video games approximately 80 % of Afro-Americans are depicted as aggressive people

2DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR IN US VIRTUAL POP CULTURE
who misbehave with their white fellow gamers (Gray 2012). However, the whites forcefully
indulge them in trash talking by insulting their speech. The question that whether they are black
or not is a frequenter in these conservations-because the whites attempt to confirm the sound of
blackness. In Gears of War-a gaming session gamers speaking in standard American English
constantly address a black gamer as a nigger-a politically incorrect term (Gray2012). While the
gaming activity is on, the blacks are consistently face sexist and racist abuse and even their
parents are not spared while the gaming activity is on. The victim in this particular conversation
in the game Gears of War the victim painstakingly avoids the remarks of the white offender.
The people who are subjected to such marginalization are registered black Afro-
American male gamers of US Xbox live- a minority in the US. They are men within the age
range of 22-32 years (Gray 2012). They are all heterosexual and their clan name in the games
concerned are not disclosed. (Gray 2012). The white society has sanctioned them as deviant
identities which they are not - simply because of their body color and features. Thus it can be
said that deviance is a social construct and the resulting action in this case it is victimizing the
already oppressed ones in US virtual society (Gray 2012).
The group of Black video gamers did not attempt to control this behavior–they rather
made attempts to avoid it as they have accepted the stamp of being the deviant identity and have
internalized the fact that their body is the site of deviance attached to their body.
It can be concluded that such deviant behavior received from the white male gamers in
the virtual pop culture of US is heartbreaking for the Afro-Americans males. Video games are
supposed to entertain people whereas the blacks do not find that scope even. They are simply
patient enough to accept such subjugation.

3DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR IN US VIRTUAL POP CULTURE
References
Goode, E. (2015). Deviant behavior. Routledge.
Gray, K. L. (2012). Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: Examining the
experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live. New Review of Hypermedia and
Multimedia, 18(4), 261-276.
Gray, K. L. (2012). Intersecting oppressions and online communities: Examining the experiences
of women of color in Xbox Live. Information, Communication & Society, 15(3), 411-428.
Gray, K. L. (2014). Race, gender, and deviance in Xbox live: Theoretical perspectives from the
virtual margins. Routledge.
Higgin, T. (2015). Online games and racism, sexism, and homophobia. The International
Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, 1- 7.
Ramos, S. M. (2014). “Know Your Role.”–Categorizing Insults and Harassment Received by
Female Gamers on Xbox Live. Diss. National U of Ireland, Cork.