Black History Month: Where Are Our Black Gaming Journalists?

[Fat4all]

Came across this article thanks to MHWilliams on twitter, written by Jeffrey Rousseau for USGamer.net

Black History Month: Where Are Our Black Gaming Journalists?

Here are some quotes, but the whole article itself does a great job highlighting outlets and creators in the field while also discussing the issue in general for both major and minor publishers, and the possible places gaming journalism can go from here.

The racial homogeneity of the press has never been a secret to anyone. When I see that this has been a problem for 20 years, the message to me is clear: you don't belong. People like you don't belong, your work doesn't belong, and we're ok with that.

As a black person, this is frustrating because it's another inequality in the marginalized experience. Still, none of this is new and the work by underrepresented people has never stopped. Historically when black folks have been absent from spaces, we've responded by creating our own.

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One of the major boons of the past decade has been the development of new audio-visual platforms and tech. Social media, streaming, podcasts, etcetera—there are a lot of resources available to everyone. As each platform was introduced to the world, they've become home to new voices. This has allowed many to reach an audience they may have not been able to otherwise.

Much like a major news site, people have been able to create work that offers analysis, commentary, and research, often by themselves. So, yes black gaming journalism has been around, just not in the traditional sense. Content creators are covering the void through a combination of their interests, expertise, and talent.

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[Deleted member 7883]

Great article. Nice to see some stuff like this on the forum. Shame there isn't more of it.

It's 18 days into February and this is the first Black History Month related gaming article I've seen. It's February 18th. That's really disheartening, to say the least. Black representation matters in ALL facets of this industry. Game journalism included.

 

[Deleted member 18944]

Seeing EscoBlades's smile in that pic is so heart warming.

Great piece as well. I think games media in general should host events like Black Game Pros Mixer and provide an opportunity for networking and to cultivate a movement to encourage people that their voices should be heard and for these outlets to hire those people.

 

[Fat4all]

Seeing EscoBlades's smile in that pic is so heart warming.

Great piece as well. I think games media in general should host events like Black Game Pros Mixer and provide an opportunity for networking and to cultivate a movement to encourage people that their voices should be heard and for these outlets to hire those people.

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The article places a lot of emphasis on networking, and for good reason. Networking can be a huge boon for everyone involved, while also building connections between the journalists, gamers, content creators, etc.

 

[Era of not Yakuza]

OMG op, you made me realize that I don't know a single black YouTuber/journalist dedicated to gaming

 

[Fat4all]

OMG op, you made me realize that I don't know a single black YouTuber/journalist dedicated to gaming

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Luckily the article highlights a few! Looking into a few of their works could net you a new place to hear about different perspectives in gaming, and net them a new follower/reader!

 

[DarthSontin]

More people need to listen to Spawn on Me. Kahlief is awesome.

 

[newgamewhodis]

A bit surprised to not see Austin Walker here. He continues to do great work at Waypoint.

I think the journalistic space is getting more diverse (part of what rubs GG the wrong way), the challenge is to make contributors visible WHILE at the same time protecting them from harassment. So many videogame spaces online continue to be tremendously racist, alt-right, transphobic etc.

 

[Champion]

Good article and I agree with the point about systematic issues.

 

[Slayven]

Love me some Nerds of Color

 

[Loudninja]

Love me some Nerds of Color

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*High Five* Our brothers and sisters doing good work.

 

[Justified]

Representation matters!!

 

[MatrixMan.exe]

Shout out N'Gai Croal.

 

[Neoxon]

Oh hey, Andre the Black Nerd. I actually enjoy his work, so it's good to see him here.

Funny enough, I actually made a thread for one of Bonbdunga's videos earlier this week.

Bobdunga: Romance In Video Games

Bobdunga has been putting out good work for a while, & she does a good job of discussing various types of romances in games. She even touches on gay relationships in here. As such, I thought I should highlight her work here. Source: Bobdunga (YouTube)

www.resetera.com

 

[Penguin]

I think it does a great job of getting to the issue and highlighting some black voices currently in the space, but yeah there is still gonna be a huge divide in those people you see on major sites.

 

[Bold One]

IronLords Podcast.

Check them out.

Iron Lords Podcast

Join your fellow Iron Lords at the ROUNDTABLE every Sunday at 1pm EST (11AM EST during NFL season) to discuss the latest topics in Gaming, Combat Sports, & t...

www.youtube.com

 

[Ragnarok Flames]

Oh hey, Andre the Black Nerd. I actually enjoy his work, so it's good to see him here.

Funny enough, I actually made a thread for one of Bonbdunga's videos earlier this week.

Bobdunga: Romance In Video Games

Bobdunga has been putting out good work for a while, & she does a good job of discussing various types of romances in games. She even touches on gay relationships in here. As such, I thought I should highlight her work here. Source: Bobdunga (YouTube)

www.resetera.com

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Andre does a lot, and i appreciate his enthusiasm.

also Where is any mention of Austin Walker, dude does work.

 

[L Thammy]

Maybe it's because I don't follow gaming journalists enough to begin with, but the first thing my brain went to was... I think it was Hip Hop Gamer? There was a guy who used to go around giving game developers a championship belt. He was ridiculous, but he was just constantly radiating enthusiasm and a sincere love for video games.

 

[chrisdm]

Where is my mention of Blessing Adeoye Juniah!?

In all seriousness, LOVE to see articles highlighting this!

 

[JuicyPlayer]

Remember N'Gai Croal? I remember he used to collaborate with Geoff Keighley back in the day.

 

[Doof]

Remember N'Gai Croal? I remember he used to collaborate with Geoff Keighley back in the day.

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I was just about to ask about N'Gai!

Apparently he runs a consulting company now.

 

[80s Old School]

I wonder how many even exist. I think about my own background growing up where not many black people were into games beyond a casual level. My personal meme when I saw others collections were Madden, GTA, NBA2k, and COD. I remember for the longest time I didn't know anyone in real life that had heard of Smite. Now I know my experience is not everyone's, but down here in the south I don't know many people personally into videogames beyond a casual level. Only one of my childhood friends plays games outside the meme on Xbox live. Again, not to discredit anyone else's experience, but I wonder how many there are to begin with.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

Thinking back to college (nearly 20 years ago... ugh) I can't think of too many black people in any of my Journalism, editing or comm classes. I can't, honestly, think of any of them.

Now, this is a bit skewed thanks to the campus being largely white and Latino (thanks, West Texas) but most of the black students I knew and saw were in sciences and sports/health.

 

[JuicyPlayer]

Wrong thread

 

[ChristMustDie]

Great article! I attempted to write something like this last year but never got around to finishing it.

The lack of diversity in the UK game press is crazy. I've attended so many events over the past four years where I'm the only person of colour.

 

[JuicyPlayer]

I was just about to ask about N'Gai!

Apparently he runs a consulting company now.

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Its nice to see hes doing well for himself. I used to like his content.

 

[Irate]

MHWilliams was a great poster back in the day

 

[captmcblack]

Awesome article, saw this in the BCT this morning.

I remember wanting to be the first black editor in EGM when I was a kid, and wanting to see more people like myself in the industry and writing was why I used to do it way back in the days before social media and subscriptions.

There's lots of cool podcasts and YouTube channels with black creators and journalists out there, and I hope to see more get on and get big.

 

[Aswitch]

Love this. Man it's a shame really. Good to see some representation on here. I hope this changes eventually for sure.

 

[GrrImAFridge]

I can't help but think of when N'Gai Croal published in article critiquing Killzone 2's muted colour palette, at a time when it was still the hot exclusive of the moment, and much of the associated thread on GAF was littered with people taking offence to his use of the word "verisimilitude".

A concerning lack of self-awareness conflated with intellectual insecurity to create what is still, in my mind, the most embarrassing display of platform zealotry I've ever seen.

 

[Pikelet]

A bit surprised to not see Austin Walker here. He continues to do great work at Waypoint.

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Yeah Austin Walker is one of the most consistently-interesting writers/podcasters in the biz, black or otherwise.

 

[skillzilla81]

Shoutouts to Urban Scholar for the article. Doing the work, meign. I see and appreciate you.

 

[Inspector Detector]

Great thread.

I recently discovered Andre the Black Nerd thanks to his Cats video review; he and I had pretty similar reactions to that....treasure of a film.

 

[yurr]

shoutout to press start....

Spoiler

weaponwheel too

 

[Akash]

i remember holding onto the cover story ngai croal wrote about ps2 for newsweek for years and years. it made gaming feel so mainstream at the time.

 

[Urban Scholar]

Shoutouts to Urban Scholar for the article. Doing the work, meign. I see and appreciate you.

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Thanks homie. I've been reading feedback and feelings from Black folks.

I know my article covered 1 angle. But I'm glad I got that off my chest. Because how are we going ask for more diverse games, diverse game development, but not diverse game reporting?

And I want to point out the major point of my article is why is it like this. The system in place needs to be changed. Yeah, I didn't name a bunch of people. That wasn't my angle though. What everyone is do isn't cutting it. But at the same time they can tell me to kick rocks.

But for anyone that reads it, I want to ask. You really think it's going to change?

 

[Urban Scholar]

Great article. Nice to see some stuff like this on the forum. Shame there isn't more of it.

It's 18 days into February and this is the first Black History Month related gaming article I've seen. It's February 18th. That's really disheartening, to say the least. Black representation matters in ALL facets of this industry. Game journalism included.

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Cheedar has been talking to Black folks in the games industry all month long.

Geneva 'Gensuta' Heyward Shines A Light On Indie Game Developers

Game Developer & 2D Artist, Geneva "Gensuta" Heyward discusses Skate & Date.

cheddar.com

 

[EscoBlades]

Seeing EscoBlades's smile in that pic is so heart warming.

Great piece as well. I think games media in general should host events like Black Game Pros Mixer and provide an opportunity for networking and to cultivate a movement to encourage people that their voices should be heard and for these outlets to hire those people.

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:D Thanks bud!

Cheedar has been talking to Black folks in the games industry all month long.

Geneva 'Gensuta' Heyward Shines A Light On Indie Game Developers

Game Developer & 2D Artist, Geneva "Gensuta" Heyward discusses Skate & Date.

cheddar.com

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Yeah shout out to Cheddar eSports for doing the work to spotlight Black folks in the industry this month.

 

[Urban Scholar]

Yeah shout out to Cheddar eSports for doing the work to spotlight Black folks in the industry this month.

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It's soo good and inspiring. I've tried to watch every single segment so far

 

[medyej]

What a powerful article and a great read. I really liked the links to various Black creators on Youtube and elsewhere, these are channels I have never ever come across in my algorithm, which just shows how important it is that they be shouted out.

 

[Launchpad]

Not journalists but I'd like to highlight some of my favourite Black streamers and content creators. Smug is an absolute treasure in the FGC and a must follow if you're into Street Fighter V. Problem X a previous Evo champ who know basically everything about SFV. Woolie who I imagine everyone knows but his channel is excellent.

 

[Wing Scarab]

I can't help but think of when N'Gai Croal published in article critiquing Killzone 2's muted colour palette, at a time when it was still the hot exclusive of the moment, and much of the associated thread on GAF was littered with people taking offence to his use of the word "verisimilitude".

A concerning lack of self-awareness conflated with intellectual insecurity to create what is still, in my mind, the most embarrassing display of platform zealotry I've ever seen.

Click to shrink...

I remember that, it was very embarrassing.

I don't subscriber to any youtube game streamer but I'm going to have to subscribe to a few in the article and ones that are mentioned on here.

 

[Fat4all]

And I want to point out the major point of my article is why is it like this. The system in place needs to be changed. Yeah, I didn't name a bunch of people. That wasn't my angle though. What everyone is do isn't cutting it. But at the same time they can tell me to kick rocks.

But for anyone that reads it, I want to ask. You really think it's going to change?

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I feel like one of the major issues is that the field is constantly changing, and the voice of black journalists and content creators are being left out of not only the conversations of how they adapt, but are also left out of shaping talking points in the industry when it comes to inclusion in general.

Times 'change' to a degree, but the change is glacial and constantly contested. Black members of various communities in journalism are almost expected to have to step up to create their own networks and outreach. That's obviously not fair, but what in the current system is overtly fair in the first place?

Gaming communities pushing for inclusivity is only a start, as it's something businesses can identify as profitable through the merit of good will and posturing. It almost feels like a tug of war with capitalism in that respect.

 

[MufausaThe3rd]

I am not a journalist. However, I am a person of color who runs an esports organization for the FGC in Toronto, Canada called Incendium. We just announced our Tekken World Tour Challenger event last night and the video that I made for it got a lot of people hyped.

I hope that some of you enjoy it.

 

[Urban Scholar]

I feel like one of the major issues is that the field is constantly changing, and the voice of black journalists and content creators are being left out of not only the conversations of how they adapt, but are also left out of shaping talking points in the industry when it comes to inclusion in general.

Times 'change' to a degree, but the change is glacial and constantly contested. Black members of various communities in journalism are almost expected to have to step up to create their own networks and outreach. That's obviously not fair, but what in the current system is overtly fair in the first place?

Gaming communities pushing for inclusivity is only a start, as it's something businesses can identify as profitable through the merit of good will and posturing. It almost feels like a tug of war with capitalism in that respect.

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Work 2 x as hard for half as much. That's not new to Black folks. Like I outlined, you gotta have a hell of a resume for websites. But to gain that experience and expertise you would have to do that full stop. Writing and audio visual work isn't impossible but to the degree that impresses websites? While working a fulltime job? Not impossible but everyone isn't going to have that.

Again, I don't see it changing in this decade. But what I'm most concerned about? Is my article going to be the only knew to speak so frankly about this issue?

My answer is going to stay the same until I see calls to action. But again they can tell me to go kick rocks and keep it pushing as if it's all ok.

 

[Fatoy]

i remember holding onto the cover story ngai croal wrote about ps2 for newsweek for years and years. it made gaming feel so mainstream at the time.

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I remember when Croal used to write a column for Edge. I always looked forward to those.

 

[Ultimate Bear Cub]

This is awesome.

 

[EarthPainting]

Diverse reporting is probably as crucial to the growth of the medium as diverse development. When perspectives are not being represented, a lot of iffy things can fester, whether they're accidental or not. The old Resident Evil 5 and Uncharted discussions from last gen were often ugly and met with a lot of resistance, but they opened a lot of eyes, including mine. It's hard to say if people would be more open to this conversation in 2020 though, especially after seeing how the industry would end up reacting to mild feminist critique.

Either way, the spotlight on some creators within the article is much appreciated. A lot of people consume their games journalism in video-form these days, and the barrier of entry for platforms like Youtube is relatively low. The main thing you need to get the ball rolling there is more eyeballs.