Racism - An Ugly Side Effect of Online Video Gaming

Black Players Report Being Harassed While Playing on the Internet

In real life, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson of the Ultimate Fighting Championships is the Light Heavyweight Champion and one of the last guys in the world a 15-year old kid would probably want to mess with.

But over a cable Internet connection playing the Xbox game "Halo 2," Jackson was an easy target.

In the June 2007 issue of Dub magazine, Jackson revealed that he stopped playing Halo 2 online, which is one of his favorite games, because of negative experiences he had with members of his own teams.

"I stopped because my own team would kill me because they would hear my voice and start calling "(N-word) this and (N-word) that," Jackson said. "If you was right next to me at the arcade, you wouldn't say nothing. I don't even tell them who I am, but I just forgive them for being ignorant."

You have to be impressed with Jackson's ability to take the insults in stride, especially considering how easy it would be for him to fire back and get into his own war of words over the headset, but as Jackson knows, it just wouldn't be worth it. A grown man isn't going to get into a war of words with a presumably young kid over a video game.

This is a situation I have also witnessed on the game Socom 2 for Playstation 2, and the verbal abuse I heard was definitely not something I would wish on anyone.

My team of eight players was comprised of about three African-American and four Caucasian players, as well as myself, a Caucasian. The black players were talking about strategy for a certain level and where to attack the opposing team, and one of the white players jumped in and made fun of his voice. The black player objected and the white player called him the N-word much like in Jackson's story.

A fight broke out in the game between teammates and it was basically a mini-race riot online in the game. I actually joined in on the black players' sides and killed off the antagonizers a few times before they finally left.