David J. Leonard

Not a Hater, Just Keepin' It Real The Importance of Race- and Gender-Based Game Studies

Notwithstanding the presence of extreme racialized tropes within the world of video games, public discourses continue to focus on questions of violence, denying the importance of games in maintaining the hegemonic racial order. Efforts to exclude race (and intersections with gender, nation, and sexuality) from public discussions through its erasure and the acceptance of larger discourses of colorblindness contribute to a problematic understanding of video games and their significant role in contemporary social, political, economic, and cultural organization. How can one truly understand fantasy, violence, gender roles, plot, narrative, game playability, virtual realities, and the like without examining race, racism, and/or racial stratification—one cannot. This article challenges game studies scholars to move beyond simply studying games to begin to offer insight and analysis into the importance of race and racialized tropes within virtual reality and the larger implications of racist pedagogies of video games in the advancement of White supremacy.

The Next M. J. or the Next O. J.? Kobe Bryant, Race, and the Absurdity of Colorblind Rhetoric

In this essay, the author explores the absurdity of colorblind rhetoric within the discursive field of Kobe Bryant’s rape trial. Specifically, in examining articulations on the Internet, television coverage, commentaries, and news reports, this article reveals how colorblind ideologies that dominate public discussions conflict with the racialized discursive utterances surrounding Kobe’s arrest and ongoing trial. In exploring the reactions to accusations of rape against Kobe Bryant by both the mainstream media and White nationalists, this article repels the tendency to disassociate mainstream discourses surrounding race and sports from the more racially grotesque versions found among White nationalists. This article interrogates the context, text, and subtext of the racialized/gendered discourse of Kobe Bryant, situating this case study within the larger dynamics of racialized sports celebrity. It asks whether status as a celebrity athlete provides racial erasure and whether accusations of criminal misconduct not only reinscribe race but also erase celebrity.

The Real Color of Money Controlling Black Bodies in the NBA

Amid a backlash against the influence of hip-hop within professional basketball, exacerbated by the 2004 brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills, NBA executives, media pundits, and fans have denounced the influx of Black high school players. This article argues that the establishment of a policy preventing high school players from the NBA is neither a pure business decision nor a hypocritical move by a league that has long profited off the contributions of young Black males and the popularity of hip-hop. Instead, it links this discourse to the larger societal moves to police and put Black male bodies under surveillance. It specifically examines the ways in which calls for an age restriction within the NBA and those efforts to send young men and women of color into Americas expanding prison system reflect the same White supremacist logic that necessitates the control, regulation, and punishment of Black and brown bodies.

Young, Black (& Brown) and Don't Give a Fuck Virtual Gangstas in the Era of State Violence

The popularity and visibility of video games within American popular culture is prompted debates within from a spectrum of institutions, ranging from the media and the academy to Main Street and the political sphere. Erasing the complexity, much of the discourse focuses instead on questions of violence and the impact of gaming culture on (White) American youth. While focusing on Grand Theft: San Andreas specifically, this essay explores the culture wars surrounding American video game culture, arguing that the moral panics directed at video games and the defenses/celebrations of virtual reality operate through dominant discourses and hegemonic ideologies of race. Erasing their racial content and textual support for state violence directed at communities of color, the dominant discourse concerning youth and video games rationalizes the fear and policing of Black and Brown communities.

Lack of Black Opps: Kobe Bryant and the difficult path of redemption.

A fundamental contradiction anchors contemporary sport: for many, it exemplifies racial transcendence; yet racism continues to shape play, persona, and possibilities. For Black athletes, in particular, it opens a space of overdetermination, constraining representation and reception, while challenging their humanity. Following Joe Feagin (2009), this article suggests the white racial frame offers a means of accounting for and unpacking the persistent force of race in a society determined to be beyond—or better said, done with—it. Recent panics around Kobe Bryant center the analysis. A close reading of media coverage and fan commentary reveals a troubling discursive pattern of racialization and sexualization. Indeed, especially in online forums, this discourse actively seizes upon the All-Pro forward to rearticulate supposedly antiquated formulations of difference and reanimate the prevailing hierarchies anchored in them. Ultimately, popular reception and representation of Bryant exposes not only the persistent myths of black masculinity at the heart of the white racial frame, but also suggest the ways in which they make it impossible for African Americans (athlete or not) to transcend them, redeem themselves in a white world, or claim dignity and humanity.

Innocent Until Proven Innocent In Defense of Duke Lacrosse and White Power (and Against Menacing Black Student-Athletes, a Black Stripper, Activists, and the Jewish Media)

As the national media descended on Durham, North Carolina, in wake of public accusations of rape against three Duke Lacrosse student athletes, much of the discourse remained mired in its own shock and awe. Ignoring, if not erasing, histories of sexual violence involving White men and Black women while focusing on the problems plaguing college athletics, the media, and the numerous online defenders of the players used this instance to rearticulate tropes of White power, imagining the case as yet another assault on White masculinity. Beyond examining these deployed fictions and the denials of the possibility of guilt, given the player’s Whiteness, sport of choice, educational institution, and class status, this article explores the ways in which their student athlete identities were seen as either meaningless or evidence of innocence, especially in juxtaposition to the discursive articulation of the criminalized Black male student athlete.

Replaying Empire: Racialized Violence, Insecure Frontiers, and Displaced Terror in Contemporary Video Games

In the wake of 9/11, US popular culture has played an important role in the manufacture of consent and the mediation of contradictions. In particular, video games have aff orded the production of interactive, narrative spaces for the reassertion of race, nation, and gender. Through a close reading of two video games, Gun and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 , we unpack the insecurities of empire and how racialized violence, colonial categories, and territorial claims work to resecure Whiteness, masculinity, and Americanness. Special attention is given to the militarization of video games and rhetorical struggles over the meaning of race and culture amid the ‘War on Terror’.

Racing the Matrix: Variations on White Supremacy in Responses to the Film Trilogy

This article analyzes racialized readings of The Matrixtrilogy. Examining popular, academic, and vernacular sources, in print and online, it probes how commentators talk about race in the films and in turn how they use the films to talk about the racial politics of everyday life. It identifies two major interpretations: multiculturalist and White nationalist. It argues that despite obvious differences, together, these renderings of the trilogy must be understood as efforts to reconfigure racialized discourse in the wake of the civil rights movement, reworking white supremacy as they speak to, through, and against naturalized notions of difference at the start of the 21st century.

Illegible Black Death, Legible White Pain Denied Media, Mourning, and Mobilization in an Era of “Post-Racial” Gun Violence

Gun violence is a daily reality; mass shootings, from suburban enclaves to inner city parks, are commonplace. Yet, all violence, all death, all lives, and all gun shootings are not treated equal. This essay examines the ways that anti-Black racism and White privilege (White supremacy) infect discussions of gun violence. In examining a series of incidents, and the broader media/political discourse, this article concludes that race and space overdetermine who is afforded the rights of safety and security, and where violence is normalized, expected, and therefore nothing to worry about. Race, space, and class affect the legality and illegibility of gun violence.

Book Review: Social Exclusion, Power, and Video Game: New Research in Digital Media and Technology

More than 10 years ago, when I first started writing about video games, I was often discouraged by the lack of scholarship on race, gender, and video games. Coupled with the disdain directed at game scholars, the lack of scholarship, public conversations, and discursive engagement with the serious issues surround racism and sexism within games and the industry as a whole gave me pause. In 2006, with ‘‘Not a Hater,’’ I reflected on the dearth of critical discussions of race, gender, and nation.