After reading Audre Lorde’s “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” reading, I want to touch on the issue of racial differences in our society today. It seems as if the differences between white people and people of color are more apparent today than ever before, however there are not enough steps being taken to fix this. Women of color are still seen as a separate group from white women, people of color are still being treated differently and representation of people of color is still very rare in video games – to name a few. This “Racial ‘Otherness'” that Lorde refers to is very much rooted into our society today. Our grandparents grew up with it, our parents grew up with it, and most of us also grew up aware of this “Racial Otherness.” Even though we are aware of this racial difference we all seem to ignore it. Using my family as an example, I know for a fact that whenever my parents bring up a stereotypical remark towards people of color, my sister and I act as if the conversation never happened. Why do we do this? Is it because we don’t want to explain to our parents why they shouldn’t say stuff like that? Do I hide behind the fact that they are immigrants that grew up in a very different environment and use that as an excuse to their actions? The point I am trying to make is that racial difference is rooted very deep into our lives, but recognizing that and making an effort to not ignore it is a first step in closing the gap between white people and people of color.

I want to reflect back on the Audre Lorde “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” reading. There is a passage that hit me like a brick. “Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you. we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs upon the reasons they are dying” (Lorde 119). To put into perspective how much of a problem this racial difference is – I did some Google-ing and found that this reading, taken from “Sister Outsider,” was originally published in 1984. For a reading from the 1900’s this passage hasn’t aged a bit. The racial differences mentioned are just as relevant back then as they are today. People of color still fear for the safety of their children’s lives and some of us still choose to ignore that.

I want to continue this discussion by talking about video games and Race. We talked about wanting more women representation in video games but what about more representation for people of color? We rarely see people of color being portrayed in video games. Do ya’ll know of games where people of color are portrayed as the “hero” or as the main character? I don’t play many games today as I used to so if you know of any please comment them below. I want to check them out! As we play our video games in our past times try to keep a mental log of how many characters you come across as a person of color and compare that to how many characters you see that are white.