Black Joy Within Gaming Culture

Part of SXSW 2023

This event took place on Monday, March 13, 2023 at 2:30 PM UTC.

Venue: Fairmont, Manchester GG. The discussions academics and news outlets have about the intersection of Blackness and gaming has focused primarily on the acts of vitriol, racism, and discrimination. While these conversations are certainly warranted, they are also incomplete. Such approaches fail to consider the ways in which Black-identified folk express and experience Black joy as a way of playing against, as a politics of resistance that opposes the hegemonic white supremacist forces that inform the industry and American society in unique ways. This talk will reflect on the critical (and personal) potential for thinking about community-building as worldbuilding through a lens of Black joy.