EC blog- interview friends about WN

My rooming situation is living with 4 other people, what makes asking them questions about the white nationalist movement interesting is that 2 are white and 2 are minorities so having a mixed opinion has proved to be very beneficial. To protect their views my 2 minority roommates are 1, 2 and the white ones are going to be 3 ,4

Question to all- Do you see WN movement in your everyday life.

1 answer- I wouldn’t say I see a white nationalist movement but rather a stereotype because I am Mexican, people have asked me if I was legal or not and though I have heard it many times before I am not affected by it anymore. The first few times I was asked it hurt a lot but since it has happened many times since, it no longer effects me.

2 answer- I am new here this year so rather than having a good group of friends to hang out with I have been looking around and observing people that are similar to me. Doing this has made me more aware of people on campus and though I have not seen a direct correlation of White nationalist, such as people walking around with KKK hoods or Nazi tattoos on everyone, I have seen signs that I am the minority on campus.

3- I don’t feel that there is very much racism on campus and even when something does happen, its not targeting at one group.

4- I don’t think many people understand the whole concept of white nationalist because its not just the stereotype that everyone thinks of but rather its minor things such as avoiding the 3^rd or 4^th floor in the CUB because it is for the cultural centers

Question 2- What do you think of when I say White Nationalist-

1- I think of the extreme skin head with tattoos all over and looking really scary, this picture pops out in my mind and if I ever saw someone like this I would stay away from them. Thank god I have not seen someone like this on campus

2- I think of people who are racially motivated to create harm to others whether it is to actually scare someone or not. Its scary to think but in my mind I don’t think of an extreme looking person I am more worried about the person that looks completely normal. They worry me the most because I feel they can create the most harm

3- I think of a skin head or a KKK member or even more so a person of the Aryan Nation because I am from Idaho near a lot of them I feel I have interacted with countless amounts of them. Even though I have interacted with them does not mean I am not afraid of them. I feel if I am seen with someone of a minority I could be at risk for something done to me.

4- I think of people described in movies that are full of hate and always want to create violence. While violence is not on all of their minds I think all of them have some built up inside and it could boil over at some point.

Question 3- Do you think the internet has helped or not helped the movement?

All of them answered in similar answers summarized as this- The internet is just a gateway that was never there before. It has allowed a white nationalist to spread its message to more and more people faster. Im not sure how they had recruiting people before  but it must have involved face to face time to get new information, but now you can be based in Washington and have members in China and never know it.

#10

                Having already seen American History X multiple times before I still enjoyed it once again. Even though it is a Hollywood depiction of what a true skin head is like and what the white national movement looks like, I think it does a very good job on displaying the true reality. I think a fundamental part of the movie was seen in the jail scene. I think when Derek first gets to prison and he finds other just like him as in being a White Nationalist it shows the truth about how the groups are attracted to each other and how they have each others back for any cause needed in the jail. Once it gets a little further into the jail scene though and Derek has a fit about the other members of his group socializing with other races it gets a little to fake for me because in real life in a jail this would actually happen.

                Its hard to say how video games play into the role of this movie but one thing I could mention is Danny’s youth makes him a great target for a white nationalist video game. Being a high school student just like many of his friends shown when they are at the big party, makes them the future of the movement and getting them to play some games that are racially based. Being the future of the movement has a lot of pressure on these young kids and to get them to believe the movement is worthy of a cause might make them want to reiterate the violence seen in games.

                When I read Autobiography of a recovering skinhead I was really moving. I think  the part that stuck out the most to me was when he was talking about recruiting people to join the movement. He wasn’t looking for the most racist kids that one might think but rather he looked for the kids that were most pissed off about being picked on. For how bad it is for Meeink to even try to recruit kids so young, this is a really a great way to do his business. Kids that are being bullied and are angry they are looking for revenge of sorts and being recruited into the white nationalist movement lets the have those opportunities. In the video Meeink talks about how he used to be bullied and once he went to the club with other members and saw his “friend” beat up other people he got excited.

                The way I see this relating to video games is some anger that is made during video games. All the white nationalist and racist video games are very hateful and graphic. This might allow a pissed off kid that is being bullied go home play some games that have killing and violence. This is exactly what the white nationalist want for a demographic playing their games. 

REAL interview with a white nationalist!!! Must read

                Believe this or not but for those of you who know me I am an out going guy and do not shy away from doing a lot of unconventional things. With that being said, I was on a flight from Oakland, California to Spokane in November and ran across something (or someone) that sparked my interest and presented an opportunity that I could not refuse.  What happened was the person that sat next to me on the plane was a normal looking person, wearing a sweatshirt he appeared to completely fit in. This all changed part way through that flight though, him and I were talking about my schooling and at one point he paused and took off his sweatshirt, the importance of this was while he was taking off the sweatshirt his shirt went up with it and what did I see, he had a swastika tattooed across his whole chest and many other tattoos that I could not completely make out. At first this really nice guy sitting next to me turned into someone I feared a lot. I decided though to be brave and ask him about his tattoo. What then followed was the nice guy that I had been previously been talking to, I talked to him about this class I was taking exploring the white nationalist ideologies and I asked him if I could ask him a few questions about his views and beliefs. This is what he said ( I only had a pad of paper with me so I could not write word for word what he was saying but these summarize his thoughts)

Question- What group are you associated with?

Answer- Arian Nation

Question- What made you want to join a white nationalist group?

Answer- It began with my youth, I did not have a great parents and that left me looking for someone or something to take me in. I was a great student throughout my high school age and a lot of people liked me and I knew everyone (from Coeur d’alene Idaho). This led me to a group of white nationalist in my school that took me to meet an older man named James (gave first name only) who told me about his group and that he would like to introduce me to others. I liked what James told me and made it back to a party and really liked what I saw and heard so I hung around them more and more. It was the family I was looking for.

Question- Do you use the site Stormfront because a lot of our conversations in class have been based on that site?

Answer- Yes I have been on the site many times and like what it has done for white nationalist. We have a common place for us to talk about what we like and dislike, its cool to be able to know that my beliefs are being seen in the same light with someone half way around the world.

Question- I am doing my research on video games specifically based around white nationalist ideologies, what do you think is important with them?

Answer- I can say I have never played a video game before but I like games from all sorts of genre I like war games, car games, sports games. I don’t see my game play following the ideologies of the whole movement because I know that when im playing Madden I am playing a black player, that doesn’t bother me much because the black players are damn good in the games. When it comes to violent games I like them because it reminds me of my grandfather telling me stories about when he was in the military and it makes me want to relive his days.

Question- Do you see the movement growing or shrinking?

Answer- The way I see it, I am not an extreme hardcore Arian brother, I can say im out of the movement I still go to events with my buddies in the group but I can say recruiting is still being done and is one of the main priorities because without new members we cannot continue as a group.

This was interview with a white nationalist on an airplane, I still cant believe I actually did it because for most people seeing that swastika on his chest would mean the end of the conversation but for me it ment a lot more possibilities!

#9

                I cannot call myself an extreme gamer but from time to time I do like to play video games, whether it be online games or mainstream video games I get enjoyment from it. With that being said the games that I like to play are either racing car games or violent games. What I get enjoyment out of the violent games is not the actual killings or extreme graphics but rather how the game play is played out. When it comes to games online I like similar game choices and thinking back I can only hope I never ran across a white nationalist game but there is the possibility I may have. This might sound bad to say but I hope I ran across a white nationalist game because then I can say I overlooked the whole ideologies of the game. If I did play a game that is racially motivated I can say I am still the same person I was before I played the game!

                Having looked into this topic I think its safe to say that yes online games that a racially motivated are very prevalent they are typically deeply hidden in online gaming websites if the site even wants to hoist the game. I went through many popular gaming sites and went through hundreds of pages of game titles and description looking for something that might sound racially motivated or might spark the interest of a white nationalist. After looking through four major sites I only found one game that sparked my interest and once clicking on that game I got an error message referring me to the policy of the website saying the game had been taken down due to its violation of site policies. This made me happy to see but at the same time it also made some of my previous statements in past blogs faulty. The statements that I have made are that online sites do not monitor the games and if they do they do not really enforce the rules that govern it. It is only one of the many sites that I have looked at for games that have taken down a game for violations of its policies so I cannot completely either reject or accept my statements but it is a good sight to see. If it has happened once it hopefully has happened on other sites for other games.

I hope you enjoyed my research into the video game communities and how some games are created and played for white nationalist ideologies. I have one more post that is the most interesting. If you are reading this one please read the next.

#7

  For the amount of research I have done looking into how video games play into a role of the white nationalist ideologies a few things that I can summarize is, the games they play are not met with open arms from mainstream manufacturer, games online are easily accessible to all, and white nationalist do not view videogames as main recruiting factors.

                To start, when white nationalists begin to plan a video game they are doing it on their own experience, typically a video game made for the ideologies of a white nationalist is a low budget at-home ordeal that will not make a major platform for play. In many statements made by Microsoft when talking about the Xbox 360 platform Microsoft says they want the enjoy ability for everyone to play and do not condone on games with hidden agendas. This being said many of the main producers such as EA sports or Ubisoft that develop these games agree that they do not want to be involved with such controversial video games.

                Unlike mass video games where there is a rating system in place and is widely accepted and basically self monitored (as I discussed in a previous blog http://ces444games.blogspot.com/2011/11/prompt-8-against-white-nationalist.html) online gaming is an open air market for any person interested in playing a game be allowed to play. Video games made for online use developed by white nationalist are mostly low budget and made by developers in their home or working with very few people. Due to its budget constraints these games are very simple but have very graphic context in a easy playable way. Look at Boarder Patrol, the game is simply shooting Mexican illegal immigrants before they cross the boarder. This simplicity is backed with its extreme context that makes it worthy of being discussed. If you do not remember this game and want to see how simple but racist it is and how it follows the white nationalist ideologies you can play it here http://www.aztlan.net/racist_anti-mexican_game.htm.

                Lastly I want to touch on the topic of recruitment to join the white nationalist movement. Many facets of white nationalist use of modern technology is to recruit new people to join the movement. But after looking through different forums and discussions the use of video games is not to make people want to join the movement but rather introduce the lone wolf idea to some people. Though it is rarely actually said anywhere that the use of video games is to promote lone wolf, the extreme graphics in these games make killing an easy thing to do that could potentially carry over to a real life scenario. Right now a lot of research is being conducted on violent video games and how it affects youth game players. These researches can prove to be very interesting in my study once they are released because though some of the game players are not in their youth, you will be able to see how games are making an impact on someones thought process when it comes to being able to determine the differences between game play and factuality.

blog 6

Before I begin writing this blog please take a second to watch this video from youtube then read what i have to say and comment if you want.

I really do not know where to start with this video. Everything said by the person who posted this video is shocking, after watching this for the first time I wasn’t sure if it was a legitimate video or someone just playing a joke to see how people reacted, well it was not a joke the youtube name for this guy is Fockboxx and he has multiple videos of him using racial slurs and very inappropriate language.

                First thing I want to point out is that this video is an extreme example (in my opinion) of people acting out in racial ways via video games but in reality this is not too uncommon. I do not play games that are connected to the internet and involve multiple players playing in unison and have the ability to talk to each other but I have a lot of friends who are playing games like this. I showed 3 of my friends this video to get their reactions of what they saw. Asked if profanity and racial comments are made during game play all 3 of them said yes and that it is not uncommon to hear swearing, which they did not care about really because they all admitted to swearing while playing as well. All 3 of them heard racial slurs and comments made as well and when asked if it happens a lot they said it is common for them to hear some comments that are offensive but never resulting in rants like this example in the video.

                This leads me to the belief that companies that host online gaming sites that allow interaction between consumers whether it be live talking or instant messaging don’t monitor its users very well. Yes this user ended up getting blocked and not allowed back into the game in the long term he is able to get back on and start his rants on different games. Why I think this is important is the possibility of having the possibility of white nationalists grouping together and starting games where they are all in playing, unsuspected players could join this game and start hearing these comments and think it is acceptable and once leaving these games they can help spread the white nationalist ideologies that they have learned. Yes I know this is an extreme example but it is possible.

                What I think that made me post this video is not the video itself. Yes it is horrible what foxboxx is saying but shocked me most is the comments made on this video. I was half expecting people to go off on him and just get mad at him for using these types slurs but it was actually the opposite. Most of the 112 comments completely agree with the words said in this video and think it is really funny. This leads me to believe that the general acceptances of white supremacist ideologies with gaming are becoming more and more acceptable. Its horrible to think that the youth playing games might potentially be lead to believe faulty information said by white nationalist or extremists playing games. We can almost connect this to the hidden messages in cloaked sites on the internet.

Blog 3- examining an article

In this blog I hope to explore some of the statistics that was published in an article written by David J. Leonard in his titled piece of “Not a Hater, Just Keepin’ It Real”. Through out this article Mr. Leonard talks about the racial and/or sexist stereotypes given to characters in games that are commonly played in mainstream games today. We can also connect the stereotypes given in games to the overall context on how white supremacist think of white superiority and dehumanizing minorities.

                I first want to talk about the most mind boggling statistics (in my mind) that Mr. Leonard  points out. “64% of platform game characters are male, 19% are nonhuman, and 17%

are female. More specifically, 73% of player-controlled characters are male, with less

than 15% being female, of which 50% are props or bystanders.” Why I think this statistic is so important is the male domination of player controlled characters is agreeing with the ideologies of white supremacy. From what we have discussed in class, we have learned that white males are deemed pure and to basically have ultimate control.

                To go along with having so many males in games we can also see specifically where the minorities are being included, “less than 40% of game characters are Black, of which the majority appear as athletic competitors. Rounding out this multiracial playground are Latino characters, which amount to 5%(all sports), 3% for Asian/Pacific Islander (usually wrestlers and fighters), and none for multiracial and Native Americans”. Even though a white supremacists is not going to want to see a minority in a video game, I feel they see why they are in the game understandable. With the majority of Blacks appearing in athletic games you do not have ultimate control over them, you can only control the player within the context of field of play. If the majority of Blacks were to appear in games such as Grand Theft Auto where your character has free rein of walking around the whole map and have the opportunity of killing people, then the popularity of these games within white nationalists would be completely diminished. This would solely be based on the thought of having a Black be able to have power and potentially kill a white person in the game play or even kill a white women.

                This brings me to another point in Mr. Leonards article that really surprised me. “female characters included in games, especially those of color, serve as sexual eye candy. For example, 10% of female characters have large breasts and a small waist, with an equal number having disproportionate body types. More illustratively, video games limit the purpose of female characters to sex in that 20% of female characters expose their breasts, with more than 10% revealing their butts (Children Now, 2002)”. This once again agrees with the white nationalist ideologies on how to perceive women. We see the dehumanization in women in a lot of games having women included in them. The statistic of having 20% of women that are limited to sex in video games exposing their breasts and 10% revealing their butts is alarming. Having this examination in women be important is the realization of thought that those playing these games will see such few women and when they do see them they will see the dehumanization done to them and see them just as sex objects. Comparing these statistics to class think back to when we saw the different cartoons that white nationalists drew, these cartoons depict women as sexual objects.

To see this article go to http://nideffer.net/classes/270-08/week_07_gender_economy/rimpofrace_leonard.pdf