Announcements – New SXSW Panel & ARP Survey

by Latoya Peterson

SXSW 2009 was great, and our panel on “Can Social Media End Racism” went over well. (If you missed it, the link leads to the overview and where you can download the podcast.)

Now, the voting for 2010 is open, and I pitched a new panel:

Social Justice and Video Games

Organizer:
Latoya Peterson, Racialicious.com
Description:
This panel would look at racism and sexism in game design from the view of those in the industry and players. It will discuss solutions to create more inclusive games and work/online environments in a fun, interactive style conversation.
Questions
Answered:

1. Why do we need to be concerned with social justice and video games?
2. Why do people say video games are racist?
3. Why do people say video games are sexist?
4. Why don’t more minorities/women work in gaming?
5. Why aren’t more minorities/women playing games online?
6. How can I diversify my work force?
7. What should developers keep in mind when planning a game?
8. How do marketers avoid problematic representations of race and gender?
9. What are some examples of the problems?
10. How do we combat stereotypes?

Level:
Intermediate
Category:
Social Issues, User Experience, Video Games
Type:
Panel
Event:
Interactive 2010

Latoya Peterson

Co-panelists for this event would include N’Gai Croal and Naomi Clark. Other possible panelists include Professor Andre Brock.

Please help us get there this year. You can vote here:

Even if you aren’t planning to attend, you can still vote – SXSW releases podcasts of all the presentations, so you can still receive the benefits of our panel.

Also, while you’re voting, please head over to the Anti-Racist Parent survey. Here’s a message from Tami, the editor of ARP:

You’ll notice that this morning I posted a link to a brief survey on ARP. As part of our efforts to improve our blog, we want to assess what topics are of most value to anti-racist parents. We also hope to get a demographic snapshot of who reads ARP and who doesn’t. I am hoping that each of you–columnists and contributors–might also post a link to the survey on your blogs. Again, our hope in the future is to gain a wider audience for ARP, so it is important that we hear from those beyond regular readers of the site.

Once we have gathered survey results, I hope to share some highlights of parental racial attitudes and desires.

Click Here to take survey!

Thanks for your help!