Intersectionality and More Inclusive Communities in Kishonna Gray's "Solidarity is for White Women in Gaming"

Kishonna L. Gray’s “Solidarity is for White Women in Gaming” analyzes a dispute that broke out on a feminist anti-GamerGate forum on Xbox Live in 2014, when a group of women of colour began discussing the concurrent shooting of Mike Brown and the emergence of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Throughout the article, Gray examines how discussions of race and gender produce divisions in online communities. For Gray, race is a discourse whereby subjects and their bodies are racialized, often in a process of othering in opposition to a white default. Racialization operates by targeting appearances, speech patterns, and other physical and communicative traits (and therefore persists in ‘disembodied’ interactions online). Race can also be engaged critically, as a way of pointing out racial prejudices at work in arguments and actions.

            The main question in Gray’s article is how critical racial discourses interact with White or colorblind Feminism in online communities. In an overview of the history of feminism, Gray argues that it has historically singled out womanhood as the primary site of oppression, to the exclusion of race and other markers of identity. In Gray’s case study, the racial character of the efforts of the #BlackLivesMatter supporters was perceived by white feminists to undermine the community’s focus on solidarity for women by race baiting for special concern; conversely, the BLM supporters see the white women in the group as privileged by their proximity to white men and unwilling to oppose racial oppression. The result of this conflict was a split that undermined the aims of both parties. At the heart of the problem was the encounter of two critical discourses that failed to recognize their commonalities with the other.

            Gray seeks a way forward in intersectionality. While online communities have been instrumental in organizing social and political movements in recent years, divisions such as these create conflicts within communities and limit their effectiveness while drawing backlash from oppressors and potential allies alike. Gray argues that digital feminist communities need to recognize that oppression takes on multiple forms, and that it is possible to be oppressed in one power dynamic while privileged in another. Conceptualizing power in this way allows for more inclusive communities able to serve the needs of diverse memberships and creates new bases for solidarity and alliance.

References

Gray, Kishonna L. "Solidarity is for White Women in Gaming." Diversifying Barbie and Mortal Kombat: Intersectional Perspectives and Inclusive Designs in Gaming. Pittsburgh, PA: ETC Press, 2016. 59-70.