Hello everyone! Jordan here. GameSpot went into June with plans to kick off Play For All, a combo platter of gaming celebration and charity effort to raise money for COVID-19 relief. And we’re still doing that, don’t worry. But there’s a lot more going on in the world than COVID-19 right now. Cities across the US are now witness to massive protests against the ongoing violence towards black individuals suffering police brutality. In support of the protests, GameSpot has shifted the message of Play For All. We’re still raising money for COVID-19 relief, but we want to also show our support and raise money for Black Lives Matter.
So we want to take the time to highlight black creators and the work they do, whether they work for GameSpot or other parts of the industry. On our front page and social media, we’ll be sharing articles, videos, and podcast episodes that you may have already seen before, here or otherwise. We’ve compiled and will continue to add to a list of work below. That list includes projects that look at the black experience in pop culture, like Alessandro Fillari’s exploration of Far Cry 5’s setting and how it made him feel like an outsider and my look at how disappointing it is to see Borderlands 3 hand-waving the racist undertones of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories in its Guns, Love, and Tentacles DLC, as well as projects that have less to do with race but offer something you might still find interesting, such as Greg Thomas’ video of the 11 times that The Twilight Zone predicted the future. We urge you to take a few minutes to check out some of the coolest pieces of work from the black creators that are carving out a space for themselves in our industry every day.
Of course, the conversation doesn’t stop there. Acknowledging that there is a difference in how black people are generally treated when it comes to the police shouldn’t be the end of the conversation, and neither should these articles, videos, and podcasts that look at how race has informed representation in pop culture. Action is necessary, as is education. If you’re looking for ways to be educated in order to better know how to take action, consider reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between The World And Me, Cornel West’s Black Prophetic Fire, Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be An Antiracist, or Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want To Talk About Race. Writer and journalist Joshua Adams (@JournoJoshua) has also highlighted a pretty stellar list of reading material on Twitter–we’ve embedded their list below.
