Wait am I a Racist?

Cybertyping is a term Lisa Nakamura created to describe people who create identities online. She says “Cybertypes are the images of race that arise when the fears, anxieties and desires of privileged Western users are scripted into a textual/graphical environment that is in constant flux and revision.”(Nakamura, 4) I think she what she means by this is that Western White people tend to create virtual identities with figures of different races because in non-virtual world they can’t be those kinds of people.

Nakamura also says that identity tourism is where people (mainly white people) choose to perform a type of racial play through video games and other forms of virtual places. She gives the example that Asian males are brought into discourse as a token only. (Nakmura, 299)

The first thing that comes to mind in Street Fighter 2 is Ken. Ken is your typical American white dude who has a girlfriend who he fights for. Yet he fights like an Asian. He is a White Westerner, but he is Asian by token. He trained with an Asian and fights like Ryu who is also Asian (though he doesn’t look like it), who also trained with the same Asian. So what Nakamura is correct in what she is saying about cybertypes. I completely fit her definition for cybertypes. Ken is my favorite character to play. Im not sure why myself, but according to Nakamura I like him because he is a white dude who gets to be Asian in ways. Basically I like to play Ken because he is an identity I want to portray.

As for all the other people in Street Fighter 2, Nakamura is exactly right. Identity touring is definetly a part of the game. There are so many different races or countries represented in the game. Zan Gieff is a Russian Wrestler. Dalsim is an indian from Africa who can breathe fire and stretch. Vega is from spain, Sagat is from the Netherlands. As a person playing you can really be so many different races in the game that it really is as if you are touring through different races and identities.



Works Cited

1. Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity and Identity on the Internet. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002. Print. Oct. 19, 2010.

2. Nakamura, Lisa. "Race in/for Cyberspace: Idenity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet." The Cybercultures Reader. Ed. David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. Print.