I go on my Playstation to play online with my friends for many reasons, to laugh, have fun, win games, but one reason I don’t is to be called the n-word. Since the 20th century and earlier females and non-white ethnicities have been persecuted. As it seems to have died down in the real world the persecution is still alive and well in the gaming world. The ugly truth is the gaming world is just outright sexist and racist.

Women and non-white ethnicities have been persecuted and fighting for their rights throughout history. Any attitude, action or institutional structure in which systematically subordinates a person or group because of their color or sex is by definition sexism or racism. The United States was built by millions of immigrants that came to our country at the end of the 19th century. A new wave of people, culture, and ethnicities including Italians, Germans, Jews, African Americans, and more. Sadly these ethnicities were persecuted for their beliefs, culture, and skin color. During the same time women in the U.S. were viewed as inferior to men leading to persecution and leading to women’s suffrage movements.

67% of U.S. Households play video games and almost every video game out there is white-male dominated. One reason why this has come to be this way is because the video gaming industry is filled with white-male game developers and designers. As a result of them being the majority, most games are developed to be favorable to white-males especially when it comes to role-playing games and first person shooters such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. In these games most if not all of the characters are heavily stereotypical jacked white men that have a thirst for the blood of their enemies. The minority female characters in games are barely female at all due to their unrealistic body figures and Barbie doll like faces which are favorable to a male audience and most likely don't play an important role in the actual game or are just damsels in distress. Some game developers have straight out said "You can't have female characters in games".

Although the games themselves have sexism and racism in them, the online communities in these games are overrun with it. Online gaming platforms such as Xbox Live and PlayStationsNetwork have become the new home of the racial abuse that plagued the United States in the 20th century. One thing people think is to blame of this are the games characters. Some believe that the white-male characters in games have made players think of other ethnicities as inferior in the gaming community. Probably most likely culprit of the persecution, are the players themselves. One study followed a group of African-American gamers that concluded in each of them being subject to racial abuse daily. One study found that most gamers that use racial abuse against other players do so because they find it comical or entertaining, but when confronted many players say, "they would never say such things in the real world." And “view their behaviors as annoying not racist”.

Although women have come along way in obtaining equal rights and ending persecution, they still face it today in the gaming community. 48% of the 190 million gamers in the United States are female and 70% of these women play as male characters online instead of female. Why they do it, to avoid sexual harassment from other male players. Threatening statements that involve rape, or even murder is a usual when it comes to playing as a woman online. One study that followed a group of female gamers found that many of them would purposely create their online name as something masculine to avoid being noticed as a female, some even turned of their microphones to hide their feminine voices. One female gamer known as TheIneffableSwede reported her story of the sexual harassment she received playing a role-playing game online. She says, "Whenever I won against my opponents, which I almost did always, some male players would threaten to rape, mutilate, or even kill me. I reported these threats to the game operators, whose response was:

1. It's you're fault for choosing a username that reflects your gender. You should change your name to something that is gender-neutral.
2. If you are concerned about this, report it to the police.”

Although the gaming experience for gamers online today is filled with sexism and racism stopping it can vastly improve gamers experience online. One good outcome would be gamers could be treated equally no matter race or gender.  A second good result is the experience for female and nonwhite gamers would vastly improve. Also these groups of people wouldn't be driven away from playing the games they want to play. Stopping the persecution would also create a better more friendly gaming community and incidents such as TheIneffableSwede's would occur much less frequently.

Yes some areas of the gaming world are absent of racism and sexism. But only few games such as "The Last of Us" and "Beyond Two Souls" include strong independent female protagonists which is way too little for our nearly half of all gamers being female. Also popular games such as "Call of Duty" and "Halo" are filled with racial abuse and sexual harassment online and the few games that do have a strong likable community only have hundreds maybe thousands of people which in comparison to other communities which reach millions of people is very little.

We are at a point in history where making fun of people of different gender or race behind TV screens is thought to be comical. Changing this will not only vastly improve the gaming experience for our 190 million gamers in the U.S. Half of which are female. But it would revolutionize the way people view the gaming world and community. Not as stereotypical immature teens over using the n-word and other slurs. But as a cultural phenomenon of people of all races and genders, playing together.