Something crazy happened a few weeks ago. Okay, maybe not crazy but it seemed crazy to me. Thinking of it as crazy is, in and of itself, crazy. After our bi-weekly Giantslayer game, the group of us were walking out and one of the guys turned to me and hesitantly he said that he'd read my blog post about the N-word. I'm guessing that the long pause was likely because of the topic and his uncertainty of how to bring it up. One of the other gamers had mentioned it to me at an earlier break, but he reads the blog and gives great feedback on a regular basis (*friendly wave*). The Giantslayer group is composed of five white dudes and me.
Both of these players told me that it never occurred to them that something like that (being called the N-word) could happen or had happened to anyone they knew. There wasn't time to really discuss it, as we were all hurrying home to families, boyfriends, girlfriends and a long night of replaying the Fallout series before Fallout 4 comes out (I got my Pipboy edition, did you?).
I got a quick rundown of their thoughts and thanked them for bringing it up to me. On my ride home, I played through the conversation in my mind, and it hit me. My mission statement just happened. Crazy. Bringing diversity to gaming one game at a time. It is a small step, but two gamers that likely never considered the issue of racism in gaming acknowledged it, thought about it, and have a reference point from this day forward.
Maybe they will treat that next gamer of color differently? Perhaps they will find ways to be an ally? If they're at a con and see a person of color walking around looking at games, maybe they'll go that extra step to call out to that person and invite them to sit down and play?
Not groundbreaking, but a step in the right direction and food for thought.