New Research Looks at Hate Speech on XBOX LIVE

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If you're a white, 18-to-35-year-old male with a nondescript Xbox Live Gamertag, then you probably face a fairly normal, more or less manageable amount of harassment when playing multiplayer games. But a new study proves what I'm sure comes as no shock to gamers familiar with Xbox Live's rowdy reputation: The more upfront you are with your gender, race, sexuality, or religion the more your online opponents will scream at you about it.

This study originates from the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, where a group of gamers changed their Xbox Live screennames to PROUD_2B_MUSLIM, GayPride90, and Black_N_Proud90 while playing Halo Reach to see how other players reacted.

Also, a personal request: If you're one of the idiots saying the stupid nonsense being spewed in these case studies, or if you've ever said anything similar on a forum or during a multiplayer game, just stop. Everyone deserves better, including you.

A person can have fun without insulting strangers. I think it is possible for a group of friends to share politically incorrect language amongst themselves. When you are familiar with people, many things are possible. When one is in public, the same type of familiarity you afford those who are close to you does not apply. If a friend jostles you, it isn't likely to be an act of violence. A stranger could commit a similar act and it would be more likely considered a provocation to physical violence.

Moreover, I will say as an extension to my personal example about the group I used to LAN with, that when I joined them it was because I shared an enthusiasm for technology, but prior to that I had never had such a group of friends. I was an only child raised by diverse, polite, well-educated, worldly people. Paradoxically, I was rendered sheltered and incongruous in this different community. I had a great deal of repulsion and then ambivalence about learning to be relaxed in this way amongst people, to trade offenses as a way of bonding. I now understand better how to decipher a persons intentions and to appreciate political incorrectness as an expression of truth. However, I also understand the difference between this and what remains offensive speech, i.e. speech which is delivered with the intention to offend. As I indicated I never felt that one of my group felt sincerely about some of the racially or sexually inspired insults that they hurled, despite feeling sometimes uncomfortable receiving them.

I think the world is trending toward a regrettable lack of temperance in interpersonal communication. People are more ironic, fallacious, and insincere. This is especially true in internet culture. It doesn't bode well for serious communication.

Lastly, everyone that is part of a minority works harder to feel secure about themselves. If I am with a group of males assumed to be straight, in which everyone is secure in there sexuality (most likely for never having it challenged in a truly disparaging way), I probably won't feel as provoked if someone calls me a cocksucker or a fag. If I didn't know better, I'd have no problem retorting, "f**k you fa***t." But how does a gay person who has received these insults with real disdain since childhood feel? How does a dark-skinned person feel being called a n****r? How do they feel even being in the presence of someone saying such things to someone who isn't likely be injured, e.g. an unequivocally straight person being called a fag or a pale-skinned person being called a n****r? The words you use matter for context, intention, and audience. If you can't learn to respect the differences and sensitivities of individuals than you will fail as part of a community. At that time, I proved, or decided that I was, unsuited for the community for reason of my incongruous interpretations of communication.

On a forum for people with ASDs one might assume that everyone would have a frame of reference for understanding what it means not to fit in, but clearly not everyone has learned such lessons or had such experiences. How privileged they must be. I suppose some people feel they can afford not to care about anything but their own fun.

Perhaps I'm not getting your point.

User names like PROUD_2B_MUSLIM, GayPride90, and Black_N_Proud90 are inciteful in and of themselves. I have no issues with gay people being gay but if some real "out" guy came up and started acting overtly in my face, I would take offense. It's a matter of boundaries. I don't approve of Christians making a big deal of their faith in the names they use online. I feel it does more to drive people away than attract them. A Christian could go with "Bob the Fisherman" rather than "BobSaysJesusIsTheOnlyWay." See? Much more subtle, but some people think "in your face" is the way to go then wonder why people are put off by it.

That study would be more significant if they had people with much more subtle user names but somehow indicated issues of race, sexual preference, religion in their public profiles and see IF that produced similar results.

That article is about as significant as a study where they find that going about poking random people in the eye results in them punching you in the face.

You say I'm presenting a Red Herring. The study you present talks of how people with, shall we say, "high profile" terms in their user names get more online harassment as compared to people with, shall we say, "low profile" terms in their user names.

My point is that to choose to make a high profile name is to get attention.

Want to dress like a goth in public, expect people to react to you. You want to wear flaming pink in a dance club, expect people to react to you.

User names are no different than the clothes you put on your back. You can dress to blend in or to stand out, and if you dress to stand out, what is your motivation? TO GET NOTICED.

When you do something to attract attention, you don't have the right to complain if you get reactions you didn't desire. That's the risk of making choices out of a need to draw attention to yourself.

There's a lot of ways to be creative without being "in your face" about it.

Exactly. If you don't wanna draw attention, then... well... don't.

Some people provide their version of attention whether it is intentionally sought or not.

All I know is I am switching my gamertag to be proud to be jewish.