Race and Gangs in Habbo

Race is always such a taboo topic in our society. It seems that you cant debate and talk about race without offending someone. Its a shame that the topic is so taboo as race is a important way in which people identify themselves. I decided to take a look at race in the virtual world of Habbo Hotel.

As I was joyfully skipping around though the rooms of Habbo Hotel I really noticed no reference to peoples race. It seemed that they were too interested in finding a girl to take back to their apartments. The one time I really saw race in play was when I decided to visit one room, titled “tha Street.” My assumptions about the décor were correct, It looked like I was in South Central, Las Angeles, the doors and windows were boarded up, people were congregating on the basketball court and there was an abundance of barrel fires. I started watching the conversation unfold; it got offensive fast; many Habbos were accusing people of being bloods or crips. I watched as racial slurs were thrown around at will and guys calling the girls the ever so famous Don Imus catch phrase “nappy headed hoes”. I figured that the basketball court was definitely not my kind of place, so I traversed over to the park benches and listened in as a group of girls argued over some guy; apparently they were all his girlfriends, and he had been hiding them from one another. I guess even in the virtual world, cheating men get what they deserve. I had seen enough!

The kind of portrayal of African American and Latino culture was very poor, and actually somewhat offended me. I watched as they talked about raiding other gangs rooms, and as they mentioned targeting the Latin Kings. I wondered to myself, if there people portraying black gang members online were actually African Americans in real life, I decided to ask. Upon asking the ever so controversial question of “are you actually African American,” I received very heated responses. All of which I dont feel comfortable sharing on this blog. Lets just say the word bobba was thrown around a lot.

His brings me to my question, Do you feel that these kind of racial representations will give tween the wrong idea about race relations? Also with these gang's on Habbo, will it encourage youths to join gangs? Explain.