Event Date: February 24th, 2025
Throughout the history of the arcade, consoles, and computers, video games have often been portrayed as a success story of the Global North. Often, individuals hear the success stories of Nolan Bushnell and Shigeru Miyamoto and believe that video games can be attributed to a few daring developers. However, video games have always been a multifaceted technology with a complex, varied past that includes many different peoples and cultures. Unfortunately, the stories of figures and communities that disrupt simple narratives often go untold, and among these, Black individuals are often neglected when telling the history of games. But what if we highlighted those who rarely got the spotlight? What if we disrupted the narratives of video games by mentioning unspoken names? And what could we learn by discussing the hidden Black gamers throughout video game history?
In this talk, Dr. Akil Fletcher will tackle these questions by discussing the impacts of Black individuals throughout the history of video games. By engaging with stories of individuals like Gerald Lawson, Muriel Tramis, Bill Gillis, Gordon Bellamy, and others, Dr. Fletcher will demonstrate how alternative histories can be crafted to offer a more holistic interpretation of the past.