Screaming out from their avatars’ game shirts in bold white lettering was the word, ‘Nigger’ Their shirts included the Nike swoosh logo and a distorted image of a Black male head and face.
Moved to action by what she observed Adams said, “I took pictures of the screen, posted it on social media, and tagged the video game company, various sports channels like ESPN, the NBA channel, etc. and the companies whose logos were used like KFC’s and Popeyes.”
According to Adams the way the game is currently set up players can put anything on the uniform of his/her avatar.
The incident which triggered the concerns of Bivens and Adams occurred at a time when tensions in the Black community were high in the wake of the murder of Breonna Taylor by police in Kentucky as they served a no-knock warrant in the middle of the night for an individual who did not live at her address and whom police already had in their custody, in addition to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery who was shot dead by “pattyrollers” in Georgia as he jogged.
Perhaps in the wake of Floyd’s death, corporations associated with the computer video game industry, as well as the various national sports leagues who allow the images of players to be used on these gaming platforms to their benefit, will respond to the calls of Adams and Bivens to implement much needed content controls on their products.
