My Create Custom Character Always Goin’ Be a Black Woman

Aight, so boom. I’ve been a reoccurring guest repping Black Nerd Problems on the New Blerd Order podcast talking about nerdy shit with a whole panel of lovely Black folks. The host, Vince Taylor, was setting up for the broadcast and mentioned Street Fighter 6. I’ve been having a good time playing it, but Vince hadn’t really had the chance to dive in yet. The biggest deterrent for him was the create a player option. “I’m not a big fan of the create custom character feature. Man, lemme just be Ryu and get busy in these streets.” If you listened closely, you could hear church organs going off, cause I immediately started preaching the gospel of having a create custom character or create a character option in video games. For Vince, he didn’t like being caught up in all the options for creating a player, but for me, that’s where I thrive. When Nali, New Blerd Order’s gaming expert, stated that she always creates a male character when she’s playing online, I remembered how our gamer/graphic artist Anissa did the same thing. When you are male presenting online, it leaves less of a chance to hear folks letting N-bombs fly or harass you. For me, my go to has always been creating a dark-skinned Black woman as a character. I’ve done it for so many years without thinking about that when I did think about it I remembered it was for one reason as a teen back in 2003, however, as an adult in 2023, the reason had changed. Where It All Started

If I remember correctly, the first game I e…