Abstract

Despite recent criticisms that call out blackface in video game voice acting, the term “blackface” was and still is seldomly used to describe the act of casting white voice actors as characters of colour. As a result, the act of blackface in video game voice acting still occurs because of colorblind claims surrounding the digital medium and culture of games. In this paper, I position blackface in video game voice acting within a technological and cultural history of oral blackface and white sonic norms. I focus on three time periods: the Intellivision Intellivoice and the invention of a "universal" voice in video games; early American radio in the 1920s-1930s and the national standardization of voice; and colorblind rhetoric of contemporary game publishers/devs and voice actors.

Highlights

  • Article abstractDespite recent criticisms that call out blackface in video game voice acting, the term “blackface” was and still is seldomly used to describe the act of casting white voice actors as characters of colour

  • “It’s nearly the end of 2018,” Dia Lacina (2018) writes, “and I have to write an article about blackface and redface in Red Dead Redemption 2

  • It continued to suck in 2019, with blackface coming to the foreground in games, politics, and fashion: strategy game WarGroove (Chucklefish, 2019) revealed that its new DLC characters of colour were all voiced by White voice actors; blackface was sold as high fashion (CBC News, 2019); Ralph Northam’s yearbook and Justin Trudeau’s brownface surfaced (Jennings, 2019); and a Twitch streamer performed in blackface (Knoop, 2019)

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Summary

Article abstract

Despite recent criticisms that call out blackface in video game voice acting, the term “blackface” was and still is seldomly used to describe the act of casting white voice actors as characters of colour. The act of blackface in video game voice acting still occurs because of colorblind claims surrounding the digital medium and culture of games. I position blackface in video game voice acting within a technological and cultural history of oral blackface and white sonic norms. I focus on three time periods: the Intellivision Intellivoice and the invention of a "universal" voice in video games; early American radio in the 1920s-1930s and the national standardization of voice; and colorblind rhetoric of contemporary game publishers/devs and voice actors

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