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Seeing tweets about Dijon Kizzee being shot by police juxtaposed against ppl posting selfies at VR burning man is nauseating. If the #XR community isn’t being rocked by the crisis the US/our world continues to have, then we have to ask who is and ISN’T in this industry/community.
How is anyone supposed to believe that XR experiences are making the world a better place when the community is so insular that 95% of it is entirely unfazed by, or unaware of, this type of news?
An industry that is almost entirely focused on producing content for the small number of privileged people who can afford expensive hardware is only ever going to be a human centipede of privileged trash if those same people don’t also make an effort in the real world.
We have to be willing to challenge claims about XR being the solution to societal issues. No one platform will ever do that, no one piece of content. People are dying on the hill for Beat Saber & VRChat, but what do these experiences do for the 7.3 billion ppl on this planet?
There’s no question that entertainment can reinforce cultural norms. Hell, that’s why I want to make diverse and inclusive games. But the XR community is filled with so many insanely privileged people that act like the work stops there.
We HAVE to wake up to the fact that experiences & platforms - ones that are accessible, affordable, and are easy to implement with only a flap of cardboard - weren’t pushed out b/c of tech snobbery. They were pushed out by a culture of white privilege.
Confused? Ask yourself this: if XR was a democratized platform that gave marginalized people a seat at the tech industry table, and the industry itself was diverse, inclusive, and equitable, do you really think it would still be attractive to white techbros and megacorps?
I’m not saying that people can’t live life and find joy, but I question doggedly defending the XR industry when I see people literally using these events as a platform for self-promotion while simultaneously uplifting similarly toxic ppl just to curry favor with white techbros.
