Modding Racist Video Games

I've been reading Vron Ware and Les Back's book, Out of Whiteness (Univerisity of Chicago Press, 2001), which includes a chapter by Les Back on hate groups online. In it, he has a brief mention of racist video games, some of which are available for playing online. Back writes:

"The combination of intimacy and distance found in cyberspace provides a new context for racist harassment through abuse or digital tools like ‘mail bombs.’ It also provides a context in which racism can be simulated. Elsewhere I have talked about the use of computer games that offer the ‘pleasure’ of simulated racial violence. These modalities make new types of racist behavior possible. They combine all of the fruits of the new digital era to produce interactive visual forms that are alluring and attractive to a particularly youthful audience. Virtual forms of racial violence related to chilling lived experiences, while remaining in the ‘other world’ of computer simulation. They are politically slippery because they blur the distinction between social reality and fantasy.” (p.123)

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague here at ICTE, Carol and I were talking with Katie Salen, a game designer, interactive designer, animator, and design educator currently at Parsons about video games. I asked Katie if it might be possible to re-engineer racist games to reflect different values. That's when Katie told us about "modding" or modifying video games. I've looked, but I haven't found anyone doing something like this ~ modifying racist video games. If you've seen such a thing, please leave a comment, or send me an email.