Though I abandoned my gaming channel endeavours to focus on creating Black Girl Gamers, it was via my personal Twitter page that I met friends like @ljay90, most likely via hashtags like #blackgamers, who in turn introduced me to fellow Black women gamers such as @junaebenne, @chasinglux, and @astylishjedi (who still helps manage our Twitter page) who later became the first Community Management team for Black Girl Gamers. They, like myself, felt either annoyed, ostracised, invisible, undervalued or needed camaraderie.

If I’m being honest, I was bored of some of the conversations about race and gaming that I saw online. They were so frequently rooted in assimilation or fear of rocking developers’ boats. I felt concessions were made on the behalf of Black gamers to comfort developer fragility that would hold us back in the long run. Ultimately, something was missing from these discussions, and in hindsight it’s only now that I realise it was the vim. To be vocal online meant braving a tidal wave of whitesplaining, mansplaining, or racist responses. I wanted Black Girl Gamers to contribute positively to the narrative so I created the Twitter handle. Having a Twitter page brought visibility to our experiences and opinions to many, including those who disagreed with our Tweets. But, it isn’t always serious stuff, I love to crack jokes and often make threads such as “If Beyoncé were a Fantasy RPG character” because there was an unspoken feeling that Black pop culture was juxtaposed to gaming culture at times.

Over time, Black Girl Gamers grew into a bastion for Black women in the industry, whether or not they were a part of our private community. We brought a new lease of life to Diversity & Inclusion narratives in the industry via our vocality and the feeling that “enough was enough”. We interact with our followers on Twitter, especially our Black women followers because they are the ones who need to be heard and seen the most. They in turn joined the conversation and Retweeted us, sending our message out into their own personal communities –– a great feature of Twitter. Interacting with our supporters comes naturally. We chat, ask them to teach us, we boost Tweets for good causes, and share jokes with our supporters –– we’re human and it’s important to come across as that. This allows us to offer a safe space for discourse (even out in the open).

Diversity and inclusion wasn’t as “trendy” as it is now and so at times, when Tweeting, I had to step into that “angry Black woman” label that would be frequently attached to Black Girl Gamers but I didn’t care. It took thick skin but before I knew it, Retweets on our Tweets calling out publishers would spread our message and our Tweets would often, and still do, have a seat at the table in rooms full of professionals that were too scared to actually speak to or employ Black women directly. Black women from all over the world have come to feel seen by reading our Tweets and appreciate the authenticity in our purpose. We spark and join discussions up until the point of exhaustion or our point being made. And because of this, we still receive messages of thanks for bringing issues to the forefront and using representation in games as the entry point to incite change.  

Twitter is a key part of our strategies for Black Girl Gamers. We receive our best analytics from Twitter, which is due to the massive gamer audience on the platform and the speed at which conversation can spark. The capability to post links in Tweets when promoting events such as our Black Girl Gamers Online Summit and streams with brands like Fortnite, is invaluable to us as a platform. When there are down days (fighting the good fight gets tiring), we Retweet successful content from the past using Twitter’s Media Studio Library or spark lighthearted discussions with our supporters. Pinning our Tweets keeps our followers up to date on what’s most important.

The visibility of Black Girl Gamers has gone through the roof and we still have a way to go. Various members have found us via Twitter to become esteemed and valued members of our Community Management, Stream, or Twitch team. But the visibility isn’t restricted to just Black women gamers –– I once sat in awe of the growth and also our list of verified followers; a far cry from starting a Twitter page to pop off at the industry. Being verified on the platform has also validated our experiences; it’s shown that we’re not to be overlooked in the industry as we were before.

Our voice has weight.