A Path Forward for DEI Practices in Collegiate Esports
Where I believe collegiate esports stands now and where it needs to turn
Introduction
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DEI, has become a hot-button issue in collegiate esports, and in fact higher education as a whole, in recent years. In my short time in collegiate esports, I have noticed several inequities in terms of DEI that I want to talk about and shed light on. I am not by any means an expert in DEI and I am not perfect myself. However, by writing this piece I hope to encourage everyone to do better for the sake of our students, and for each other. I want to see others join me in this mission as it is imperative that we take the right steps forward to advance collegiate esports in a healthy way.
This is not a call-out post. I am not going to name and shame people and programs who are not properly enacting DEI practices. I want to highlight those who are living the mission to “do better” and encourage others to do the same. I want this piece to encourage conversation, spark new thoughts, and to motivate the people in positions of power in collegiate esports to actualize necessary change.
(tl;dr at the end)
Author’s Note
Before I start, I want to acknowledge my background, bias, and perspective that I bring into this conversation. I think it is important to, before tackling any sort of work, DEI-related or otherwise, understand and analyze the implicit bias that everyone carries with them and how it could shade a conversation or view on a topic.
I entered collegiate esports in July 2021 after founding and running a high school esports program between 2018-2021. In those three years, I also worked as a full-time high school math and computer science teacher. As such, I carry my education background and perspective as an educator with me into every conversation and interaction I have. In October of 2021, I came out as transgender. Since then, I have found myself becoming a more vocal advocate for DEI initiatives, especially in relation to the LGBTQIA+ space. I can speak to my experiences, and that is it. My time as an educator changed who I was in numerous positive ways and I am thankful that I have the experience as it made me more well-rounded as a person and able to understand the views of others more readily. The things I have experienced since coming out as trans have also heavily influenced how I view the world around me and I am primed to look for other queer folks around me to reach out to first when given the opportunity. I encourage all of the readers of this piece to take a moment to consider all the elements that make up their background and perspective on life before continuing.
I wanted to write this piece because I have several thoughts related to the lack of equitable practices in collegiate esports, many of which people don’t even see as inequitable, and some steps we can take as a community to help grow the space in a healthy direction. The goal is that we, as a collegiate esports community, can have a conversation about meaningfully improving the space with inclusive and equitable practices and ideals.
Here are some other good resources around DEI in esports and higher education before I start. There are lots of groups doing fantastic work and I could not possibly hope to condense all of it down for this piece, so I recommend that everyone take the time to read through these.
Esports Foundry - Trends in Collegiate Esports 2021 by Chris Postell and Kris Narayan
Just Esports - Collegiate Esports DEI Handbook by Jack Blahnik, John Cash, Julian Fitzgerald, Russ Hamer, Verta Maloney, and Kyra Wills-Umdenstock.
AnyKey - Diversity & Inclusion in Collegiate Esports: Challenges, Opportunities, and Interventions
Higher Education Today - Refocusing on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion during the Pandemic and Beyond: Lessons from a Community of Practice by Taffye Benson Clayton
Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education by the Department of Education
Issues I Have Noticed With DEI In Collegiate Esports
What I would like to start with is a discussion about the issues and shortcomings with DEI in Collegiate Esports that I have noticed. This is by no means a complete list, but it can help shed some light on general problems that plague collegiate esports. The first step in striving to do better for those around us is to recognize shortcomings and how they present themselves.
Many of these issues are not exclusive to collegiate esports and can be found in all facets of higher education and corporate culture in general. However, we as an industry (collegiate esports) pride ourselves on being the tip of the spear, the bleeding edge that pushes higher education ideals and societal norms at our institutions to new frontiers that lead to a better space for everyone. We pride ourselves on how quickly we adapt and change to suit the needs of our students and the ever-changing landscape of esports. As such, we need to acknowledge our missteps.
Performative Allyship and Inauthenticity
A good starting point is the concept of Performative Allyship and Inauthenticity in DEI initiatives and beliefs. I know I have referenced this article in the past, but I implore you to read “How Do You Distinguish Effective Allyship from Performative Allyship” by Penn State Law Alumna Anna Fossberg, Amber Bynum, and Heidi Tripp. In it, one of the individuals interviewed for the article is quoted as saying “Authentic allyship is not about amplifying your own voice, but rather listening to the voices of people within that community and what they are saying. They need to be uplifted.”
DEI tends to be a difficult thing for many to envision in an authentic way because the first thought tends to be “what can I do right now to get people off my back?” and not “what can I do for the betterment of everyone?” That is where the core of performative allyship lies, in doing things for show or due to pressure. Pressuring someone into enacting some sort of DEI practice that gets a desired outcome is not a bad thing in and of itself. However, as I saw when I have tried to implement things hastily, they do not truly serve the community they are intended to serve; they just LOOK like they do. If something is performative, no matter how rock solid the leader thinks their cover is, the individuals in the targeted community will see through them.
Something that pleasantly surprised me when I joined the Voice Of InterCollegiate Esports (VOICE) Board is how they are building a DEI committee and Board of Directors with diverse representation in mind. While some may view the practice of creating an equitable group as the assignment of quotas, it is actually a genuine decision if a group has the right intentions. It is very easy to see through practices like this as a PR stunt, but when creating a diverse and equitable leadership team is a core principle that was established at the founding of a group, it is a different story. It shows a group’s commitment to authenticity by creating DEI-focused teams that seek to have proper representation of every group they are trying to speak for. When a group is homogeneous in nature, it excludes the perspectives of other people, many times unknowingly, and it does not enable the group to properly understand all the communities they may be servicing.
The other problem closely tied to the suppression of a diverse group of voices is the idea of a monolithic representation of an identity or community. While I am more than happy to speak on panels, interviews, and roundtables any time I get the chance to, I shouldn’t be the only voice for the LGBTQIA+ community in collegiate esports because I don’t have A LOT of experiences, nor do I represent everyone under this umbrella. While I can effectively do advocacy work for the LGBTQIA+ community in general, I miss a lot of the minutiae as well as a vast swath of other topics I am wholly unqualified to speak on. In the future, when I am asked to speak on LGBTQIA+ issues in collegiate esports, I will be inquiring with the organizers what other people they have contacted as well and potentially turning down the opportunity to ensure that a more diverse set of voices is heard.
My personal example is a microcosm of the concept of monolithic representation, but it can be seen even in diverse groups that only have one person from each community they are trying to represent. Diverse representation needs to involve more than one person per community/identity if they want to be equitable and avoid being a monolith.
Not Listening
It is very easy to dismiss “listening” as a simple and virtually meaningless act, but once we overcome suppressing voices, either unintentionally or intentionally, the next hurdle needs to be listening to, and actually comprehending, those voices. It is a pretty frequent occurrence in university DEI work that an Office of Diversity and Inclusion (or a group with a similar title/mission) will make recommendations for changes based on studies they have done, and institutions will simply ignore them. I give a great deal of respect to the leadership of IWU as an institution for making DEI work a priority and actually listening to ODI here, but there is still a long way to go for collegiate esports.
For example, when women who work as directors or coaches at various institutions speak up about the ways that they are harassed, ignored, and outright disrespected by their peers, there is a big ruckus on Twitter for a week before it dies down, and nothing changes. They get gaslighted into their experiences being meaningless, dismissed for suffering from these experiences in the first place, and shown that their struggles are solely their problem. We as a community need to be better, because this shouldn’t be common enough that virtually anyone in collegiate esports can think of a few examples without much difficulty.
Listening, understanding, and respecting the people who speak up is also how we as a community can check our ego. We won’t always be right on every topic, but by truly listening to the people who speak up with their experiences, the lessons they learn from these experiences don’t have to only be their own, and they can galvanize us into action. The purpose of listening to a diverse set of voices is to enable people from marginalized communities to be able to gain allies as they try to change the community for the better, but we have to actually listen to them to understand what they are going through and how we can help.
Having Ideals and Doing Nothing
Tying into the ideas of authenticity in allyship and actually listening to diverse voices and their needs, comes the idea of doing something once you listen. I am not going to stand on a high horse and say that I am a perfect example of enacting sweeping changes after every unjust act of unequal treatment that I know about. I have been slow to respond and make meaningful changes in cases where it could have made a genuine impact, and this is something I genuinely regret. However, I am not sitting on my laurels either. I am striving to improve myself such that I won’t create new regrettable moments of inaction going forward. Just doing something, anything, to show people that you are listening to them and you are enacting the changes you can is a start.
I know for many in the collegiate space, institutional inertia is the biggest hurdle as we are just one piece of our institution, and a small one at that. While our voices are valued and considered in certain circles within our institutions, at the upper administration level we may not always get a fair chance to state our case. But change doesn’t have to be broad and sweeping. Change can be as small as changing how you interact with students, and it can have rippling impacts that are felt across your program in due time.
Institutional inertia is a factor that is stopping many people from enacting changes on their campus as a whole, but change and actually doing something is not limited to being a campus-wide initiative. As I said before, a hope that marginalized and oppressed individuals have when they speak up is to gain allies who are also galvanized into action. When people “listen” to someone but then don’t do anything as it is too difficult, not a priority, they lack the resources for it, or any other number of reasons, that is saying “I hear you, but it’s not worth my time”. If you truly care about the betterment of collegiate esports for the sake of the diverse community that calls it home, it cannot be acceptable to hear someone’s struggles and oppression and think that inaction is justifiable.
Cliques, Gatekeeping, and Echo Chambers
The concept of the “in-crowd” vs. the “out-crowd” and creating an “us vs. them” mentality is so common in general society that it is culturally acceptable and expected in virtually all facets of society. Many times, staff in collegiate esports find themselves socializing with the same circle of people and influencing each other’s opinions such that they start to unintentionally create echo chambers. At every collegiate esports event I have been to, all the directors and coaches will end up getting together at some point and chatting as a group or a collection of subgroups, and many times I have seen the same subgroups persist across multiple days of an event too.
At events where the greater community comes out, many of my friends in the space aren’t necessarily directors, so I spend a lot of time with them. But when I see a group of directors forming, I have this implicit understanding that I need to make my way over them to join in on the conversation at some point such that I can maintain my status as part of the “in-crowd”. While I genuinely do enjoy the opportunity to talk with my direct peers in collegiate esports and I always enjoy my time, it can also be exhausting to have this implication that I need to join in on every director-level conversation possible as I may end up missing something or for fear of being seen as an outsider and excluded from the clique.
Besides the cliques that have naturally formed in the space, I also noticed upon my entry to the space that a few staff at other institutions did not give me the time of day to even speak to them because I was new, and some still do now. Ostracizing newcomers is a surefire way to create a culture that elevates the same few people to higher and higher positions of status while it silences those who are newer, creating echo chambers that will drive industry in only one direction. While many of these industry veterans are the progenitors of collegiate esports, the founders who built the space we call home today, collegiate esports is uniquely positioned to consider newcomers and veterans alike.
In academia, years of experience and degree level are, for the most part, the only things people care about when considering your worth as a contributor; impact on students, accomplishments, and philosophical ideals are not considered. But collegiate esports finds itself in a position where we are new enough, and our knowledge as an industry isn’t closely tied to a degree, that even people who are relatively new to space can make valuable contributions. By not giving newcomers the time of day, how will we ever expect the space to grow and succeed if we don’t give them the chance? Stagnation is failure in an industry that focuses so much on growth, so we need to see every new director, staff member, and even player as an opportunity to include someone new in the conversation and consider their insights.
Authenticity In Networking And Building A Community
The ways many of the aforementioned issues manifest themselves are not necessarily as cut and dry as the initial definitions made them out to be. Many of these factors blend together into single interactions, and it is common for people to view these experiences differently as well. As such, I want to dive into the broader topics, examine how the above issues intermix, and how we can do better.
In the business world, networking is defined as meeting others in your space such as business owners, potential suppliers, or other professionals to help you grow and improve your own business (from this article here). What has frustrated me about networking in the past is it all just felt really forced and the only purpose was social climbing in a niche subgroup. While networking is about creating a back-and-forth dynamic between two people such that they can accomplish things to their mutual benefit, it does not have to be so clinical.
One of the most unique aspects of collegiate esports is that it is such a small industry that everyone knows everyone! Even if someone is new, we share this common ground of gaming, collegiate esports, and a true passion for what we do that makes building connections easier. Networking in esports is more about just making friends and taking a genuine interest in someone and what they are doing versus opening with a business card and what services you can offer someone. Every time I start a conversation with someone in collegiate esports, it feels refreshing just to meet people, and find out more about them, and if the conversation takes a natural turn towards business then so be it. I have had 3 a.m. rants in a random hotel lobby about the state of the Rainbow 6: Siege competitive environment and why I think the Util-Dump meta broke the way the game is played at a fundamental level, and in those moments I wasn’t thinking about how talking to this person would benefit me, I was just making friends. Sure, we all still talk shop and discuss the ideas we have that we want to implement, but networking is more than that for esports too.
What is upsetting then, is talking with other directors and coaches in the space and understanding that my experience is rare for them. At the DreamHack Dallas 2022, a few directors I know were in attendance, and, in talking with one of them afterward, they said they felt left out of virtually everything. They talked about how, during all of the afterparties and even during the events themselves, they were left out of all of the conversations due to their gender and their unwillingness to talk shop for hours about virtually nothing (more on that in the next section). The only time other directors acknowledged them was to get a group photo at the end of the night in the bar as everyone was wrapping up. They said they tried to engage multiple times and were quickly shuffled to the side, bound to be ignored. Another esports staff member I know had a similar story at DreamHack Dallas, but it was doubly difficult for them as they were also new to their program and were hired after students had already left for the summer.
We talk all the time about knowing everyone and being friendly and welcoming, and I have seen firsthand how wonderful that can be when everyone just sits together and shoots the shit about non-work topics. But it is also essential to recognize that networking in the space can be inauthentic at times and create cliques that exclude people, veterans, and newcomers alike. It is unreasonable to ask every director and coach to spot that one person sitting on the edge of the room and include them in conversation every time at industry events. But the status quo of “getting the band back together” at every event and talking amongst yourselves for hours has to change.
For starters, authentically networking with people who you may not have already crossed paths with starts with taking a genuine interest in who they are and putting them before yourself! There is this tendency in the industry to try to one-up everyone with your list of accomplishments, and I am guilty of it myself, so the first step in being authentic in your inclusion of “outsiders” in your circle during typical networking times (afterparties, all teams meetings, etc) is staying quiet about yourself and talking to the person who is new to you about their background, experiences, and perspective. While everyone may not be willing to dive deeply into these topics with total strangers, once you start opening up about your own experiences in a genuine way and not to show off, conversation flows very naturally in my experience and you can find common ground fairly quickly.
Authentic networking and inclusion also come from not seeing it as solely a business transaction. Business can still occur, and in fact should, otherwise we are wasting our time at our gatherings if we don’t use it productively in some way. However, networking in esports can be so much more than that when we see it as just making friends. It doesn’t even have to be for work! Some of the best conversations I have ever had with people in collegiate esports have come from cold DMs too. Just reach out to people if you are new, and veterans need to start responding more and we will see the community flourish even more at events. I look forward to LANs so much because I get to hug and see all my friends, none of whom I had EVER talked with just under a year ago, and I met almost all of them through cold reach-outs.
A fair point that has been raised is that not everyone wants to make friends with everyone at events! I am guilty of being talkative and trying to make contact with everyone, but there are many others in the space who are content with their social circle and will reach out to potential project collaborators when the time comes. Both of these kinds of networking can coexist, and in fact, we need both kinds to balance out the space. However, it is important for both groups to recognize that the other exists and entertain them in some regard. Forcing networking where it would be unwelcome is just as bad as shutting down someone who wants to chat. Both groups need to go a bit out of their comfort zone for the benefit of the other.
Inclusion and authenticity in our networking and community-building practices come from all angles. Veterans need to be willing to, and in fact genuinely interested in, talking with newcomers to the space, and I can think of no better example than Garvey from Twitch. Within 5 minutes of meeting him at Gateway Legends 2021, he bought me dinner, gave me a hug, and invited me to sit down with him and a bunch of other veterans of the space, and from then on I was welcome to talk with any of them. While Garvey is an extreme case because that really highlights what he is like as a person, a simple act of inclusion goes so far, and we need to do more to be inclusive of every newcomer in some capacity by showing them we are not a closed group.
Including DEI In The Conversation
Getting through the door and talking to others during generally accepted networking times goes such a long way in bringing newbies into the space and can spark some new and genuine conversations….if we let it. Even in my singular year in collegiate esports, I have seen the same conversations repeatedly. Now, the same conversations need to be had repeatedly in order to strengthen the argument and talking points and to get everyone on board, veteran and newcomer alike, but they are not the only conversations that should be had.
I recently noticed this in the VOICE Discord as the conversation was continuing about what defines a “varsity” program and what that classification should be used for. I commented that I am seeing the same conversation about this repeatedly, and one reply noted “Sometimes the same conversation needs to be had hundreds of times to make progress. This is true for things throughout society. Just the pains of being involved in defining/progressing to the future of something”, and I genuinely agree with them after I took a step back to think about it. I am frustrated by seeing repeated topics, but the only reason they are repeated is because they aren’t solved yet, and that is exactly why we are talking about them.
How to solve systemic issues like how we define a “varsity” esports program is outside the scope of this piece, but I wanted to give some perspective as to what I mean by “the same conversations”. Other things I have typically seen involve how to talk with administration to get more money/space/students/coaches/respect and how and when to grow a program, and what true growth actually means. All of these are important and I wholly agree that they should be frequent touchpoints.
But that does not mean we need to stick exclusively to these conversations either. Whenever a new hot-button issue comes up in the space, we as an industry jump to talk about it given the chance, so why not add DEI to that list? A common reply I have received when I ask this question is “well I don't know how to talk about DEI '' with people citing it is outside of their wheelhouse and goes into topics they are uncomfortable with…..but that’s kind of the point of it all. These sorts of conversations need to be had in order to create a more equitable space with DEI at the forefront. Being afraid to talk about LGBTQIA+ issues, BIPOC issues, religious liberties, or ANY other topic that comes to mind is just saying that it is perfectly acceptable to sweep things you are uncomfortable with under the rug.
Conversation does not need to be dominated by discussions like “how can I authentically reach and engage a more diverse set of students on my campus” or “how can I start a women/non-binary team in X game in my program”, but at the same time people should not be afraid to talk about it! The first instinct shouldn’t be to run from the conversation or try to divert it to something else entirely. I know a lot of networking time is spent talking about personal life topics or things for fun, but when shop-talk comes up, doing your best to make sure DEI topics are a part of them is how we as an industry can normalize putting DEI at the forefront of what we do, no longer secluded to side conversations among a select few individuals.
One example of including DEI topics in conversation comes from just speaking to my own experiences and not being afraid to speak up when I or someone I know is being mistreated by others in collegiate esports. However, for those that do not have experiences like that, another easy way to work DEI into the conversation is to talk with other staff about their thoughts on the feasibility of a Women and Non-Binary gaming night in their facility/space on campus if they have one. You can also talk about how recruiting is going in terms of equitability, and what challenges they are having, or recently I have also heard a conversation about a Women’s/Non-Binary collegiate esports league. We all have had harder conversations with our peers, so these should be an easy start. Talking about it is the first step to demystifying it.
Purposeful And Authentic DEI Ideals and Inclusivity
Earlier I talked about the concept of authentic allyship and how it is really easy for people to spot inauthentic measures to be inclusive, but I want to revisit that more in detail. Every initiative you have as a program should have DEI integrated as a core consideration, and every DEI point should be purposeful.
Being an authentic ally is challenging at times, doubly so for communities you are not a part of. I find it challenging to be an ally to the struggles of students from cultures and communities I do not call home, and as such I have to take extra care to be intentional and educated in what I am doing. One of the greatest assets I have had as I take steps to include more DEI initiatives in my program and my life, in general, is simply learning historical context. This June has been my first Pride Month as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. In the past, I had just been a very strong ally (wonder why….) but now that I am a part of the community I felt it imperative that I understand where Pride originated and to learn more about those that came before me.
Learning about the Stonewall Riots, queer history, and the path that we have taken to get where we are left a massive impact on me and helped me understand the gravitas behind the struggle that still continuing to this day. It left me feeling emboldened by the new knowledge I had to do more for the community I call my home. Going forward, I have made it a priority to myself to research and understand more about the history and culture of the communities and students that I serve. I was taught very little about the origin of the special celebrations we have for the people around us such as Pride Month, Juneteenth, Hispanic Heritage Month, and so on. Knowledge is one of the primary stepping stones to being authentic with DEI practices, and I am frustrated that I did not make this a priority sooner. Knowledge is even more powerful if it is from a firsthand source. This is not to say that you need to interview your students from X community and directly grill them on their experiences, but it is more pointing to how, when our students talk about their personal experiences, we need to listen as that is an authentic recollection of experience from a first-person perspective.
But knowledge isn’t everything, and I have definitely put on some half-assed events by doing things too quickly and not thinking about the purpose behind everything I wanted to do. I keep up with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) here at Wesleyan and have talked with them about their mission, vision, and best practices, and I am always continually impressed by how much effort and care they put into everything they do. It is very easy to say “it’s x month, let’s do a gaming night for that community and call it done”, but it didn’t accomplish anything, so what was the point? Making a purposeful effort to be authentic and create meaningful DEI initiatives, whether for special events or your program itself, can massively change their impact. I am not going to be prescriptive in what specific DEI initiatives everyone should be undertaking as every program is different and what works best for my program will not necessarily work best for others. Instead, I want to spark the conversation so that we can all come to the table with ideas and initiatives for our own students.
This whole section is not to say that you need a quota for the number of “diverse” students in your program, but let’s take a look at the numbers while we are on the topic. According to the aforementioned Trends In Collegiate Esports Report for 2021 by Chris Postell and Kris Narayan of Esports Foundry, of the 309 collegiate esports programs surveyed and 95 used for the sample size, we have the following data:
This paints a pretty stark picture of what the space is like. As noted in the report, DEI is “monumentally difficult to address” but important nonetheless. While these numbers may be below where we want them to be, they are above where they traditionally have been too. While, for example, 75% of programs have non-white students in their program, as the authors note, that can translate to only one or two students. If we look at Figure 1.8, we see that 54% of programs report that 0-10% of their program population are female-identifying students. Looking at an average program size of 50 students as noted in the report on page 26, that puts us at under five students on average per program who are fem or fem-identifying.
We as a space are striving to do better, I know we are, but we need to listen to, and learn from, the people who are actively running and building diverse and inclusive programs. The absolute BEST outlier in the space for building a diverse and inclusive program is Kaitlin Teniente of St. Mary’s University Esports down in Texas, and I will reference her as the gold standard for this because it is the truth. She has a program that is an overwhelming outlier in all DEI metrics in a positive way, with an incredibly diverse staff and program student population. Much of what she credits for her success comes from the inclusive and equitable program culture she has built through enforcing many core tenets focused around DEI. Her amazingly diverse staff also helps bring these ideals to the forefront and she is never one to stray from discussions about societal injustice with her students.
She built her program with one of the leading ideas being to create a safe, inclusive, and equitable space for all students, and it would do the industry good to follow her lead. By being purposeful in making equitable and diverse practices a core part of program initiatives, and especially program culture, esports programs will find success in making sure everyone feels at home in their program and that they can recruit players who may have otherwise felt like they were unwelcome in the current esports culture.
Acknowledging Difficulties and Bias
When I look to celebrate and uplift a diverse set of ideals, I have to come into this with an understanding of my own bias and background. At the start of this piece, I wrote an author’s note on who I am and what I am coming into this conversation with, because that shades where my perspectives come from and what sorts of ideals I can bring to the table. This is commonly referred to as Unconscious Bias and I would highly encourage reading this article from the University of California in San Francisco for more in-depth knowledge on this topic.
Understanding your implicit bias as a person can open up whole new doors in conversations and it has allowed me to be able to step back, listen, and truly appreciate what other people bring to a conversation. To put it simply, I learned to shut up when I don’t know as much as someone else or when someone is discussing their experiences. Listening to others and taking a genuine interest in their perspective makes conversation and networking all the more meaningful while also giving you new insights you may not have had before, and I cannot overstate how much it can make an impact. I am still discovering new ways in which my implicit bias plays a role in even mundane conversations, and I don’t think I ever will stop, but each day I am learning a bit about how to see through how my background shades conversation to reach and understand others more. I am by no means perfect, so it has been helpful.
In DEI conversations, there is commonly also this idea of “staying in your lane” once you have recognized your bias and background. It is very easy to dismiss DEI practices, initiatives, and cultural movements in programs as someone getting too far out of their “lane” and away from the communities they call home. A very easy example is when cishet (cisgender and heterosexual) directors do things for Pride Month, but I want to argue that that is acceptable under certain conditions. Programs do not have to have diverse leadership to carry out diverse initiatives. Committing to being authentic with initiatives, listening to the voices of those that are experts on the topic at hand, and putting genuine effort into the initiatives with the assistance of knowledge of the experts can all help make up for not belonging to the group that you are trying to celebrate. It definitely helps, but it is not the only starting point for conversations like this. but shouldn't be the end of the conversation.
Advocating for your students and their needs, and thinking about the good of the students and the health of a program as a whole, is the right way to go about doing things. Determining what is “genuine” is difficult from an outsider's perspective, but promoting and propping up DEI initiatives in the space without gatekeeping is how we as a community can be equitable to those who are trying to do the right thing. While I highly encourage calling out performative allyship and inauthenticity, I also encourage recognizing the people who are actually doing authentic and purposeful work too! Celebrate those who are dedicating their time and effort towards being a genuine ally and resource and uplift them to others as an example to model off of.
When calling someone out for being performative and inauthentic, shaming them into backing down should not be the intended outcome of that conversation. By simply shaming someone and making them stop, the only lesson that person will get is that they need to not try again for fear of being called out again. Instead, as stewards of the community, take the time to educate someone on better examples of what they were trying to do and discuss best practices and good references. Stopping the conversation at “what you are doing is inauthentic and bad” ruins a moment that could be used to improve their next effort.
Conclusion
We can be doing so much more for marginalized students who are ostracized in other fields, and many times are in gaming too, and we need to recognize this gap in potential. Being inclusive of marginalized groups takes genuine effort and is not something that can be handled by a couple of events. It needs to be at the core of everything we do in our culture, our practices, and our plans for the future.
Right now, we can make meaningful steps as a community of builders, leaders, innovators, educators, and professionals in the industry to recognize our own bias and background and be purposeful and genuine with our DEI programs and initiatives. We can build DEI into every facet of our programs and make it a priority rather than an ancillary topic. We can listen to the voices that often aren’t heard and value the opinions of people who frequently aren’t truly valued. Disrupting the status quo will take genuine effort from everyone in the space, but there is no singular starting point. Start anywhere you can and you will be surprised how fast you can make a meaningful impact. If we as an industry all make strides forward with diversity, equity, and inclusion at the core of what we do, and mean it, we will be miles from where we started in no time at all.
We should be formulating these thoughts NOW so that we have time to go into the next school year with a purpose, a plan, and the genuine well-being and care of our students in our hearts. Many of us are going to see each other at numerous events throughout the summer, so let’s use that time more effectively to collaboratively work toward the betterment of collegiate esports. If you are having difficulty coming up with some DEI-related topics that would be good for you to think more about for the sake of your program, your students, or even yourself, I would be glad to assist! There are plenty of things to discuss and I am sure that we can collaboratively find a topic that you can align strongly with that will spark you to action. Find my contact information at the end.
TL;DR
Please read it, I put a lot into this.
But in general, collegiate esports is currently an imperfect safe haven for individuals who are marginalized in many ways and we can do so much more. Systemic change doesn’t necessarily have to be top-down, but it really helps if it is. We as directors and coaches have a responsibility to the students entrusted to us to build a space better and more welcoming for everyone. This can be accomplished by being authentic in our commitment to DEI practices and dedicating significant time and effort to being inclusive. If you genuinely care about your students, show it by making sure they all feel included and make sure they KNOW that you care.
Thank you for reading! I am more than happy to talk about anything and everything DEI at any time, but my specialty is LGBTQIA+ related topics given my background and experience. You can find me on Twitter at @TheRogueCora and Discord at Rogue#6142, reach out any time!
