ABSTRACT
Video games are often applauded for bringing people of different backgrounds together, but it isn't always that easy. Race, class, and video games intersect in Shareef Jackson's story about growing up with on the crossroads. Shareef's love for video games is explored through two venues – a laundromat and a pizza place. Both had arcade games, but the interaction between Shareef and the other kids differed wildly. Each place stood for optimism and pessimism about identifying strongly as a nerad, something not often associated with kids from Shareef's neighborhood. The back and forth between optimism and pessimism is discussed during Shareef's journey from a young child to a grown man. Throughout his life, Shareef constantly returned to my days of the laundromat vs the pizza place when it comes to being a marginalized person in the gaming. Some days are better than others, but overall, it is a large part of his life that he wouldn't give up for the world
