While esports is a rapidly growing industry, studies have revealed evidence of a racial divide. Utilizing racial tasking theory, this study aims to explore the apparent racial divide within intercollegiate esports.
The authors employed semi-structured interviews and utilized deductive qualitative analysis.
The results revealed a perceived racial divide in intercollegiate esports, with conditional meritocracy functioning as a key mechanism sustaining it. More specifically, the analysis identifies conditional meritocracy as a key ideological mechanism through which racial tasking is reproduced in esports settings. This study also provided practical implications, such as creating opportunities for racial minority gamers to engage in games of interest without incurring financial burdens. The study further provided future research options, suggesting the exploration of perceptions among stakeholders who have access to gamers in elementary or middle school age groups.
The originality of this study lies in being one of the few attempts to explore the perceived racial divide in intercollegiate esports through a specific theory, racial tasking theory rather than using grounded theory, which enabled authors to systematically test and extend existing theory in new contexts rather than relying on emergent grounded theory approaches.
