NAACP Image Awards Gaming Nominee

For the first time ever, the NAACP Image Awards are entering into gaming.

The 57th NAACP Image Awards kick off a two-day stream of its digital awards portion Monday at 8 p.m. on Youtube. Among the a number of digital content creator classes that shall be announced out of the stream is Outstanding Digital Content Creator – Gaming/Tech, an honor that will go to one in all 5 nominees: Berlin Edmond Jr., Cory Kenshin, Jay-Ann Lopez, Khleo Thomas or Gerard Williams, better recognized to followers as HipHopGamer.

“So I personally spoke with Derek Johnson, the president of the NAACP Image Awards, and he said it clear as day,” Williams told Variety ahead of Monday’s awards present livestream. “He said, yo, look, let me tell you right now, we wanted to open up this category — because he realizes that there’s a lot of people, there’s a lot of minorities, there’s a lot of Black people, period, that’s also in this area that we need to reach out to, that we need to talk to. And the only way that’s going to happen is we got to meet them where they are. So it was ideal to open up this category for the 57th NAACP Image Award. So that’s one of the reasons why they opened it, and also they understand the power of gaming and tech, AI, where everything is going. They need to be a part of that conversation as well, so they can have a lot of opportunity in the space, too.”

Williams first grew to become interested by gaming when his late grandmother, Margaret Williams, launched him to the passion when he was a small youngster rising up in Brooklyn. Today, he’s recognized for his gaming journalism and weekly syndicated present with Hot97, in addition to his community outreach, including Playmakers, a partnership with Chase Bank to broaden monetary literacy by way of gaming in New York City faculties, and a Denzel Washington-backed gaming-focused rehabilitation program for inmates at Rikers Island.

Williams lately debuted as a personality in the “Mutant Football League 2” video game, that includes his likeness, music and his personal team, which incorporates some of the college students and launched inmates he has labored with.

“Being nominated for the first time ever that this category even exists — just this moment alone, it makes me just go right back to grandma when I was four years old,” Williams said. “That kid spirit just comes right out saying it was an honor. I was actually in a hotel in Vegas for something else and I got the email. I was jumping on the bed. It was crazy. It was very overwhelming.”

Up next, Williams shall be the host for the Games Beat Summit at the GDC Festival of Gaming in March in San Francisco, and looking out additional ahead, his longterm aspirations embody touchdown a Men’s Health and changing into a gaming anchor on “Good Morning America.”

Win or lose — though Williams may be very clear he would like to win — at the NAACP Image Awards, Williams is so grateful the gaming class exists in any respect and sees it as a step towards more acknowledgement of the Black community’s presence in the gaming business.

Williams recollects attending his first E3 (a now-ended however previously impactful gaming conference) again in 2008, and the poor reception he acquired from some in the predominantly-white gaming journalism community, despite his self-proclaimed exuberant and pleasant perspective.

“I got this big championship belt on me. I’m from East New York, Brooklyn, and I don’t code switch, meaning that I’m me wherever I go. This is what you get, but I know my stuff,” Williams said. “The way it was 15-20 years ago, oh my gosh, listen — it was bad. One of the reasons why I learned business so much so fast within the gaming industry is because I was met with racism, too. It’s crazy. But one thing about me, I don’t complain, I create. Period. Because you can get caught up in all of that racist stuff and be all mad, and then at the end of the day, you can only control what you can control. And if you allow the negativity to control your energy, then you become what you hate.”