Talk:Kristopher Ali

The author used the outside source of Muhammad Ali to illustrate that something as simple as a person's last name can have an enormous influence on how people view your religion and even your race. This anchored the author's reflection because it let us readers know that you cannot judge a person just by their skin color or their name, as these things may change just as family's change generation after generation. The author also shared his identity with us, telling us that he is African American, Chinese, and Indian, which is something that most people would not notice at first glance, or even after seeing him multiple times. This further illustrates the difficulty in generalizing a person's race just by their name.

I also believe the author did a great job describing the process and the troubles that he encountered while creating his avatars. The author put a heavy emphasis on the fact that the avatar creation software was very lacking and limiting when it came to diversity in terms of ethnic and age groups. However, he also sympathized with the developers because they had to make the software work across the majority of people, not the people who stand out ethnically as it would only benefit a few people such as the author himself. This is a very good point, as I am sure the developers could have included many more diverse options, but it would have taken up a lot more space and the relative benefit may not have been worth the effort. The author's ideas behind creating his fantasy avatar were very unique and well thought out.

Overall, the author's thought process was very easy to follow and all of his choices in creating his avatar's seemed to be connected to some aspect of his life, whether it be his interests or his ethnic identity.

- C. Bender

The author elaborates about how the Evolver software created some limitations while he tried to replicate his appearance for his avatar. The commentary about problems finding shoes that match what Kris might wear was interesting, as it illustrates that the apparel we choose to wear not only creates an identity in the minds of those around us. It is also a representation of how we view ourselves. It is fortunate that shoes without laces were available to the author, otherwise his representation of himself would have been less accurate. Despite his problems matching his racial identity and age to the faces provided by the software, he seems relatively pleased about the way his avatar turned out.

In this reflection, the reference to Muhammad Ali does not emphasize any critical point. The association between the writer and Muhammad Ali is established through their shared last name, but after that things seem a bit convoluted. The culmination of this comparison seems to be something along the lines of the often-used phrase, "You can't just a book by its cover." If other people are "attributing you to false identities," it would have been beneficial to get a description of what that harm could be, and relate that to the point about Muhammad Ali.

The description of the fantasy avatar creation was clear and understandable. The author identified traits that he wanted to exemplify through his fantasy avatar, and concluded that the freedoms he gained made the process more enjoyable than creating his first avatar. I would be curious to see if any more of his internal traits are shown through the fantasy avatar, and why he chose the traits that he did as the ones through which he wanted to display himself.

This article describes both the display of physical traits and internal traits, and how each of those can be a part of identity. It does not ever describe the conflict between these two, which I found disappointing. Overall, this article served its purpose, but I would have liked to learn more about the author through it.

-J. McMillan