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