As a kid, Shareef Jackson ’98 loved video games— Atari, Nintendo 64, and Sega Genesis, to name a few, despite the fact that he rarely saw characters that looked like him. As an adult gamer, he decided to tackle the issue of diversity head-on. In 2015 he began Gaming Looks Good, a livestream review of games through the lens of the politics of race, gender, and sexuality. After all, if videogames were gateways to fantastical, new worlds, then surely they could build characters and worlds beyond tired, used tropes. Shareef explains, “With the YouTube series, I kind of built up a network from message boards and internet posts. That led to speaking at conferences gaming consulting where I’ve worked with companies about their characters.”
Being an activist for representation in gaming is just one of Shareef’s passions. A former business analyst, he has at various times been a teacher, tutor, entrepreneur, science blogger, podcast host, and science/technology commentator sought by such outlets as the New York Times, NPR, and Scientific American.
While he continues to teach, the role he is most focused on currently is that of being a “STEM Diversity Advocate.” He believes there’s untapped power in the prospect of diversity within scientific disciplines. “I don’t just mean classical science,” he explains. “I mean the inquisitiveness of science: the ability to break down problems, analyze, and apply them to bigger things. With diversity, I mean race, gender, sexuality, but also diversity of thought. Those things make up the cornerstone.”
His focus on helping underrepresented groups gain access to spaces—whether games or scientific fields— relates to Shareef ’s own experiences entering the D-E Upper School in 1994. Having grown up in a lower- middle class family from Paterson, he felt nervous about what independent school would be like. Just as he seeks to engage, educate, and mentor others, Shareef credits D-E faculty members with helping him adjust to a different cultural setting and sparking his love of learning. “I had some really great teachers that I feel like saw that I was there eager to learn, and realized that I wouldn’t take it for granted,” he says. “Richard ‘Dick’ Phayer was incredible to learn ancient history from. I remember Ms. Sylvia Paes who was jokingly feared by students, but she got me and my class into shape during BC Calculus. I am still in contact with Lisa Foster, my former precalculus teacher. And the last person I remember is Miguel Brito who was like a mentor to me and a huge proponent of the NJ Seeds Program. He helped us through the good, bad, and stressful days.”
After D-E, Shareef graduated from Brown and Case Western University with degrees in electrical engineering and engineering management, respectively. He then worked for several years as a business analyst at companies such as Accenture and DentaQuest. As he took up tutoring gigs in his spare time—specializing in physics, math, and ACT prep—Shareef saw the opportunity to teach full- time. He founded a tutoring company, Math Looks Good in 2016 while living in Milwaukee, WI. He went on to become an adjunct professor at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, teaching his own course, “Video Games & Learning,” which focuses on the intersections between race, gender, and sexuality in gaming. Though he has returned to New Jersey with his wife, Laura, and their newborn son, Oliver, Shareef continues to tutor and teach the course remotely.
Gaming is, of course, still part of his life, and not just in the digital realm. The recent reboot of Dungeons and Dragons has made the classic role- playing tabletop game a more diverse improvisational universe. Shareef is a cast member of “Rivals of Waterdeep,” both a livestreamed show and a podcast inwhichheandothersplaythegame.Tokeepupwith the exploits of Shareef ’s character, “Shaka,” a Tiefling celestial warlock, fans can find the show on a variety of platforms, including Twitch and YouTube. As for Shareef, his continuing teaching and advocacy can be found at shareefjackson.com.
