When it comes to the gaming industry, oftentimes Black women are completely left out of the conversation, but not Cierra McDonald. McDonald has worked within the Xbox organization for 13 years and has experience in everything from billing to achievements to documentations. For her, the love of gaming started at a young age when she was first introduced to the world of technology by purchasing a floppy disc of Monkey Island. From there, she learned to navigate DOS through the installation process and the rest is history! Now, as the Principal Program Manager for Xbox at Microsoft, McDonald is on a mission to shift the narrative of Black female characters in the gaming industry. “I think too often folks start with ‘male’ and ‘white’ as the default when envisioning game characters or stories, even if it’s not intentional or done explicitly,” said McDonald in an email interview with AfroTech. “So, that becomes the baseline. When they want to add a female character, she is likely created...