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            Are all black people gang members?  Do they all carry guns?  Is violence the defining characteristic of black culture?  Because if I were basing my view of black culture on video games I would say that the answer to all those questions would be a resounding yes.  Video games have been around for over twenty years and all the thousands of games that exist, one would struggle to bring to mind one strong, positive black character.  That is not to say that there are none, but the majority of black characters in games fit the stereotype that has been prevalent in our culture for as long as games have been around: the violent, ignorant, money-obsessed black man.  It is perpetuated through games such as GTA: San Andreas and 50 Cent’s Bulletproof.  In those games the main character is not a healthy representation of a black hero.  He is violent and ruthless, free from real morals or principles, and, in general, rather unintelligent.  They are not computer hackers or master spies.  They are thugs and criminals. 
            As bad as that sounds, as bad as video games not representing positive black characters is, the effects of this trend are even worse.  A large population of video game players are young people, anywhere from ten to fifteen.  During those years, kids are at their most impressionable.  What they see on television, in movies, and, possible most importantly, in video games determines how they look at their world.  They are making decisions about things based on the media that is presented to them.  Everyone is up in arms about how violent video games affect children, how they create violent youth with loose morals and violent tendencies.  To me, even more alarming, is how the video games that I have mentioned, in addition to others, may be giving children an unrealistic view of how black culture really is. 
            Think about the amount of white suburban kids that play video games.  They grow up in somewhat sheltered environments, with little interaction with different cultures.  They may go downtown to the museum or the fireworks, but, in general, they grow up in a little bubble.  At this point, they are basing their opinions on different races and cultures not on life experience, but on the things they see in the media.  They don’t truly understand the other cultures because they are not immersed in them and most of what they see in the media is not a fair representation of those different cultures.  Television and movies are getting better at portraying positive black role models.  There are now black lawyers on television, black police officers, black heroes in general.  Those who create those two forms of media realized the affect they have on the youth of our country.  Video games, however, are a step behind.  And so, those suburban kids grow up playing video games without those positive images of black people.  They grow up playing San Andreas, thinking that all black people are in gangs and are hardened criminals.  They grow up thinking that violence is a main factor in black culture, thinking that they are fundamentally different from whites and other cultures.  Video games don’t have black heroes.  They have black anti-heroes.  The player can control a black character, but it is not in a world in which the potential for good actions is present. 
            The argument can be made that video games, by their very nature, are violent.  It is true that one would be hard pressed to find a fun video game that did not possess violence in some form.  That is simply how the industry works.  However, the difference between Halo and San Andreas is in the presentation of the violence.  Halo is a simple FPS.  The main character walks around killing aliens.  Violent, yes.  But is in the typical form of violence prevalent in video games.  San Andreas is a different matter.  While it does contain the violence that has carried over from previous games in the GTA series, it portrays the violence in a very new way.  It creates a real sense of gangland violence, with drive-by’s and drug deals.  While the other GTA’s did the same thing, the problem that arises is that San Andreas seems to perpetuate an already present stereotype of black culture.  Everything is way too close to the way a lot of white people may think of black people.  That’s how it sets itself apart from the other GTA’s.  Similar to the way Italian people felt they were being stereotyped in the other games, this game stereotypes black people, but in a way that is more dangerous.  Italian mobsters are a fantasy that Hollywood created.  While they are real, the fear of mobsters is not a constant thing.  People are not afraid of Italians.  The stereotype of black people being violent and dangerous, though, is a very real danger.  People actually believe this, believe that black culture is based on a world of violence and crime.  And San Andreas feeds into that fear.  And it also, inadvertently, is sending young people a wrong message.  And a dangerous message.
            Imagine if Master Chief was a black man.  Granted, you never see his face, but it is pretty obvious that a white man voiced him.  So what if he had been voiced by a black man?  The gameplay would not change in the least.  It would still be a fun game and nothing would be altered except his voice.  But by doing that, the game would also be portraying the hero as a black man.  A small thing, but the point is that it doesn’t do it in a stereotypical way.  Master Chief wouldn’t have to define himself as a black man by the words he says or the way he moves.  He would simply be a black man fighting aliens.   And immediately there would be a positive black character in video games.  Change Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell to a black man and you have another positive black character.  Change any white character into a black one and you would have a positive black character. 
            The point I am trying to make is that the video game industry is steeped in a form of racism.  They are not putting characters out there that send a positive message about black culture.  They are just throwing all our fears and wrong beliefs into a video game and sending it out into the world and we are playing them and they are reinforcing our fears and wrong beliefs.  And worst of all, kids are forming their own beliefs on these video games.  Game designers have the responsibility to put an end to the stereotypes, regardless of how much money they make off of them.  Whether they like it or not, they have a real affect on the future opinions of millions of children.  They need to take that responsibility seriously and create games that have a positive black main character and try to undo some of the damage that they have already done.  Otherwise, we going to end up with a generation of white kids who are scared of black people because they think they are violent criminals who just want to take their money so they can buy more drugs.  Games educate, intentionally or not.  Let’s teach the youth that the answer to all of the questions at the top of this paper is no and create a new idea of what black culture really is in our video games.  

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Blog Response, Social Relationships, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.