Racial Stereotyping In Games?
Last week, GamePolitics posted a rather questionable criticism of perceived racial stereotyping in games by writer and comedian Richard O. Jones in an article in Black Voice News Online. Jones used material from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and very little else, to suggest that the exposure of children of color to strongly negative racial stereotypes teaches them the wrong lessons and helps limit their imagination to futures of gang violence, drugs, and crime.
It wasn't a questionable article because Jones is wrong, it's questionable because he used only one example (when there are dozens). The recent Crackdown prison-reality-check themed commercials have had me thinking about this issue, because they seem very strongly biased in favor of promoting racial stereotypes. I wondered aloud if, from a practical point of view, you could make a game that involves street culture without relying to some degree on racial stereotyping; and a friend answered, "They called it Saint's Row, and everybody loved it." I can't speak to the truth of that, not being a big GTA or GTA-knockoff fan, but I get the point: we could certainly try.
In Jones' article, Kansas State University psychologist John Murray puts forth a valid set of complaints:
If Blacks and Latinos are always portrayed as the villains, or as the victims who get killed often and easily, that is code for powerlessness. These image persist because too few minorities are in the industry. Roughly 80% of video game programmers are white...
There's some essential truth in all of this, but I'm not sure where the responsibility lies: with the industry, with the parents, a little of both, and so on. Make the jump to read more.
Jones makes a fair gambit for promoting more young people of color to get involved with the making of games, which is only a positive thing to suggest:
The problem is that our youth and adult players see themselves as players and not designers… unless they’re motivated to get on the business end… they will continue to be portrayed in a negative light and also miss out on a ten billion dollar a year industry...
With a more representative industry, including minorities and minority points of view from people of color, women, gays and lesbians, those with different faiths and nationalities, one would think we'd temper somewhat the content of future games. Or at least include a subset of voices with a personal stake in a more positive representation of minorities in games:
We know that children need to see people like themselves in the media. It makes them feel that people of their race are important, it gives them role models, and it tells kids that people of different backgrounds are … valuable.
His research may be specious, but there's no denying the huge supply of blatantly stereotyped ethnic "stock" characters that can be found across the gaming world, which vastly outnumber original, authentic, and responsible characters of color. I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg, and I've no illusion that I've covered even a sampling of all the relevant viewpoints, but I do think it's a question worth asking and a discussion worth having.
What do you think?
The Bad News and Good News of Obsessive Video Games Part 1 [BlackVoiceNews]
Writer Criticizes Perceived Racial Stereotyping in Games [GamePolitics]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 21 February 2007
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: black voice news, minorities, racial stereotyping, racism, richard o jones
If they can get more minority representation in the industry I think its a great thing. If they had more presence in gaming stuff like Viva Pinata might never have happened, but I'm not sure that's a minus. I think however that if you look at other entertainment, movies in particular which in turn take a view from reality, then you'll see why you see these minorities in these roles. Is it a good thing to be portraying to kids? That's another question. I'm pretty sure though that crossing stereotypes and portraying a homicidal Soccer Mom giving her victim some "Hot Coffee" before she blows his head off with a shotgun would be a little more damaging to someone's psyche than showing,say, a hiphop corner boy trying to knife the player character for stealing his stash. You can bet it would get a lot more media coverage as well.
I wouldn't mind seeing more minority protagonists in games other than NBA licensed materials or at least the option to customize the main characters as such without having to select stereotypical "looks" (Although seeing Foxy Brown in Dead Rising could be fun.)
The current state probably reflects the industry's perception of the majority audience of these games - the gamers buying the games and playing them.
Heh. I explained what I was writing to my next door neighbor - a mother who is dealing with a 13 year old immersed in hip-hop culture. She wanted me to point out "It's all cowboys and indians."