February 16, 2007 -
In Black Voice News, writer and comedian Richard O. Jones (left) lays out his concerns about what he sees as racial stereotyping in video games. Says Jones:Negative video games reinforce poor self-images in Black youth... In the popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, players assume the lead character of Carl Johnson, a down-on-his-luck Black criminal who roams city streets stealing cars and helping gang members knock off rivals in drive-by shootings...
Jones includes comments from John Murray, a psychologist at Kansas State University:
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, about four percent of designers are Latino, and less than three percent are Black...
Despite his misgivings about possible bias, Jones hopes to see African-Americans achieve greater representation on the business side of games:
The video game industry is all about money. No one really cares about your skin color or gender if you are a well-trained video game designer... 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
In part two of his article, Jones offers comments from Eileen Espejo of Children Now's Children and the Media Program:
African American females were far more likely to be victims of violence. And African American characters in general were least likely to respond to pain. It's not representative of the world we live in. 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.
Comments
First I am a young (18) yr old black man.
I have lived in about 3 of America's top 25 most violent cities.
Just so you get a picture i'm from Los Angeles, lived in Hartford, CT, and Newark, NJ.
Currently I live right between Philladelphia, Trenton, NJ and Camden, NJ (rated the most dangerous city in America)
I'm not even going to argue this mans right of freedom of speech but if you are going to point fingers I suggest you goto those cities portrayed from Rockstar and try to make a change. The game was based on real life events that happen in these cities everyday. I myself was happy to see a black man in GTA because it is important to show some struggles that people go through in these type of cities. The game is based on crime point blank but, pretending you don't think of the Black and Latino community being brought up in your mind when you think of the subject is what I would define a ignorant individual. John Murry living in Kansas obviously not trying to make a change on what your complaining about I would like to let you know that you are a clown.
What does he want anyway? Taking all Blacks out of games? Hell no; he complains "80% of game developers are White" and that
"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."
(I've got news for you, more than 80% of people in game-developing countries are White.) How about we put them in more? Hell no; it would be "portraying violent stereotypes about Blacks."
GTA: San Andreas is mostly played by White people, and they don't have a problem with it, so why should Black people have a problem playing as a White character?
Also, there is NO REASON a kid of one race should not be able to use an adult of another race as a role model. That's an extremely racist notion. He's just stirring up attention and trouble.
I don't think anyone mentioned this. Master Chief is a male of unknown race. He is incredibly pale from the amount of time spent in his armor. The main reason we will never see his face is a plot device and it creates that ambiguity.
Then of course the reaction will be that this is an atrocity to the rece. Do not depict us in such light.
the list can go on.
Black person with russian sterotype
white person from rural africa
Middle easterns as the dominate race and controlling the governent.
asian as the idiot buffoons that cant commit there crimes of terror.
polynesias as the nerds that cant get a date.
Native americans as the ones that dont care about nature. Ie they burn everything down and cause pollution
yeah what the criticism fly when they step out of racial sterotypes.
when u deal with race it is a losing battle. some one will get offended.
and it doesnt matter what race is making the game. hell I bet dave chappelle offend black people.
Saint's Row-gang members
FF7 ( cussed every other word, but was a good father)
Cole from GoW( many stereotypes)
Any black preson in a street fighter game.
"Therefore, since Blacks are the most obsessive players it stands to reason that Blacks are the most negatively effected."
Presuming, of course, that videogames negatively effect anyone. Which has not been proven at all by any medical studies, let alone proven conclusively Likewise, would anyone care to guess at the numbers for asians playing videogames? Especially Korean or Japanese youth? I'm willing to bet it beats that 90-minutes a day record stone cold.
" I remember seeing young men sleeping outside of stores in order to assure that they didn't miss an opportunity to purchase a new upgraded versus of some type of video game player or entertainment center."
Err, what? I remember people sleeping outside of stores in order to secure a PS3 or a Nintendo Wii at launch, but not a "new upgraded versus of some type of video game player". That sounds like a poorly done mad lib.
"there would be as many Black millionaire video game designers and illustrators as there is athletes and music artists"
All I can think of is... dude. I doubt there are that many millionaire game designers and illustrators in the industry to come up with those sorts of numbers. Quite a few NBA and NFL players pull in enough to qualify for this (let alone all the successful rappers and R&B singers), so seriously, there's no way this is happening. You could take race totally out of the video game side of that equation and still be dead wrong.
"Parents and wives should redirect the video players of their household into thinking about being trained to earn money from their passion. They could also be the force that stops the negative images of Blacks and women in video games."
This presumes it's a passion, and not just a way of passing the time. I like video games quite a bit, but the temperment to program one, or creature the artwork for one, is entirely seperate from the temperment to enjoy one.
"Presently, the video game industry in dominated by White educated males earning a six-figure income off grown men like my Black adult male relatives sitting at home playing with another player in another state."
Emphasis mine. Someone needs to write this guy and point out the whole scandal with EA's employees.
Most programmers are lucky if they pull in mid to high five figure incomes from programming and art. Major industry figures like project leads might top out in the low six figures, but they're the exception to the rule. Likewise, top-level executives within a game publishing house might pull in large amounts of money, but that's a business-related job which won't have anything to do with knowing how to create a game.
Yeah, a development house might start up and get lucky. Someone might program the next great online puzzler in his spare time at home and strike it rich. However, the majority of the workers in the field of videogame creation are just like workers anywhere. They've got a job they do their work at to earn their living. It's no more glamorous and high-paying than working in business administration.
Russel Simmons actually makes a few mobile games too now that I think about it.
80% of comedians fail to do research before they write something down. Also, I didn't laugh once, I would say "Don't quit your dayjob" but he already has....O.o
When dealing with the topic of race your going to offend someone. No matter how hard you try not to offend someone with racial issues people will take offense.
When its 2 races of the same color the color that are lefted out will say they are not represented.
When its 1 race vs another race they will say the race was not portrayed correctly.
Therefore I have learned when arguing about race/sterotypes its important not to argue about how the races/sterotypes are portrayed but the in pattern of how they are portrayed. The question should be, have the portrails changed over time? or did they not? and Why. I do not see that in his arguement. I see his arguement as being only related to GTA: San Andreas and then generalized using that. He needs more evidence and better examples. And when arguing this point he needs to provide examples that he says were justicely done or what he would like to see, because right now it appears as an arguement just to argue.
Take middle easterns for example they were usually viewed as terrorist but before 9/11 there were usually considered to be bumbling idiots that could not commit there acts of terror and often associated with humor. (see Back to the Future, True Lies, Hot Shots, etc). But after 9/11 they are now portrayed as evil cynical villians and now are associated with drama shows rather than comedy. They are few that are usually portrayed as struggling with the pressures of living in post 9/11 seen as trying to do the right thing. And now the question is why? what caused the change? (take a guess). (notice this arguement is not about how they are represented but on why their representation has changed)
I should also note I remember in one of classes watching a show where everything is done by black people and they dealt with the topic of gender segregation and at the conclusion was to have women access some of the time. Then the question was the show trying to communicate about segregation? (of course it one of those questions with no answer)
When dealing with sterotypes, are the sterotypes being portrayed are extremely different from the facts.
For example when dealing with a geographical sterotypes, a tv show portrays all people from the south as rednecks and says thats reality then is an arguement.
GTA does not claim that all Black people act like they are portrayed but I do know some TV shows that proclaim what they show is the truth when they are far from it.
I hope that made sense.
You are black, your enemies can be black (as well as other races) if this is racial then you are an idiot, because after all if it was blacks versus whites (or any other single race) you would undoubtedly call that racial as well, not only that but the vargos are far from helpless in the gang they pack a punch and are the toughest gang (out of three). Besides there are hundreds of games where you plow down white people in the hundreds mark (if there are guard they are usually white and easily subdued).
The video game industry is all about money. No one really cares about your skin color or gender if you are a well-trained video game designer.
Why are you complaining about this? Do you want preferiental treatment because of your race? Considering that your ancestors fought to rid the world of this isn't this disgraceful to your race (and racist might I add)?
Again sorry for the mix-up.
Whoa.
Can we stop well short of comparing Mr. Jones to Dr. King? Seriously. Dr. King put some thought and research into the messages he was putting out there. Mr. Jones, as evidenced by the thin research content of his comment has not.
Dr. King had a dream. Mr. Jones had a tantrum.
There's a bunch of schools of thought on that, cross sectioned over socio-economics and generational ideas. A similar debate happened prominently over the The Cosby Show when i was younger. One group of voices finds they don't identify with or find realistic two working parents in high income jobs (Cosby was a Doctor, his wife a lawyer, in a household of 5 children ranging in age from elementary school to college graduate). The other group found the imagery very important to push to the world at large. One could draw a stereotype that older minorities don't want any negative images portayed at all, while younger generations want to "keep it real", in the sense that negative images should not be hidden or underplayed at the expense of optimistic positivity.
There's a middle ground in there somewhere that hasn't quite solidified itself as a significant and persistant voice, I feel.
Personally, I find it humorous that this guy conviniently forgets about Asians, because many of the industry jobs I've worked at have had tons of them in every level of the company, from entry-level to top management. Seems pretty diverse to me- perhaps the outhor is simply saying it's not diverse enough in his race's favor?
That was what I thought, but I keep seeing articles that suggest that minorities want to see representations of both their cultures and skin colours in games. I was asking mostly because I have no idea if that's how most non-white gamers actually feel or if it's just the opinion of a few talking heads.
On the topic of female characters, I will admit that I tend to prefer the badass and/or androgynous gals of gaming, but I've seen plenty of other female gamers identify more with Peach.
IMHO, yes and no. On the one hand, I agree there is quite a bit of 'dumpy white guys hire dumpy white guys' syndrome.
On the other hand, the numbers are kinda against minorities. In my dept, we have 1 black male, 2-3 white females, and around 400 white males. Put everyone on standard distribution of skill and the top 5% are probably going to be white males. So when this group goes out into the workplace, the bulk of the highly desired positions will generally go to white males. It isn't that they are superior, or that anyone else is lesser, or that the recruiters are choosing based off sex/race, but that pure numbers are going to push the curve that way. It is also important to remember that while those few minorities do not get those top positions, neither do the other 390 white males. It is also true that if any of the small groups _are_ kick-ass, they will get those top slots too.
Though I'll admit they will have that additional barrier mentioned in the first line. I guess what I'm getting at is I find that the second issue is a larger barrier then the perceived effect of the first one.
Same happens in the game industry.... sure, there are plenty of well qualified people of any given race or gender, but for each of those peeps there are 10 just as qualified dumpy white guys. Put all these people on a curve and statistically the top few are going to be dumpy white guys.
Unfortunately the only way to ultimate correct this is getting a better cross section in the job pool in the first place, which means getting people interested in these fields at a younger age and get those college numbers up. (I actually used to help in a program who's goal was just that)
Samus Aran. That's what I'm getting at. There's nothing in the course of playing Metroid, aside from ending "goodies" that makes it relevant that Samus is a female. But its the coolest thing, because, when you do your lists of female heroes in gaming, you can put her on the list, and say that she's a badass, where badassery is not a conventionally positive attribute assigned to women.
Like that.
@Hannah
I'll use this example: I don't know a thing about Alan Wake, aside from that its a mystery game and it looks real pretty. If you reskinned Alan Wake as a black male, and had him as a brooding noir type character, that to me is a step in the right direction.
If the main character from Indigo Prophecy was black, that would be a step in the right direction.
If Master Chief lifted hiis visor, and had dark skin, that would be a step in the right direction.
The character doesn't even have to attempt to represent a sense of racial awareness. Ideally, I'd like to see more prominent characters of color that are not tied to their cultural truths and stereotypes. In so much that the appearance of a person that can be assigned even some basic physical attribute in comparison to any young person of color, this appearance is a good thing. Better even so if that image isn't stereotypical.
Though stereotypes are based in reality, a realistic character does not need to be defined by stereotypes. Gordon Freeman is no less real because he doesn't touch on his religious values, cultural cuisine, favorite leisure activities, or his ability or inability to "bust-a-move". He's interesting either because he's a complex enough character to carry a FPS (hard right?), or he's a guy in a messed up situation and that's good enough.
Ok, Bad example. I didn't get very far in Morrowind before I lost interest. However, in my defense I did go to the Elder Scrolls site and IGN and looked at the screenshots and the only humans I saw were white. My mistake.
Regarding the 80% of developers being white, that has to be in North America. With Japan and Korea cranking out so many games there is no way that the 80% figure can include them.
The 80% whites figure does seem a little high, however. I can only assume they aren't taking into account Japan or South Korea.
As for why blacks don't often appear in games, I think this might be an example of art imitating life. If the designers never see black people in roles other than that of the stereotypical gangster (eg. if they live in areas with low black populations or high rates of poverty, as an awful lot of game developers do), they're less likely to consider a black character unless they're consciously trying to be inclusive. Unfortunately, if this is the case, I'm not sure what the solution is...
And considering their economic position (avg. household income of 1/2 that of whites and asians), I'd wager that black and hispanic gamers consitute far less than 25% of the gaming market. So what incentive do developers have to appeal to minority gamers considering they account for such a small portion of the market?
And you want to know why there aren't more black and hispanic game developers? Because when you compound their fractional portion of the population with their low college attendance and graduation rate (17% for blacks, 11% hispanics), you get a very small number of people who are capable of working in the industry.
It's very simple. Blacks and hispanics need to significantly change culturally and become a larger portion of the market if they expect to be more prominently represented in games and represented differently than they are now.
>>
And his purpose is certainly not to say that video games are evil or racist : even though he says (and unfortunately, it's partially true), he considers video games as an art. As he says : "games are an expressive medium. They are an art form, just like movies, theater and literature." More important : he doesn't call to video game legislation or ban, instead he calls black people to create games themselves.
So I find his article much more interesting and open-minded than the positions of many media activists and politicians who would just say "waaah, waaah, video games are racist, the industry is evil, protect our children, boycott, ban, legislate, etc. etc."
Fiddy being in a game i ngeneral makes it vcrappy. Hell, I hate 50 cent already. he owns a diamond covered Mercedes, he is no longer "gangsta."
I went to the source and read the articles. Sadly, the criticisms are thin. It boils down to Mr. Jones saying "What they need to be doing is making them, not playing them!".
Its a criticism that goes back to as far as I can remember. Black atheletes should be coaches, black performers should be producers, black workers should be managers. Its been said so often as a criticism, but there's rarely been anyone actively working on a paradigm shift for the black American culture (which in itself, is a difficult and vague entity to define. Is black culture seperate from poor culture? Is separating from poor culture still considered being too "white" to relate?)
Again, I'm glad someone is talking about the direction of Black images in games. But at this point, we've heard this, beyond being able to appreciate it.
What *I* want now is for some one to speak informedly and intelligently about games and black people. If Jack Thompson has done one thing right, it was his attempt to get someone to sit down and actually play a game before making a judgment of it. The media in general has played the blanket "Games are bad" card to its limit. Its like if everyone summarized the Godfather serious as "Some Italian guys killed each other." This complete disregard of the talent and craft of creation keeps us stifled from creative/artistic expansion as an American and Black American culture.
Why aren't there more main characters in games who aren't white men?
The reason why people don't get upset when white people are shown as bad guys is because almost without exception in those cases the hero is also white. How often are both the heroes and the villains black or hispanic? Even if that isn't the case for every white villain there are a dozen white heroes. Moreover, how often is the white villain given a German or Russian accent? (While there are tons of games where you fight Middle Eastern terrorists, have there been any where you have to fight white militias?)
Take Elder Scrolls for example. It is a made up world, but are there any humans in the game who aren't white? (I don't know I've not played Oblivion either. Morrowind bored me. However, the screenshots I've seen don't show any). It isn't as if it is supposed to be taking place in Europe, so why does everyone seem to be white?
No people who are "black" in morrowind or oblivion? Your shitting me right? Redguards? Typically they were =gasp= black. The leader of one of the mages guilds was black.
And guess what there were white, black, argonian, dark elf, high elf, wood elf, redguard, nords, and human bandits.
Redguards made pretty good mages to.
Then again it could just be the fact that both the areas were culturally dominated by the imperial and the nords who happen to like pushing other cultures out and forcing imperial values on them.
Maybe if you had played the game you would have discovered the story line dedicated to the in game slave trade and its effects on morrowind. The game also looks at the internal struggle native cultures have while fighting to keep their identity and surviving in a place dominated by a much more powerful imperial military.
See exactly!!!!
I had no idea about that, because I never played Morrowind. I'm certain that Mr. Jones a) Doesn't know what a Morrowind is b) had no idea that a dark skinned character, or even a culture, had been cast in a role where intellgence and wisdom are key attributes.
Come to think about it, what about the Erudites from EQ? I didn't play extensively, but I remember a portion of them, if not all, being dark skinned.
Bah. This topic makes me very hot. but alas, I have to work. (in the game industry, btw)
Indeed, I plan to write him a nice letter pretty soon.
And once again, I maintain that although he was a bit misguided, his article was much more open-minded and interesting than usual anti-game rants, who would have say "video games are racist". Remember "Border Patrol" and Louisiana bill ?
Lol, it's because in the first few you were fighting ex-east-germans... ;)
I forgot to mention in my previous comment that MTV, VH1, and BET deserve more blame for perpetuating the "it's cool to be thug life" image than any video game.
So who does he want to be the bad guys in games? White people? Are we then supposed to be outraged because we're being stereotyped as the bad guys?
No. Because it's retarded to bring race into this kind of discussion.