Racial Issues Alleged In GTA San Andreas, Other Games

Thanks to the New York Times (free reg. req.) for its article exploring possible racial stereotyping inherent in many videogames. The article alleges: "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas... underscores what some critics consider a disturbing trend: popular video games that play on racial stereotypes, including images of black youths committing and reveling in violent street crime." Partially, though not wholly related to a recently discussed article on 'street' videogames, it's also argued: "The issue, critics say, is not that the games' representation of racial and ethnic minorities is as blatantly threatening as the sort found at hate sites on the Web, where players are asked to gun down virtual black or Jewish characters. Rather, the racial and ethnic depictions and story lines are more subtle, and therefore, some say, more insidious."

Terrible, terrible distortion of reality

[iainl]

Don't these people at DMA know that LA gangs of the early nineties were uniformly white?

Oh. Never mind.

Goddamn whities.

[Anonymous Coward]

Always busy bitching about crap and not taking any action. In fact, I'm going to write a game where you're white and all you can do it bitch about stuff. Someone mugs you? You can start a commitee and bitch about it with other whities. Someone kicks your dog? You can start a commitee and bitch about it with other whities. Someone nuked your backyard with an old russian ICBM? You can start a commitee and bitch about it with other whities.

Ps, I'm white; Seth

Re:Terrible, terrible distortion of reality

[illuminata]

I'm guessing that the whites in LA would have formed gangs, but they were probably afraid of being called racist.

Re:Hollywood movies are worse at stereotyping

[BlueCup]

Schindlers List. =D

Re:Whatever.

[slungsolow]

They've been making hockey games for years. I haven't heard a black person complain about that yet.

Affirmative Action

[Detritus]

What we need is federal affirmative action programs for criminal street gangs. If we can't bust them for illegal weapons or dope, we can smother them with greedy lawyers.

Re:bahahahaha *choke* hahahaha *wheeze*

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't people put pressure on these groups who are actually committing violence?

Because they have guns.

dude...

[WormholeFiend]

"Redneck" is not the preferred nomenclature. "Southern-US American", please.

Only in videogames...

[trueneutral]

I'm just glad that movies and television don't have racial steriotypes. It's good to see that every other form of media has progressed beyond that.

Offtopic Controversy Thought

[Thedalek]

You know, at some point, someone needs to make a game in which you play as a video game company constantly battling a never-ending hoarde of lawyers who thrive on nitpicking every detail of everything you do.

"The buildings in your latest game are not wheelchair accessable. You've been sued."

"The color of the sky in your latest game has been found to give 5% of the population mild headaches after 20 continuous hours of exposure. You've been sued."

"Your latest game unjustly depicts people with red skin, sharp, pointy teeth, horns, and cloven hooves as sinister. You've been sued."

Seriously, the only gaming company that seems to get in more hot water than Rockstar is Infinium Labs.

Racist?

[Bizzle]

I'm not racist, I got a color TV!

Re:bahahahaha *choke* hahahaha *wheeze*

[joper90]

Guns don't kill people ... w'rappers do.. -GLC