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Racial Issues Alleged In GTA San Andreas, Other Games

Posted by simoniker on from the allegedly dept.

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."

3 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Let's ban ghettos! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    I wouldn't mind. There'd be a lot less stolen DVD players.

  2. USofAns by hummassa · · Score: 0, Troll

    are vastly more affected because they don't really mingle (as a rule, with exceptions).

    Point in case: me.

    My grand-grandparents are of the following origins: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, South American Native, Black, Middle Eastern (Nobody [currently alive] knows if she was Jew or Arab), and Oriental.

    How can I be a bigot? Whatever your race is, I certainly can feel related. Many Brazilians are in the same condition as I am, maybe I am more conscious (having done some extensive genealogic research) of my multi-ethnicity. When filling forms with "race/ethnicity", I usually seek for the "all of the above" option... :-)

    But USofAns, more than European people, apparently segregate much more deeply, by race, by religion, etc. They don't seem to intermarry as commonly as down here.

    What appalled me in your link was the fact that this woman *is* in fact intermarried with a white guy and she fears and have nightmares with black folks. This is a sign IMHO that *she* has serious problems.

    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
  3. What are they complaining about? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The complainers are just reinforcing the impression that most black people are a stupid bunch of whingers who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions (which is probably why there are so many single parent black mothers - black males aren't man enough to take care of their children - or are stupid enough to keep shooting each other dead).

    The stereotype is there for a reason - because there are tons of black people doing that sort of stuff.

    It's already a been a few generations of blacks after the US official racism thing. It's more the black man keeping the black man down than anything. Look at the glorification of the "gangsta" culture by the blacks.

    Any black that tries to make it legit in gets accused of trying to be white. Any black that says the blacks are getting it wrong, gets criticized. Isn't that counterproductive?

    Sure there is racial (and gender) discrimination, but many other minorities (indians, chinese, japanese) are doing a lot better than the blacks. So my conclusion is that the US blacks are to blame for most of their own problems.

    The carribean blacks appear to be a bit different, so it's probably the gangsta black culture which sucks.

    Sure I'm racist. I'd discriminate against gansgsta blacks anytime.