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African Americans and the Video Game Industry

Posted by kdawson on from the in-the-game-but-not-of-the-game dept.

An anonymous reader writes "African Americans spend more money and time playing video games than whites, yet only 2% of game developers are black. This past week, MTV's Multiplayer blog interviewed five black game industry professionals for their perspective on race in the industry. Intelligent Gamer summarizes and highlights portions of this lengthy series of interviews."

3 of 646 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Who cares? by Ardeaem · · Score: 0, Troll

    I never knew there had to be any specific percentage of "African-Americans" participating in any activity. Anytime you have such a huge deviation from statistical independence, it begs to be explained. Maybe YOU aren't interested in the causes, but there are many people who are. Historically, there have been similar deviations from statistical independence, caused by things like slavery, other violations of civil rights, or simply geographically inequitable distributions of resources. Some people find it interesting to study the lingering effects of these violations of equity. This sounds like a classic example.

    Just because YOU aren't interested, doesn't mean that other people aren't.

    And yes, "African-American" is a downright stupid appellation. Can you call a black child born in Denmark "African-American"? Well, maybe it is, but it is a whole lot better than what black people used to be called. I wonder why it matters so much to you?
  2. Re:Who cares? by jmpeax · · Score: 0, Troll

    You miss the point: it's not about how people identify themselves, but how others identify them. You admit it in your post - "it's a stupid politically correct catch-phrase invented by whites" - the point being that it is widely used.

    I'm saying this is indicative of deep-seated prejudice.

    --
    Amnesty International
  3. It's a racist industry by gamer4Life · · Score: 1, Troll

    Not only that, but white male protagonists abound in almost all games. Blacks are significantly under-represented even though they play a significant percentage. There are many Asian people that play and program as well, and they are significantly under-represented in videogames.

    Are white people more racist that they can't play anything else other than a white man?

    Well going online only affirms the assumption that white people are more racist - not genetically of course, but we live in a society that accepts white people as the center of the world. Nothing in the world happens without a white man.

    (You can see this in movies and TV shows too - how many blacks/asians did you see in NYC in Seinfeld or Sex in the City?)