Unfortunately, there are several examples where violence against Black people and POC are represented in the media, used as a signifier, and seen as entertainment. The primary example that comes to mind is this violent representation in video games, namely, the Grand Theft Auto series. While this is not the sole video game or media representation that demonstrates this blatant disrespect towards POC, this is a great example to take a look at.
Throughout the series’ long run, it seems to target characters who are POC unfairly. While these games attempt to demonstrate real-life issues that many inner-city POC have, it pretty much only allows for white people to satiate their curiosity about what it would be like to live in that situation. This game, like many others, are used to satiate middle to upper-class white folk for entertainment purposes only.
For something like this to actually work for the (hopefully) intended purpose of educating people on what life is truly like for people living in areas like the ones depicted in GTA, there needs to be another educational aspect to it, not the allowance of constant police brutality because it is “fun”.
A lot of these games may be triggering for people who have truly experienced the violence in this game, but people still play it anyways. The people who do play games like these are ignoring the fact that situations like these happen daily for others and disrespecting that fact.
There is no doubt that this contemporary institutional violence against POC is connected to colonialism and transatlantic slavery. Those times were filled with rage, hate, and disrespect towards POC enough to the point that people thought owning another person was okay because of the way they looked and where they came from. This disrespect for POC has clearly carried over to today’s day and age because we still see the hate and lack of respect in so many more ways, especially through the media. While people do not perform violence against POC in the ways they did in the transatlantic slave era, violence can be observed in so many more ways.
