Violence against Black people is represented in media and is used as a signifier, and seen as entertainment. It is not entertainment and it plays into the stereotypes that people have about Black people and that is problematic to find joy in others standing in society.
In the reading Grand Theft Auto:V Post Racial Fantasies And Freguson Realities discusses society’s sick fascination with seeing injustices against black people as fun and games that is harmless. Leonard goes on to discussed RockStars games in relation to race. That Grand Theft Auto games have marginalized characters that depict real life social injustices that black people face on a daily bases when dealing with police. There is a level of detachment and denial within White America about racism. For example Leonard articulated that “RockStar released a game that has been defined as ” ghettocentric games”, where White kids can fulfill their insatiable desires to become Black, to experience the danger of “ghetto life.” Pg 130 This just another way to devaluing Black life. These games traffic in anti-black stereotypes which creates a world of finding pleasure in black death, sexual violence, that rips inner city communities. That is not entertainment. One of the characters in Grand Theft Auto is black marginalized in the game compare to the other characters. Every time he comes into contact with police just walking by he gets shot. I find it funny that the company denies that there is bias in the game when quite clearly they are using real life situations that involve black people. “The nature of race in the 21st century America (and its entrenched racism and sexism) is on full display here. GTA:V anf the entire Grand Theft Auto franchise, alongside of the video game industry as a whole, has relied on hegemonic anti-Black stereotypes as the anchor of its virtual playgrounds. According to Lisa Nakamura (2002), new media, with its circulation of “cybertypes,” “propagates, disseminates, and commodifies images of race and racism” (p.3). White pleasure derived from the dehumanization of black bodies and spaces put into video games to make a profit.
Despite the fact that video games are not real games like Grand Theft Auto depict real life instances of social injustices. Its hard not to think that these games are not being connected to the affirming of White privilege. Especially when you look at the depictions of race and gender. Even the women are depicted as hypersexualized skanks that black women are not humans but sexual play toys. Sexism and racism is rife in the gamer community and these games justifies that community’s stereotyped views about black people. Denial of racism from companies that produce these games is just as loud as it is in the real world rejecting it with the notion of playing the “Race Card.”
Sources cited: Leonard , D. J. (n.d.). Grand Theft Auto V: Post Racial Fantasies And Ferguson Realities. In The intersectional Internet: race, sex, class and culture online (Vol. 105 , pp. 130–142). Noble & Tynes EDS.
