Black Voice News: games make Blacks and Latinos into villains
- February 21, 2007 19:27 PM PST
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Blogger calls for more minority involvement in the multi-billion dollar industry.
By Eugene Huang
In the blog section of the Black Voice News, contributing writer Richard O. Jones expressed his opinion that a disproportionate number of Black and Latino characters are consistently portrayed as villains in modern video games. Jones attributes this to the sharp imbalance between the number of minorities who play video games and the number of minorities who work in the industry to create them.
"We're seeing, to a large extent, that the games that are being designed unconsciously include the biases, opinions and reflections of their creators," Jones writes. "And obviously, Whites see Blacks and Latinos as criminals and gradually that's how our children see themselves and behave according."
The writer's claims are backed by Kansas State University psychologist John Murray, who states, "If Blacks and Latinos are always portrayed as the villains, or as the victims who get killed often and easily, that is code for powerlessness. These image[s] persist because too few minorities are in the industry."
According to preliminary figures from a survey conducted by the International Game Developers Association, roughly 80% of video game programmers are White, four percent of designers are Latino, and less than three percent are Black. However, in contrast, figures from a 2006 study claim that Black youths between the ages of 8 and 18 play video and computer games for about 90 minutes per day, which is a full half hour more than their White counterparts. Jones believes that Black youths should get more involved in the game development process, especially since they stand be the most negatively affected by offensive stereotypes due to their higher statistical playing time.
Jones concludes by stating that he believes that money is the main driving force behind video games, not inherent biases within developers or discrimination within the industry.
"The problem," he says, "is that our youth and adult players see themselves as players and not designers or illustrators. Therefore unless they're motivated to get on the business end versus the player end of the video game phenomenon they will continue to be portrayed in a negative light and also miss out on a ten billion dollar a year industry."
