The Corruption Of Blacks In Video Game Stereotyping

Some people think that video games are harmless, but some researchers would disagree. Melinda Burgess et al. writes in “Playing with Prejudice: The Prevalence and Consequences of Racial Stereotypes in Video Games,” that women are gender stereotyped and treated as sexual objects in video games today, which affects how male video gamers and society treat women. There are many ways video games use women to attract video gamers, sexuality being a big one. I will argue that Burgess’ claim is true because often male video gamers who play sexually-oriented video games are rewarded for objectifying women and have been shown to treat women as objects and harass them in real life.

As video games become more and more popular, we will inevitably see an increase in amount of video games being produced. The growth in popularity of video games is facilitated by the creation of a website known as Twitch.com. This website allows gamers and content creators to stream themselves playing video games online and interact directly with a live audience via chat. This new platform makes gaming both more accessible and more acceptable. The social stigmas that accompany video games are diminishing; in fact there has been an increase in competitive electronic sports as well. Logically, the growing interest in video games encourages programmers to make more and more games. Melinda Burgess et al presents an interesting perspective about video games. She explores the prevalence of racial stereotypes and how their effects are detrimental to society as a whole. In Burgess’s essay, “Playing with Prejudice: The Prevalence and Consequences of Racial Stereotypes in Video Games”, she provides fantastic commentary on how top selling video games show “overt racial stereotyping” (Lunsford et al 551) and negatively affect how we think. By providing statistics and data about the videogames that she is critiquing, she effectively shows that there is may be a correlation between video games and how we think and interact with the world around us.

Video games are progressively becoming a crucial medium today, despite the light connotation of its initial categorization. Today they are a business that produces billions of dollars and employs engineers and artists alike in an art form connecting interactive games, to virtual societies where millions of people dwell. However, like all human products, our same emotion, flaws and injustice show in the games, with the impression of hatred, racism and stereotypes that are our everyday background. What are the creators of these video games real intentions in the desire they produce in the human?

From my understanding, the central message of this article is to help people understand that video games don’t play a major role in youth violence. My position as a member of the audience is neutral. I believe the author of this article was trying to reach a resistant audience. The reason why I concluded this, was because each subtitle is a negative statement about video games. The content below the subtitle then disproved the statement to be true. For example, one subtitle reads, “Children are the primary market for video games”, (Jenkins). A statistic from the passage beneath reads, “Already 62 percent of the console market and 66 percent of the PC market is age 18 or older”, (Jenkins). The text used a logos appeal, I can tell because the

Gender disparity in video games is a topic that both scholars and major gaming icons have discussed before. However, the topic recently resurfaced with the upsurging population of female gamers. The integration of females was a spectacle that caused a massive culture shock. Many members of the gaming community were unsure how to handle the change and took to discriminating females. While discrimination may seem unimportant, many scholars and icons believe it is a prominent factor of gender disparity: an environment which typically favors males, a hostile or “toxic” atmosphere, and repeated stereotypes all manifest certain behaviors of both genders that can cause a disparity to grow. Although some sources claim gender disparity is evident in gaming as a whole, others insist the novelty of female discrimination in video games is less prominent due to a more leveled percentage of male-to-females in gaming. However, both agreed that the competitive gaming community is a different story. Time and time again the competitive gaming community was mentioned for its exclusion of women due to biased and misogynistic members who sexualize and degrade females. These members believe women are inferiors that encroach on their territory with unskilled and seductive natures. Therefore, for the females in the gaming community, their actions will shape the future of women in the competitive gaming community. The change in female treatment is detrimental to gender disparity. Not only because

The sociological interpretations of video games are almost as numerous as the games themselves, and like many aspects of our society can be harmful or beneficial depending on how they are utilized by an

Video games are generally played for amusement and entertainment; also, they can go about as a support in mitigating anxiety. Because of progressing innovation, feature diversions have developed and developed into an expansive realm affecting those inside this domain. Consequently numerous moral issues are brought to our consideration because of this improvement. Subsequently, we ought to distinguish how new feature recreations are morally influencing individuals who play them. The moral issues of feature gaming that impacts numerous individuals incorporate: viciousness, rating, training, stereotyping against ladies, group and enslavement. Eventually, every point is connected to brutality included in feature recreations. It is

Stereotypes are defined as an oversimplified image or idea about a specific type of person. It is believed that stereotypes about African Americans began in the United States around the 18th century. Anti-Black stereotypes arguably the most developed racist stereotypes in racial framing and have been used as foundations for the capture, enslavement, and later, the subjugation of African American people. Stating that stereotypes are just a joke is an understatement of the consequential after – math racial images and stereotypes have on the African American population. Even stereotypes that are considered positive are often concealed with negative implications and reasons as to why they exist. Most people may think they only hold stereotypes in the back of their head, but studies show that people are more likely to fall back on them in making judgments when they feel challenged, face uncertainty, or experience sensory overload. Using information from class, comparisons from the films we have watched and Ed Guerrero’s Framing Blackness, this paper will analyze the stereotypes in the television show Empire.

Researchers regularly research the media’s influence on race perception, but rarely examine one specific form: video games. Unlike formats such as television and newspapers, video games provide an interactive platform for users to live in an alternative world and perform acts considered socially wrong in real societies (Burgess et al). This form of virtual simulation can reinforce how one perceives stereotypes at higher rates. Not only do the majority of these games feature white protagonists, but also task them to defeat ethnically-ambiguous enemies. Currently, the most popular genre is shooter games set in the Middle East, where the

The media sets the tone for the morals, values, and images of our culture. Many people in this country, some of whom have never encountered black people, believe that the degrading stereotypes of blacks are based on reality and not fiction. Everything they believe about blacks is determined by what they see on television. After over a century of movie making, these horrible stereotypes continue to plague us today, and until negative images of blacks are extinguished from the media, blacks will be regarded as second-class

In relation to violent video games, in the Black community, the same violence that’s shown in some games is currently happening in real life. Video game violence can be influenced by violent games and can be the cause of violence happening in most Black communities. Some games show rage and anger which can cause them to act that way in real life. In the article, “Background Of The Issue”, Writers from ProCon, claim that, “Critics of violent video games argue that playing violent games desensitize players to real life violence and is responsible for the increasing rates of bullying”. Gamers who play these games are becoming more and more desensitized by being exposed to what’s shown in violent video games such as, fighting, bullying, disrespecting

Throughout the history of motion pictures, prejudice directors have used film to control how the general public views certain demographics of people. In particular, the black community has historically been viewed in a negative light. Stereotypes were created through literature and film that still affect African Americans. Directors and writers would create relatable stories and attach demeaning traits to black people that have qualities in common with Black Americans. This would force readers and viewers to subconsciously attach these stereotypes black people. Examples of these stereotypes can be found in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Birth of a Nation. Derogatory terms such as “Bucks,” “Toms,” “Coons,” and “Mulattos”, have put African

Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The story represents festering racial strains between a group of African-Americans and the middle-aged, Italian-American patriarch of a local pizzeria call the "Sal's Famous Pizzeria." As the scorching hot summer day is about to end, a fight blows up between local colored youths led by "Radio" Raheem and Sal. Pushed to the edge by Raheem's radio flares, Sal explodes into a venomous rage sated with racial tirade, which closes with his crushing of Raheem's stereo system. Consequently, a fight erupts and numerous other associates get involved in the whole fiasco. In the middle of escalating riot in the vicinity, Raheem is killed by the NYPD, who choke him with a baton in a scene that is dissonantly redolent of a lynching. The police officers finally run away from the scene with Raheem's body in haul, leaving the community behind to mourn and condemn the unfairness of this murder by the NYPD and the numerous others that were killed in a similar fashion before Radio Raheem. In an act of rebelliousness, Mookie, the pizzeria's only black employee, throws a trash can through the pizzeria window, leading to the sweltering demolition of Sal's bread and butter.

The portrayal of Black people in the media combined with colorism creates stereotypes that allow for inequality to continue. “It is common saying nowadays that racism is a plague of humanity. But we must not content ourselves with such a phrase. We must tirelessly look for the repercussions of racism at all levels of sociability” (Fanon 36). The quote explains that racism continues to be a poison to our society. However we must not live with the thought that racism will stay there forever. For example, racism occurs in classrooms where lectures only portray white men as heroes ignoring the many Black heroes in U.S history. The media shaped how blacks are seen from a white perspective, showing that they are criminals. It is fueled by colorism

Since several video games contain some sort of violent content, it has been hypothesized that gamers nowadays tend to be more aggressive. Gentile also states that “playing violent games increases aggressive behaviors, increases aggressive cognitions, [and] increases aggressive emotions.” This is an intense list of negative consequences, but what makes violent games instill such hostility? Many video games today include multiplayer in addition to classical single player modes. With real life opponents, gamers are much more competitive and inclined to demonstrate dominance over friends and real life opponents. Whereas facing a computer can be competitive, there may be a stronger feeling of satisfaction after defeating a nonvirtual enemy which could translate into real life aggression towards real people. Though correlation does not mean causation, the fear that violent video games may increase problematic antagonism is clearly not misplaced.