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Why Are Black Video Game Characters So Controversial?

As a black gamer, 2016 felt like some sort of tipping point. After years of getting dumped on in the medium, relegated to offensive stereotypes and serving as no-name NPCs, this year black video game characters finally got to take the center stage. In multiple blockbuster titles.

While it wasn’t out and out representation throughout the year, the fact that several of the big holiday releases – Mafia 3, Watch Dogs 2, FIFA 17 and Battlefield 1 – featured playable black characters prominently, felt like a huge win.

There are many battles still to fight; many games still rely on those stereotypes, many games don’t even acknowledge the existence of black people or even include us as NPCs. But, for a few months out of 2016, we could relax, sit back and play some games as characters that look like us.

Or so many of us had hoped.

Backlash

Proving that black people can’t even own the smallest of victories, each of the aforementioned games saw backlash from non-black (but mostly white) people who levelled all sorts of accusations and arguments against the titles because of the ethnicity of these characters.

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With Mafia 3, the game’s racially charged setting and its biracial lead character Lincoln Clay were accused of ‘pushing an agenda.’ Nevermind that Mafia 3 is based, at least in terms of its setting and sentiment, on a real, (even more) racist period of time. Nevermind that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided showed that even in being ‘morally grey’ on issues, you end up taking a side.

Battlefield 1, in which just a small slice of the game’s story campaign focuses on an African-American group of soldiers called the Harlem Hellfighters (one of whom stars on the game’s box-art), was accused of ‘erasing’ the achievements of white, European soldiers who fought in World War 1. When the game launched antis called it black-washing; and nearly two months on, some are still lambasting developer DICE for so much as daring to present a true, but less-mainstream look at the Great War.

Watch Dogs 2’s black protagonist (Marcus Holloway) and a narrative that touches upon racial profiling, meanwhile, was a symptom of Ubisoft’s desire to ‘pander’ to ‘Social Justice Warriors,’ said some. And FIFA 17, well, those against Alex Hunter, the fictional black footballer starring in its story mode ‘The Journey’ haven’t even tried. They just don’t like him and are happy as a pig in shit to let everyone know it.

Dip your toes into the waters of controversy or look at the comments sections on articles about these games (as one is wont to do when they feel like being pissed off for the entire day) and you’ll quickly learn that all of these arguments against black characters in video games boil down to racism.

Shocking, I know.

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Pure Racism

It’s that strongly-held belief, held by some, that black people are not only lesser in general but do not deserve to be represented in video games as a result. Video games are a white mans’ medium, is the underlying feeling, and any game that would look at the struggles or stories of a black person is encroaching on their turf.

They don’t need to say it explicitly. People of colour, black folks in particular, know well the look of disgust when you go into a predominantly white (or non-black) frequented establishment. ‘What business do you have being here?’ the look asks; these arguments against black video game characters are just the bottom-feeding comments section equivalent.

In particular, this kind of reaction to black video game characters is exacerbated by what Dr. Robin DiAngelo (who is white) describes as ‘racial belonging’.

Writing for The Good Men Project, DiAngelo explains that:

White people enjoy a deeply internalized, largely unconscious sense of racial belonging in U.S. society. In virtually any situation or image deemed valuable in dominant society, whites belong. The interruption of racial belonging is rare and thus destabilizing and frightening to whites and usually avoided.”

DiAngelo’s analysis may be U.S specific, but it rings true for any predominantly white, Western country.

Racial belonging has been fostered by all mediums but with television and film, things are changing rapidly. Yes, both TV and film have a long way to go but when Thursday nights on ABC have as many leading black characters (thanks Shonda Rhimes!) as a single, good year for black representation in gaming, I think it’s safe to say that movies and TV (well, mostly TV) are doing better than the games industry.

This can change, though, and one very good year for black characters in games will hopefully soon become one very normal year, a status quo annum, if you will.

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Murky Statistics

Up to date statistics on how ethnically diverse the games industry is are hard to come by and there isn’t a current breakdown for how many non-white people work in the industry as a whole. However, we do know that non-white game developers are more likely to have lesser incomes and are less likely to be in senior management roles. Black people are, for the most part, not in places of power within the industry and may be unable to tell their stories and advocate for black lead characters in their games.

And although there’s plenty more to it than getting black people hired and getting ears that will listen to the stories that black game creators want to tell, it would certainly be a start.

Perhaps the snowball effect will kick in, we’ll see more black characters in more blockbuster titles and everything will be hunky dory. I hope. But just please let the petty, racist backlash to black video game characters stop.

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Jasmine Henry

Staff Writer at New Normative
Jasmine Henry is a games and technology writer from the UK who has been playing video games since before she could tie her own shoelaces. She is also a serial games hoarder (thanks Steam sales!) and dreams of a day when the representation of women and minorities in games is no longer debated and is simply just the ‘norm’.

Comments

17 responses to “Why Are Black Video Game Characters So Controversial?”

  1. Oops, had comments turned off. Was wondering where the hate-comments were!

    1. Probably for the best!

  2. lunawolve Avatar
    lunawolve

    Well, articles like this might bring awareness outside of the US. Not that other western regions are different, but they do have different issues. In South America it’s about indigenous populations and white people, whereas in Europe, for instance, you shouldn’t really be talking about white people, because a slav and a teuton have nothing to do however white they both might be.

  3. Hearth Stoned Avatar
    Hearth Stoned

    On why gaming is viewed as a “white man”‘s activity, there are a lot more white people playing video games than there are black people. The group of people who are all interested in video games I see in my high school are mostly white/asian, and when you look at e-sports most of those people are white or asian. Not to mention the very small number of black people working in the industry.

    It’s the same on youtube, channels like Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, The Game Theorists, Gaijin Goomba, all white. There are some black gamers on youtube, like Etika and KSI, but it still shows there is a disparity here.

    Now obviously there are less black characters in video games, but as we’ve seen with white youtubers they don’t avoid any games just because of black protagonists. Why then do less black people play video games? I can’t speak for everyone obviously, but when I saw gameplay of The Walking Dead I didn’t care he was black, it just looked cool.

    If most Black people don’t like video games because the characters are mostly white, isn’t that racism? Oh right, I’m a straight, cis, white male, I forgot I’m scum and my opinions are irrelevant. Thanks, SJW’s.

    1. Jay Castello Avatar
      Jay Castello

      You’re not scum, but you are factually wrong. More black (and latinx) people own consoles than white people: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/the-demographics-of-device-ownership/

      Perhaps there are other factors that keep people of colour out of esports, youtube, and the industry.

      1. Hearth Stoned Avatar
        Hearth Stoned

        What explains the lack of black people who hang out to discuss geek stuff and play video games in my school then? I really can’t think of any reasons other than ‘they don’t play video games much’.

        1. Jay Castello Avatar
          Jay Castello

          As per the above Pew research, statistically more black people play games than white people. The fact that you don’t see them doesn’t invalidate that. Perhaps your schools is an outlier – or maybe black gamers there are cautious and keep to themselves because they’ve been told they don’t fit in (since “black people don’t play games much”) and because people are dismissive when it comes to the idea of their inclusion.

          1. Hearth Stoned Avatar
            Hearth Stoned

            I don’t know where you’re talking about, but there isn’t any such racism in my school, there’s a club for gaming but still hardly any black people show up. They wouldn’t be dismissed or anything like that, that reasoning seems to be assuming the people in my school are racist, and I can assure you they aren’t. Maybe it is an outlier and there just aren’t any black people that like video games in my school, but that seems incredibly unlikely.

          2. Jay Castello Avatar
            Jay Castello

            I’m not assuming anything, only saying that you are dismissive of the idea of black gamers. My quote “black people don’t play games much” comes directly from your earlier comment. Can you see how that assumption might make them feel excluded to the point of not wanting to join your club?

          3. Hearth Stoned Avatar
            Hearth Stoned

            It could also be because the vast majority of e-sports are played on PC, and your ‘proof’ shows WAY more white people have PC’s compared to black and Hispanic people.

            The only e-sport games I can think of that’s played on consoles are Overwatch and Rocket League, and even then playing with a mouse and keyboard offers more precision for FPS games, which is why CS:GO is virtually only played on PC.

            Me saying I don’t see many black people playing games isn’t dismissive either, that’s just my experience. I’m not saying they shouldn’t play them by saying less of them seem to play them. By that logic you pointing out how white people own less consoles is just going to make things even worse in that area. How is pointing out what we’re seeing discouragement?

          4. Hearth Stoned Avatar
            Hearth Stoned

            Saying I don’t see many of them isn’t dismissing their inclusion, if they want to play games I don’t have a problem with it and I’m not discouraging them. You’re really twisting my words trying to make me look racist.

          5. Hearth Stoned Avatar
            Hearth Stoned

            It could also be because the vast majority of e-sports are played on PC, and your ‘proof’ shows WAY more white people have PC’s compared to black and Hispanic people.

            The only e-sport games I can think of that’s played on consoles are Overwatch and Rocket League, and even then playing with a mouse and keyboard offers more precision for FPS games, which is why CS:GO is virtually only played on PC.

  4. Rick Johnson Avatar
    Rick Johnson

    I’m not so sure a few racist people indicates the majority. We need to be careful not to allow a few to speak for the many. Crude forms of research like posts are not reliable enough to assume they are credible and really represent anything but a few odd balls which is nothing unusual.

    Articles like this seem to bring up racist issues only throwing gasoline on the fire. White people love Dave Chapelle and Kevin Hart and Will Smith so I’m just saying it may not be that deep!!

    -Slick Rick

  5. Rick Johnson Avatar
    Rick Johnson

    …just keeping it real, any serious race issues should naturally create the next Dr.Dre or Tyler Perry of game development. So let’s talk about that too.

    – Slick Rick

  6. why every new game main character is black whyyy?mafia 3,watch dogs 2,assassins creed origins,prototype 2….. why i dont have a choice

    1. Nic Reuben Avatar
      Nic Reuben

      You’re trolling right? That’s four titles over the space of five years…

  7. Tashi Johnson Avatar
    Tashi Johnson

    I don’t even see why this blog was made cause there is lot of black male protagonist characters in video games no offense. they always put black males in video games over black females…u guys have lots of games, black females are the ones that aren’t noticed….this is just being greedy now cause i can think of lots of games for black male leads.I would be very happy if it was that many female lead characters so yah should be thankful to have that many games where black females hardly have none and if they are lead they always racially ambiguous

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