Yes, the title of this article is racist bullshit, just like the blog I'm responding to.
That blog, posted by "V*", claims that "GTA is nothing more than a suburban White boy's fantasy". Why? Because you can play a white guy killing blacks: "take a hard look at what is going on in front of you. A Russian, is driving around the hood, killing people, tearing everything up and in effect getting away with it."
Aside from the blatantly racist assertion that killing blacks is every "suburban white boys' fantasy", the claim made about GTA is racist in a more subtle way.
GTA models real American cities. You can find the 'hood' in GTA; you can also find the 'burbs', or Chinatown, or burrows containing Irish or Russian immigrants, etc. GTA's protagonists have been a variety of ethnicities, including a black protagonist in GTA: San Andreas. So why, of all possible combinations, does the blog author choose to characterize the series as "white on black"? Because he can't help himself. He can't see it any other way. He's a racist.
I could just as easily, and as accurately, describe GTA like this: "GTA is nothing more than a ghetto black boys' fantasy [..] take a hard look at what is going on in front of you. A black, is driving around white suburbs, killing people, tearing everything up and in effect getting away with it".
Yes, it's possible to do that in GTA, but it would never even occur to me to characterize the series that way, because I'm not a bigot.
My mother moved from Louisiana to California when I was five. When I went back to visit my relatives as an adult, I was shocked by the racism I encountered there. These were my kin -- good hearted, intelligent people -- but they were also bigots. It demonstrated to me more than anything else that bigotry is a function of upbringing. It's a filter placed over your perception before you're old enough to know better or do anything about it.
I remember when I first arrived, and leaving my hotel room to get some ice, I passed a black woman in the hall. I gave her a friendly smile, but she averted her eyes. I saw a lot of that while there. It was depressing. I just wanted to say, "Look, I don't judge you by the color of your skin, just because these other people do," but the fact was, I was being judged by the color of my skin: they couldn't see me as anything but another white bigot. It was an uncomfortable feeling; the tiniest taste of the prejudice they face.
Mr.V*, I get the same uncomfortable feeling when reading your blog. When you assume that all white people are racists, you are being a racist yourself. But, of course, you can't help yourself. That's how prejudice works. It affects how you see everything. Even videogames.
"games like GTA continue to reinforce the structural types of racism that I thought we were attempting to destroy"
Oh, the irony.
P.S. This is my first blog ever. I created it out of frustration, because when I tried to respond to V*'s blog directly, he refused to publish my comments (they were much gentler than this blog, simply pointing out the incongruity between his position and the facts of GTA). Anyone familiar with that blog who thinks the authors are willing to have their assertions challenged, to engage in honest debate: now you know better. It's propaganda in the truest sense. They filter all comments, allowing through only those that agree with them, creating a false impression of solidarity.
