Amerika

In a February post on MTV Multiplayer, blogger Tracey John wrote about her experience playing Carnival Games. She could change her character’s pants, shirts, shoes, and hairstyles, John wrote. “But when it came to skin color, it only offered different faces in one pale hue. In other words, as a minority (I’m a Chinese woman), I could not replicate my skin color for my avatar within Carnival Games (much less if I were African-American or Hispanic). I found that a bit offensive.”

Last year, the trailer for the upcoming Resident Evil 5 depicted a white soldier shooting black zombies. A contributor to the blog Black Looks wrote: “This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, [and] the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing . . .”

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So now our psychologists are playing video games and analyzing the many different ethnic options associated with the characters, instead of trying to warn people of the dangers inherent in denying nature and denying reality; e.g., video games themselves. Would it be better if you could choose to be a black or hispanic individual in these games? Is this in the best interests of our kids; are we really spending time studying this?

The problem is not supposedly racist video games. The problem is that video games exist and kids sit for hours and hours playing into their digital alter-egos, stunting mental and physical development, rather than playing outside. When are we going to wake up and eliminate these terrible means of self-centered entertainment?

Tags: consumerism, realism