GTA IV: Blowing Holes Through Equal Opportunity Insult Arguments

Grand Theft Auto IV dropped recently, and reminded me that there is still a massive desire for products that are incredibly racist and misogynistic. Violence aside (since I’m not one who always believes there is a direct correlation between violence in videogames and violent behavior) the game itself is problematic for other reasons. While the majority of news sources focus on the fact that the game is incredibly violent, they seem to look over the race and women-hating issues in the game. For example, all the African American characters in the game are gang-members fulfilling the angry black man gangbanger stereotype. Women are simply props in the game – they almost are all prostitutes that you are rewarded for killing after you have sex with them. There are no female leads in the game, and the black leads are all extremely negative stereotypes. All the minority characters are portrayed in a negative light (they are often the ones causing the corruption in the city). The game, consumed by mainly white middle class men, is clearly designed to promote certain beliefs or at least a certain ideology. It isn’t the violence that scares me, but that white men apparently need this “outlet” to get out their hate towards minorities and women. Why should this hate exist in the first place – and do games like this allow it to come out in a safe environment, or does it continue to promote the hate itself? Often times these companies go by the same rhetoric as insult comedians do, or insult shows – we are offending EVERYONE equally. But is it really equal? If you continue to lampoon minorities that are struggling, isn’t that different than a barb at the majority in power? And even though you are hitting on supposedly every group, does that really make it okay? And are you really hitting on every group equally? And what sort if impact do each of these insults or insinuations make for each group? Even if you shoot everyone, if you shoot someone with a BB gun and someone with a cannon, there is a difference in impact there. Do you simply poke fun at whites so you can get away with true racism? And from whom are the attacks coming from? The argument that “oh, everyone is attacked so it is okay!” is completely faulty – it is just a way to cover up and get away with being racist and misogynistic.