Video games perpetuate racial and gender stereotypes

By Akilah Monifa
December 18, 2001
With Christmas right around the corner, many children have video games on their wish lists. The violence of these games bothers me, as do their representations of people of color and women.
A recently released report by Children Now's Children & the Media Program analyzes race and ethnicity, violence and gender in video games and finds some surprising numbers.
While the percentage of African-Americans characters in video games is greater than the percentage of African Americans in the population, black characters played stereotypical roles. Only 4 percent of African-American characters appeared as heroes, compared with 87 percent of white characters.
The study shows that 83 percent of African-American males were portrayed as competitors in sports games, while 86 percent of African-American females were non-action and non-competitor characters.
African-American female characters were also more likely than any other group to be victims of violence. Their victimization rate was 86 percent, compared to white females who were at 45 percent. In general, female characters were more likely than males to scream and to wear revealing clothing.
African-American characters were also the most verbally aggressive, screaming, taunting and insulting in many of the games.Latinos don't fare well, either. Only 2 percent of the characters were non-white Latinos, and none were Latina. Every one of the Latino characters was in sports games, usually baseball. What's more, 83 percent of the Latinos were shown exhibiting physical harm and pain after an injury, such as colliding into a wall while trying to catch a pop fly.
Children's exposure to violent media, including video games, could lead to future aggressive behavior and desensitization to violence, according to a recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Children who play video games are being sent negative messages about violence, gender and race.
As many children find video games under the tree this Christmas, they should be made aware that these depictions of people of color are far from reality.
Akilah Monifa is a free-lance writer living in Oakland, Calif. She can be reached at pmproj@progressive.org.