While research has shown the stereotypical image of a gamer to be a white male,[2] the reality of the situation is much more diverse.
[7] In online play, gamers of color may experience racial harassment once identified as such, including based on voice chat.
[8] A 2020 survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League reported that over half of online gamers experienced discrimination, including at least 30% of both black and Hispanic/Latino respondents.
[9] According to gaming convention organizer Avinelle Wing, "the industry has an even bigger problem with race than it does with gender.”[10] A report published in 2016 by the International Game Developers Association found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers.
[26] Adam Clayton Powell III argued that the high proportion of black male characters in sports video games have enabled (predominantly white male) gamers to practice what refers to as "high-tech blackface",[27] which David J. Leonard describes as a digital form of minstrelsy that allows white players to effectively 'try on' blackness without being forced to acknowledge or confront the degrading racist histories surrounding minstrelsy.
[25] Some games' protagonists have since broken this trend, like Just Cause's Rico Rodriguez and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six's 'Ding' Chavez, who are both Hispanic.
[29] The potential for video games as a site for promulgating reductive, racist tropes has prompted many to point out the use of yellowface, the adoption of an East Asian character by white players, to degrade and marginalize East Asian characters in a variety of games as well.
[30][31] Anthony Sze-Fai Shiu argues that the differences between Duke Nukem 3D and its spiritual sequel Shadow Warrior (two games which are similar in gameplay but feature a white protagonist in one and a nonspecific East Asian character in the other) are contingent on the idea of a white protagonist as subjective, where the East Asian character is immutably attached to his race and stereotypical culture.
Orlando believes this is because of the Japanese gaming industry's aim at the large North America and Europe markets.
The objective of the game is to get General Custer across the battlefield so that he can then rape a Native woman tied to a pole on the other side.
Custer’s Revenge was later canceled and all available copies recalled after the National YWCA Racial Justice Group took the game to court in October 1982.
For instance, both the games GUN and Oregon Trail, depict Native characters as savages and enforces a harmful rhetoric that Native people and their culture is inherently harmful to America’s whiteness, a term used to describe how white people, their customs, culture, and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups of are compared.
There have been a number of controversies surrounding race and video games, including public debates about Resident Evil 5,[36] Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization,[37] Left 4 Dead 2, BioShock Infinite, Homefront, World of Warcraft,[38] Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Genshin Impact.
[41] The portrayal of race in some video games such as the Grand Theft Auto series, Custer's Revenge, 50 Cent: Bulletproof, and Def Jam: Fight for NY has been controversial.
The 2002 game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was criticized as promoting racist hate crimes.
In response to criticism, promoters of Resident Evil 5 argued that to censor the portrayal of black antagonists was discrimination in itself.
For some critics, like Ben Fritz, the game was 'offensive' since it allowed players to do "horrific things ... or whitewash some of the worst events of human history."
"[47] There was significant backlash against Fritz on online forums and blogs, with some players defending in-game colonization as simply a realistic depiction of history.
While the graphics, gameplay detail, and level of abstraction vary widely, they all come down to build, manage, conquer, and destroy."
[50] Video games have also had an effect on the ability of racial minorities to express their identities online in semi-protected environments.