Random Thoughts on 7/24/2015: Why Do They Keep Killing Us Edition or Has life finally become Grand Theft Auto?

You know how in Grand Theft Auto games where you can barely graze an officers car and end up getting gunned down in the street? That is basically the black experience right now.

University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing shot Sam Dubose.

Here is the sad part,in GTA you have to initiate contact with the cops to prompt a response (or commit a horrible crime) but in real life cops can pull you over and kill you for not having a front license plate (Sam Dubose, RIP) or an illegal turn signal (Sandra Bland, RIP).

Sandra Bland was murdered in her jail cell….potentially.

In Grand Theft Auto I always blamed the Police actions on poor A.I. but what is the excuse in real life?

The narrative about games and violence is that playing GTA will lead to more mass shootings and violence but in reality it looks like it has normalized the police use of excessive force.

Never have i feared more for people then when they get pulled over or stopped by the police. It doesn’t take much to escalate a situation and the police are armed. I know people who work as officers. They are good people. I have worked with police very closely during my career, they were very professional and as caring as they could be. BUT there is a cultural and systemic issue in our current police culture and black people are dying because of it.

Just my thoughts…..Peace

Black Characters in Gaming- Dwayne Forge (GTA 4)

Footsteps in the Dark – Please click link and have this song playing while reading this post. Thank you!

Here the Isley Brothers crooning in the background, setting the mood. Beauty, sadness, betrayal… and that’s just the beginning of the song. Every time Dwayne Forge had a cut scene in GTA 4 this song played in the background. It sets the perfect back drop for Dwayne’s experience. 

Dwayne was not a playable character in Grand Theft Auto 4, he was a friend you could choose to work with or kill. Spoilers but at one point in the game you have to choose between helping Playboy X (young upstart rapper and former colleague to Dwayne) and killing Dwayne (former crime boss, just released from prison and back at ground zero) or helping Dwayne and killing Playboy X. I don’t know how you could not help Dwayne. He’s so real, he has one hell of a sob story. Gameplay wise if you hang out with Dwayne enough he gives you access to his old gang members and weapons to help you on missions.

Dwayne represented a few major things for me. He is black, he has a moral code, and he is depressed. Full disclosure, I was playing GTA 4 heavily when I had broken up with my seemingly first “love” (wrong.) and I felt like the world was turning its back on me. Dwayne was feeling the same way. Dwayne had it all when he was running the drug game but he took the fall for his friends (loyalty) and realized that when he got out everybody he thought had his back left him behind. His girl left him, his boys wouldn’t associate with him or treat him with respect. He became a pariah (like most released prisoners he was unable to find work and lost his social networks, he was left helpless and hopeless). Dwayne was feeling hopeless but in the game Niko Bellic came along and fought with him and gave him hope.

I have never had a black character in my gaming life that was as multifaceted and relevant to my experience as Dwayne. Dwayne was a guy trying to give it all for his people and he loved his people. That’s how I see myself, and his pain when they don’t reciprocate it is a pain I feel. Yeah, Dwayne is a criminal and a convict but he had feelings. Very rarely do characters in games have real feelings and certainly not black characters. Rockstar, the developers of GTA 4, humanized Dwayne. The problem with stereotypes is that they dehumanize the groups of people they effect. Black men get watered down to statistics and become vehicles that either subvert or reinforce stereotypes and very little else. It is so refreshing to have a character like Dwayne who seems to reinforce these stereotypes while breaking through them all by making us care for him as a person. I would also argue that Dwayne subverts a lot of male stereotypes due to his openness with his feelings. He allows himself to be sad. 

Is Dwayne a problematic representation of black characters in gaming? He showcases emotions, deals with a reality that many black men face post incarceration, and brings light to mental health issues that flare up in our community but go untreated…. it would be too easy to focus on him being a criminal and calling him problematic because of that. In a weird way Dwayne represents old school values preaching loyalty and community where Playboy X represents new self centered values that neglect community. I personally love what Dwayne represents on that level. 

Stereotype: Black man as criminal

That speaks for itself. We haven’t moved passed this trope much in gaming. As always, it’s problematic because it is not juxtaposed with positive black images in gaming. 

Stereotype: Mass Incarceration of black men

I can’t really put it better than this infographic. I will add though that as a country we refuse to acknowledge the disservice we do these men when we let them out of prison. They lose the right to vote and can’t find jobs. Every sentence should not be a life sentence. We need change. 

Stereotype: Mental health issues in the black community

It exist, yet as a community we try to act like it doesn’t. On a broader scale, black people and minorities in general have a lot to be depressed about and we shouldn’t shy away from that reality should embrace it and work through it. 

What does all this mean? In my mind Dwayne is a beacon of excellence in black representations in game. I just wish he was playable….