Expert Says Blaming Videogames for Violence is Racist

[The Stonker]

Racism? Really? I mean I'm dead set against blaming video games for things, but do we really need to go there?

When a black kid goes on a rampage, they blame the ghetto.
When a white kid goes on a rampage, they blame the video games.

You can see the pattern, right?

This man raises an excellent point, but unfortunetly there will be no one to heed his words except us, and there will be none to heed ours.

 

[Jumplion]

I just couldn't help but think of this;


OT: I can see why he says that in this situation is is kind of racist. To add to what everyone else is clarifying on what he said, it's like whenever a black man goes on a spree people just think it's just what happens; he was involved in drugs, it was his fault, he was sick in the head. But when a white, middle class guy goes on a killing spree, such as the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings, suddenly it's not their fault, it's the video games. Those poor, innocent, white guys were such pwecious boys until the evil video game corrupted them. Those black guys? Psh, they were in a gang, they're worthless pieces of trash for getting involved like that!

It's not that whenever a minority goes on a killing spree that extremism/psychosis/whatever is blamed yet when a white guy does it they don't blame Christianity. It's that they distance the blame from the white people to where "it's not their fault! Video games made him do it!" yet directly blame anyone else for their own craziness.

Switch the skin colors, and all of a sudden "he was a maniac" and it was his own fault and "no punishment is too good for him".

It's a bit of a weird connection initially, but when you think about it it does make some sense.

 

[Locko96]

[quote="aldowyn" post="7.303621.12157082" That a kid has played violent videogames is as important as that he was wearing sneakers, I like that line.[/quote]

I say that we call for a bill that regulates the designs of sneakers.

OT: There are definitely "go-to" reasons that the media gives to certain races following violence. I like how the one for white people is only due to an outside influence.

 

[joinchoir]

If video-games are a race now, can I play the race card?

No but you can always play Mario Kart.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

First off: I read the article. I understand his argument behind the racism accusation. And it doesn't make sense. I know for a fact that people brought up Seug-Hei Cho's playing of Counter Strike. Seung-Hei Cho being Asian, not white.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18220228/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/were-video-games-blame-massacre/

I know it was Jack Thompson and Fox News, but it's ALWAYS people like Jack Thompson and Fox News. And race played no role in their accusations.


So, basically....

 

[Valkyrie101]

I have seen video games blamed for cases of violence involving blacks, actually. No, I don't think it's the case.

 

[kickyourass]

Well I can definitely see what the guy's trying to say, and it makes sense to me.

You hear that, Fox? You're racist!

Seriously though, how does that make any logical sense? He says himself 95 percent of boys have played violent videogames, and I'm pretty sure that would be regardless of color of skin or country of origin, so someone explain to me how this makes sense in his mind....

BLUF:
It's racist because the topic is only brought up if the killer is white. If the killer were, say, black or Arabic, very few people would jump all over the "video games did it" boat.

It's also racist in that they hold the same roots in prejudice. If you only see, for example, a handful of black people in your life and they're all bona-fide idiots or criminals, you might be inclined to think all black people are bona-fide idiots or criminals, which is racist behaviour, pure and simple.
Likewise, if all you ever see of video games is the News telling you that some idiot who went on a shooting spree played Modern Warfare 2 you might be inclined to think two things : All video games are Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 2 causes people to go on a shooting spree.

What he's saying with that 95% statistic is pointing out how ludicrous the connection is. Ninety-five per cent of males are not murderers. The reason so many murderers play video games is because of a completely unrelated role correlation. You may as well say "Shooting Sprees are caused by boys wearing sneakers" (To use his example). Yes, boys who go on shooting sprees tend to wear sneakers, but so does every other young male. Sneakers constitute the primary type of footwear in the modern world. The facts are unrelated. As a matter of fact, you might look at a chart and see something like most of the people who wear sneakers/play video games do not, in fact, go on shooting sprees. Of course, sneakers are not a relatively new media, so they don't get examined like this.

Read the article before you say it's illogical.

One advantage of being part of this site is that most of you are far, far more eloquent then I am about these topics.

 

[Dan Steele]

I dont know how this works out, but hell if its protecting video games, I suport you Christopher Ferguson!

 

[Swifteye]

Between this and people calling stereotypical characters racist I'm believing to think people don't understand how the word works. Kinda like how irony sort of became detached due to overuse.

 

[Mariuspontmerci]

Everyone's a little bit racist. [edit] Oh...nice post jumplion.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

....what?

Was my first reaction, and after re-reading it again he does have a very good point. Never really thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense. Apparently us 'whities' have an excuse now when we go on a murdering spree, and that's really sad, video games is the reason we all snap.

I wonder who is gonna take this guy's opinion and rip him a new one for this, because, you know, it's making a ton of sense and all.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Racism? Really? We're going there?

That is stupid.

Did you read the article?

He said that inner-city schools that are populated by minorities are almost never linked to video game violence, whereas majority white suburban school shootings are almost always linked to video game violence.

Those who blame video games for violent behavior among middle-to-upper class white boys are making an underlying and unspoken assumption: when violence is perpetrated by middle-to-upper class white boys it can/should be blamed on video game violence while that same violence perpetrated by a lower class black boy should not.

And that assumption only holds water if you also assume that black people are inherently more violent, or that poor people are inherently more violent.

So, yes, blaming violent video games for violence that is perpetrated by middle-to-upper class white boys is either racist or classist. Take your pick.

 

[angry_flashlight]

Is the racism bit of the article a bit of a stretch? Probably (It's a double standard for sure).
Is the article pointing in the correct direction? Most definitely.

 

[Xman490]

You know what else is racist? Last night's Futurama episode, when everyone turned ridiculously British, wearing 18th century clothes and Bender missing a few "teeth".

But on the main topic, I guess it is racist if you consider a race to be any stereotyped group of people.

 

[Ickorus]

When I saw the title I thought this was stupid but he does actually make a good point.

 

[Sylveria]

Before video games, before games of any sort there was violent behavior.

These people who wish to make video games the next social hysteria are putting the horse before the cart here. How do they explain Hitler then? Or Mao or Billy the Kid or a hundred other examples I could give inthis manner?

People need to stop blaming the tools and start looking in the f#$%ing mirror.

I bet Hitler had a prototype Pong machine. It's the only logical reason for his actions

You don't even want to know the crazy shit that Mao, Sadam, Stalin and Khadaffi (Sp?) where playing. I'll give you a hint though.. it involved bouncing fruit.

 

[scorptatious]

I was a bit confused by the title. But after reading into the article, it actually does make some sense.

Although wasn't the shooter from the V-Tech shooting Asian? People blamed video games for what he did didn't they? I know Jack Thompson did.