Stereotypical Black Characters in Games

[Aisha379]

<~~~ i r white btw.

Still, does anyone feel the roster of African characters in games lately seems to have fallen to the point of stereotypically damn annoying?

Now let me clarify, I do not, nor have I ever, been against any race or gender being in videogames, the purpose of this discussion is not the dislike of black people in games, but rather, how they seem to ACT lately.


They all seem to be swear-filled hyper trigger happy beefed up guys. This saddens me really, I don't have a bit of African in my veins, but I'm honestly quite surprised in this day and age of everyone playing the racist card for every stupid reason, no one has really pointed this out.

Like the black guy from gears of war, who RAPS during the credits. Now, I actually liked this, because it was so humorously BAD it was GOOD.




Now he kinda annoyed me, but all the characters and story in that game period were crap anyway >_>

Now lets talk about Call of Duty 4. Now that is a good game, it has a good anti-war message, even though its somewhat stereotypical in enemy characters (The Russians are working with Unspecifiedistan for Western world destruction? Unique!), I feel they fairly portrayed all the factions without going crazy into stereotypes.

But then...wait..whats this? We get a random American Sgt. named Griggs, who just happens to be African American and count for at least 50% of the swearing in the entire game.

If that was not bad enough, he raps during the credits too. Not in the funny way like Cole Train in Gears of War does, but this is supposed to be a SERIOUS rap (once again, being filled with swearing).

It makes me sad because of the emotional ending of CoD4, and the great orchestral score that begins to play for the credits, which is interrupted half way by that horrible song </3


Now, what do I think is a GOOD example of an African American in modern games?


Drebin, from Metal Gear Solid 4. He has an interesting past, he does not have to swear every sentence, and instead of being a huge steroid boosted muscleish looking freak with awesome strength, hes an average-body type guy who uses his brains and technology to get out of jams.

Also, thank God, he does not talk in ebonics. He's actually educated and understandable without the need of subtitles.


Yeah, I dunno where I'm going with this, but it'd be nice to hear other peoples thoughts on this too.


Note: I mentioned swearing a lot, while I am not AGAINST swearing, per se, the more frequently I hear it, the more it gets on my nerves. And when its just put into a game an INSANE amount, it makes that game feel more and more juvenile to me.

[Shadowpawn]

It doesn't really bother me considering it's fiction.

[ABDUR101]

..you mean black people don't act like the ones on Chappelle's Show? Those weren't documentaries, but merely skits?

...I'm gonna have to rethink the african race now. They all became alot less interesting. =[

Also, I look at it the same as I do movies and TV, some characters are there just to fill a niche. "ok, we've got the heroic white guy, tech-savy asian chick...wild out of control russian bent on killing everyone...what color of the rainbow are we mis...OH! The obnoxiously candid black guy who has his bling and bitches! Whew."

I lawl everytime I hear someone say "If you don't like rap and hip-hop and the lifestyle it has, you don't like black culture! Racist!!"

...no, black culture goes FAR beyond what you wear and what you listen to, and if you don't realise that then I'm not surprised why people toss the N-word around so much.

[Powder Keg]

Like our good friend Colbert, I don't see race.

[Aisha379]

It doesn't really bother me considering it's fiction.

It does not really BOTHER me as much as it ANNOYS me, if you know what I mean.

I hate playing an otherwise nice written and intelligent game, only to have some crazy black guy come out and yelling "YEEEEAH EAT DAT SHIT BITCHES" while mowing people down.


I just wanted other peoples opinions on it is all, I have a habit of making very long posts, which may betray how much I actually care about the situation I'm talking about o_O

Also, I look at it the same as I do movies and TV, some characters are there just to fill a niche. "ok, we've got the heroic white guy, tech-savy asian chick...wild out of control russian bent on killing everyone...what color of the rainbow are we mis...OH! The obnoxiously candid black guy who has his bling and bitches! Whew."

Don't even get me started on TV/movie writing </3

I lawl everytime I hear someone say "If you don't like rap and hip-hop and the lifestyle it has, you don't like black culture! Racist!!"

...no, black culture goes FAR beyond what you wear and what you listen to, and if you don't realise that then I'm not surprised why people toss the N-word around so much.

So true...if hip-hop and rap really were all there was to black culture, I probably WOULD be a racist >_>

...no offense to anyone who actually likes that...er..."music"...*cough*

[Leviathan]

I have noticed. DX

I hate it a lot. I mean can there be ONE that doesn't curse/ have bitches &bling.

We just need to have characters with different personalities. Instead of heroic "white" guy how about a heroic black guy? Or Hispanic guy?

[Nitro Vordex]

If there's a heroic black guy, then the whole cast is usually black. Or the hero has a white sidekick. Seriously. :E

[Night_Raid]

<----Black, mind you

Okay, seeing as how I can construct a sentence WITHOUT slaughtering and making the english language cry out in agony with terrible grammar. I'm not "Considered black" -.- So I can speak from experience that the line between "Stereotype" and "Cultural" is becoming preeetty fuckin' blurred as of lately. Sure, Cole was a fucking HUGE stereotype in GOW. But it's getting rather undeniable that there are tons upon tons of black people who act just like that -.- Sure, it's totally stereotypical...But as they say "All stereotypes are strewn from a kernel of truth" So really, I don't even blame them for portraying black characters that way because in this case-- the kernel that stemmed those stereotypes is pretty god damn big.

[UnderscoreX]

u mad

[ABDUR101]

The thing is, there are blacks out there that act whiter than me; and I know this because I've met them and we have one running for president. We know they exist!

However, the funky-fresh bruthas speak louder than them, so they get the attention.

Seriously, would the Mothafuckin Cole Train have been as interesting if he weren't an obnoxiously large and loud african sports star ready to kick ass and take names?

Thats not to say we don't have good african americans portrayed in games, hell look at the scientist buddy in Half-Life 2, he's an upstanding guy, intelligent, able to form complete sentences. However his daughter looks like he may or may not like the white meat. Nawa-mean..?