Analysis Of 'A Letter To My Son'

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Recommended: Grand Theft Auto V

In "A Letter To My Son" by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the writer talks to his fifteen year old son in the form of a letter, explaining the experience of being black in a country that automatically shames anyone who isn 't white. To further prove Coates ' point, I have looked into a very well known pop culture in today 's society: video games; and analyzed the absence of race diversity. My studies have shown that even the most well-known video games on an international scale are displaying heavy biases towards Caucasians being the primary characters in their game, thus adding to the racism that is evident in today 's video games.

I began my research looking into the game with the highest popularity in the world, with over ten million daily players …show more content…

More specifically, non-Caucasian primary characters. One great example would be Franklin, from "Grand Theft Auto V". Franklin is a well-known Black character, and is one of the three protagonists in this game. Using a Black male as one of the protagonists of a game is a big step for including racial diversity within the gaming community. On that note, the role that Franklin plays as the protagonist does not display a positive message. Essentially, these three characters are criminals; the goal of the game is to commit various crimes such as drug deals, robberies, and murder in order to maximize their income. This example is tied specifically to this character, but this is not an uncommon occurrence when it comes to Black characters in video games. In fact, if any non-Caucasian characters make it to a primary role such as a protagonist, they often have negative stereotypes tied to them. Because of this, video games prove to be racist through the exclusion of diverse character ethnicity, but also through enforcing the negative stereotypes that are inflicted upon any non-Caucasian

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