Xbox 360 Game News, Reviews, and Columns - XboxFocus

Race on the 360

by June 26th 2008 2:32 AM CDT15 Comments

Why are black video game characters so lame?

I know what you're thinking. “Why should it matter what the race of your character is?”, or “I never have a problem with playing as other races, neither should you”, or perhaps “Oh lord. The uppity colored boy is talking about race again. Black people? In my games?”

Clearly I don't believe there are any slave owners playing the Xbox 360 or reading this article, but hear me out. I'm just going to to go down a quick list of African-American characters on the Xbox 360 alone.


-Little Jacob (GTA IV): Always stoned.

-Sargent Johnson (Halo series): Loud. Enjoys swearing.

-Carl “CJ” Johnson (GTA: San Andreas): Shoots people, runs over old ladies with firetrucks, etc.

-Black Athlete (Insert Sports Game Here): Plays sports.

-Cole Train (Gears of War): Loud. Enjoys swearing, Shoots people. Plays sports.

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I'm sure you can pick out some other supporting characters or the Reggae Jamaican Guy(TM) from *insert any fighting game here*. These are all I could come up with at the moment though. I was going to rapid fire list some white characters in gaming, but they don't pay me enough to do all that typing.

As a black guy, it's frustrating when a white fella' shoots down my calls for more black characters with either of the first two reasons from my opening paragraph. It's easy to ignore the problem when your race is not the one being constantly stereotyped and pigeonholed.

Some have even gone far enough to call me a racist for requesting more black people just for the sake of being black; but I stress that this is not the case at all. If I had a problem with playing as white guys, I'm pretty sure I would have been forced to quit gaming years ago. All of my favorite game characters are white (or Caucasoid in appearance). It just sucks that every time someone of my race is represented, game developers consult the “How To Make A Dumb, Loud Negro” portion of their handbooks.


There are a few, sparse examples of hope. Although a far cry from a leading character, the fact that Zasalamel in Soul Caliber 4 is black, and is not being shoving into your face with slang from 1997 is greatly appreciated. Another that (kind of...) counts, is Mass Effect. The Shepard that I created is black, captain of his ship, representative for his species, and the only black main character in a game that I would like to see my future children pretend to be in the backyard. But it's sad how I had to reach for just those two on the 360. One's from a fighting game, and the other's a character I created.

Maybe game developers just don't know where to begin, so instead of thinking about it too much they don't even bother. Maybe the problem is that there are not enough black developer's, and I'm expecting too much from other people. I don't think the latter is the case however, because if developers can make memorable characters out of cubes and hedgehogs, black people shouldn't be that hard to wrap their collective heads around.

The key, I believe, is to stop overthinking black characters. Make them just as you would any other character instead of making them fulfill token roles. Imagine how much the internet would flip if Square announced that a Final Fantasy would have a black lead. I don't mind waiting, but I would love to see the day a black character hits the icon status of a Mario, Snake or Link.

Come on, guys. Help a brother out.