IF THE ONLY BLACK CHARACTERS ARE ATHLETES, CRIMINALS, AND PROTEST LEADERS, WE’RE LEFT WITH VERY LITTLE TO IDENTIFY WITH.

Most black characters in games are still stereotypes

Even as overall representation in games is making strides, in large part thanks to indie studios, it’s still as difficult as ever for me to find a black character I can identify with, due to stereotypes hard-coded into the representation of black people. It’s a cross-genre problem developers need to become aware of to do black characters justice.

Stereotyping is often visual: the black characters in most fighting games in particular, with their big lips, giant bodies, and overall threatening demeanour, are racial caricatures so embedded in a large part of the public consciousness many people don’t recognise them as such. That’s where the problem starts, because once you get used to seeing a stereotype devolved from the context in which it was created, you see it as normal.

The normalisation of black stereotypes is happening in many other videogame genres, too. In part, it’s an accidental phenomenon. The very first black characters appeared in sports games, because that’s where the public at large (especially in countries with a small black population like Japan) usually saw black people. The association of black people with basketball devolved, just like the image of the burly black fighter, into a racial stereotype.

GANGSTA’S PARADISE?

When black characters have been allowed to take centre stage it’s mostly been in the easily digestible arena of stereotypical hip-hop culture. The early 2000s gave us the Def Jam and gang wars aren’t a mere game mechanic. We know this just like we know virtual violence doesn’t make people murderers, but I find it jarring that pop-culture has turned a result of systemic racism against black people, in the USA and beyond, into something aspirational. The thug image is often used against black men, reducing them to nothing but violent criminals.

Final Fantasy VII’s Barret Wallace, on the other hand, is an example of the kind of character I’m emphatically for. Given what I’ve just said about stereotypes, that choice may surprise you – Barret is absolutely the stereotype of an intimidating black man. But Barret is a great example of a black character who grows beyond the stereotype. Just like the thug, I don’t like to see black characters that are entirely defined by the hardships they experience. The wealth of black experiences can offer so much more. Sure, it makes sense for Dishonored’s Billie Lurk, Assassin’s Creed’s

Adéwalé, and Detroit: Become Human’s Markus, (who isn’t accidentally black, despite Quantic Dream claiming the game wasn’t meant as a racial allegory – yeah right)… they’re all black people who know nothing but servitude who then elevate themselves. It can feel uplifting to see them make more of themselves. But if the only black characters we get are athletes, criminals, and protest leaders