GTA 5 Profoundly Racist?

I'm not quite black (my skin is white, I have a black descendent), but I'm pretty offended by the amount of racial slurs and depiction of minorities in GTA 5. All the black people in the game belong to gangs, spout racial epithets, and commit crimes. Yes, these are exaggerations of racist undercurrents in our own society, but not satirical ones. With nothing in the narrative to underscore how insane and wrong this is, all the game does is reinforce and celebrate racism. Do you think GTA 5 is profoundly racist? Should the game's score be deducted for being racist (because racism is bad)?

(I'm not asking if you're personally offended. Something can be offensive without you being personally offended by it. I'm asking if it's racist.)

All the white people are also criminals!!! OMG TEH RACISM!!!!!

Too many people getting offended by fictional content these days. It's fiction, not reality.

If anything, the game wasn't nearly racist enough. I was hoping for a segment where you have to iron a shirt urgently, but cannot find an ironing board.

The solution to the puzzle will be to substitute a white woman's bottom for the ironing board.

Let us not forget all those non-minorities who were criminals.

You should really open your eyes next time you play any GTA game. You sound like you only could focus on one group and completely missed any other group in the game. Did you forget about the meth dealers in Sandy Shores or the Lost gang? There was the Chinese that came along and were criminals.

Majority of the pedestrians you walked near would say rude things to you or others. You really need to learn to keep your eyes open before you start saying things.

Even the random events(muggings) in game would chose random ped's as the criminal. And to ask, do you know how certain ethnic groups talk to each other or act? Do you live in a city or state any bit similar to San Andreas/Los Santos?

Aren't 2 out of the 3 main characters white?

And if we deducted from game scores because something was "bad" then GTA would be way in the negative?

No.

Profoundly misanthropic.

I lol'd at this...

Not even going to read the rest of the OP.

Try walking down any street named Martin Luthar King Boulevard long enough and see if you don't see at least some of that going on.

@Mcspanky37: Nobody cares :)

TC, I think I might be offended because you made this topic. But seriously, while the GTA series may or may not promote stereotypes, I can not find a video game racist.

It seems like, anymore, people can be too serious, and point out things that people would have otherwise overlooked. "I'm offended, so you should be, too".

wtf xD

What's with all the political correctness these days? I know people that only date black people, just so they're not considered racists.

This topic reminds me of the people who thought Resident Evil 5 was racist because most of the zombies were black. Someone needed to remind them the game was set in Africa. >_>

dont play the game if you can't handle what the game is going for. You could also choose to accept that it's satire.

I want to get this game now, even though I know I won't like it because of the stupid ass complaints

All of the characters in GTA are huge stereotypes, no one is safe.

I would say the game is anti-american though.

Some of the sentences seem exactly the same as Carolyn Petit's review, but with the word "racism" instead.

@thecrypticodor: If you can find me a street named "Martin Luthar King Boulevard" anywhere in the United States, I'll give you a dollar.

Um, that game was crazy racial.

"Say, let's zip this T-virus halfway around the world so that you spend 99% of your time shooting coloreds in the face!"

Having the T-virus skip four other continents on its way to Africa was bad. Having the brave white Americans come in to save the day was a bridge too far.

@theKSMM: Do you even know what happened in RE 5?

Chris, being a long time character and becoming an agent was sent out to Africa to assist Sheva on the hunt for a man that was producing a bio weapon. Said man happened to release his bio weapon on everyone.

Same shit with RE4. And even RE6, you basically shoot up the local people in any resident evil game since the main enemy is generally the local people.

There's one like 25 mins from where a I live near the freeway.

I prefer Paypal.

There are so many that it has its own Wikipedia entry

Unless you were critiquing his spelling of Martin Luther King in which case, yes, well done.

@theKSMM: yikes

Good grief people, its satire, let it go!

Yeah yeah yeah I spelled Luther wrong. I'll admit to the fact that my grammar is always consistently atrocious :P

Bingo - why aren't all these comments redirected toward Petit?

There are as many black gangbangers as there are white methheads.

See? It all evens out.

Whether or not it's racist I can't say but hearing the N word repeatedly makes me cringe because of the general implication. However, the conversations between the black characters in GTA V are not significantly different from the language in just about every rap or hip hop video.

No it is not. A game can't be racist because it is an inanimate object, therefore it can't have the belief that one race is superior to another. The people who make the game might be, but you can't really tell someone is racist unless you meet them in person and see how they act.

For me, racism denotes hatred. And I don't see GTA hating any race, it hates everyone. Kinda like the South Park edict of "we pick on everyone".

That's not to say it's right, and you're certainly within your rights to be offended. But I wouldn't call what I've seen of GTA racist, no.

I mute the sections in which Michael and Lamar are in. Problem solved.

It would've been profoundly mentioned in the review!

I'm sure you are the same person who watches South Park episodes and accuses Trey Parker and Matt Stone of being racist.

As a white person I am extremely offended how white people in this game get portrayed as: Rednecks, Murderers, Thieves, Rapists, Sexual offenders, Kidnappers, etc etc...

Shame on you, Rockstar ! How dare you !

I think the game leaves no victims unharmed in the categories of people and issues it satires. The one thing that did tick me off though was the amount of n-words thrown around when a conversation takes place only between black people. Maybe that in itself is one of the satires, but I couldn't tell because I never participated in conversations between black people before.

I'm not a racist i'm asian but not a racist.