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Friday 15 January, 2010
The Game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, starts out with a very somber attitude as Carl "CJ" Johnson is called back home by his brother, "Sweet", as Carl is informed that his mother has passed away. Unfortunately for Carl he receives a less than warm welcome by Los Santo's corrupt police officers as he is framed for a crime he did not commit. Stripped of his possessions, he is dumped off by the police officers on a side street in, what we figure out shortly, is the territory to Carl's former rival gang, the Ballas. The player is set forth given a bike and an objective point for which he can head towards, but outside of these options the player is free to do as he pleases. The introduction itself is certainly ripe for discussion as an ethical act. Although it is possible for an Act-Utilitarian to disagree about the morality of the action of the police officers, where they could argue that the most amount of happiness was spread between the police officers at CJ's expense, therefore the officer's actions being perfectly moral, a more viable ethical theory, Rule-Utilitarianism, would argue otherwise. A Rule-Utilitarian would argue that as the police officers had falsely incriminated and stole monetary value from CJ, both actions being illegal, the police officer's actions would be immoral as CJ was unjustly mistreated and the police officers had broken their promise/oath to uphold the law. Even if the police officers had enjoyed a considerable amount of pleasure from torturing CJ, their ineptitude to uphold the law as well as breaking a promise towards all the citizens they represent would imply that the act itself was immoral as great pleasure was lost on behalf of the entire public.
Having played a few computer games beforehand it was relatively simple for me to jump right into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and not have to muddle with the controls too much. I decide to follow the marker the game provided to the first objective. Once at the destination the player is introduced to "Big Smoke." Big Smoke, a rotund African American, mistakes our protagonist, CJ, for an intruder, and threatens to beat him with a baseball bat. However, after all the misunderstanding is cleared, the player is shown that the two are actually old acquaintances, and proceed to the graveyard to visit CJs brother. Once at the graveyard we are introduced to a plethora of other characters, most notably CJ's brother Sweet. From this cutscene we are given some slight insight into Carl's and Sweet's relationship, which has apparently gone south since the death of their brother Brian, which is hinted at that CJ had some involvement with but of how much the audience is left in the dark. After the cutscene CJ, Sweet, Big Smoke, and Ryder are caught off guard by a drive-by shooting and thereafter chased by the rival gang, the Ballas. The player's objective is to get away from the rival gang's car on bike. Pedaling along I attempted to try and keep up with CJ's "homies," but I found myself continually crashing into cars and poles by either going too slow or too fast. Surprisingly, I found that this section of the game could possibly teach a valuable ethical lesson. Playing from the perspective of CJ we, the player, are shown how truly horrifying it is to be on the other end of a drive-by as an unarmed bystander. Having nothing but our fragile bicycles to make a getaway with, we were forced to flee like rats against the tiger that was the Ballas in their large, protected, automobile that could crush us at any instance. If the car didn't kill us, it would certainly be the cornucopia of weapons that they had at their disposal. This perception of violence from the viewpoint of the bystander helps to put the player through the shoes of someone else in the same circumstances in a real life situation. If someone wished to imitate such an act in real life they might possibly stop to ask themselves, what if it were me as the potential target? How scared and defenseless would I feel? I partially know what it feels like, so do I really want to put someone else through the same experience?
Eventually I was able to complete the mission and managed to move on to a new objective. This next cutscene in particular certainly merits some discussion. Here we are given a more thorough introduction to one of the main characters of San Andreas, Ryder, who could certainly be considered a black stereotype. Ryder's style consists of a green coat, a crimson red cap, sunglasses, a black mustache, and typically smoking a cigarette. At first there seems to be little concern for any attention, however, it is Ryder's dialogue that really brings his character into spotlight. Ryder's first cutscene of true dialogue consists of the words "Nigga," "homie,""fo sho" (for sure), "crackin," "shit," "fucking," "You down," and "Let's go bitch," all stereotypical African American slang. Here we can see a huge amount of where the criticism for GTA stems from. This African American stereotype presents a poor portrayal of race and ethnicity for the black community. Whether or not the game deserves to be in the hands of someone below the age of eighteen is not the question we should be presented with. The question instead should be is if San Andreas were in the hands of, let us assume a ten year old as it is always possible that it will come through in some act or another, what kind of impact would this dialogue have on them? What kind of social environment is the child surrounded by that would affect his perception of Ryder's stereotype? Would this child be experienced enough with the American media to know that such a character is only a stereotype, or would this be their first and only portal into the culture of African American's? If this was their first time, how would they thereafter perceive African Americans in the real world? This ethical question of what would happen if such a scenario occurred must be accounted for as, whether GTA should ever be in the hands of a ten year old in the first place is a different ethical question entirely, it is always within the realm of possibility.
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