Grand Theft Auto: Depictions of Minorities
Red Dead Redemption, La Noire, and Grand Theft Auto V. Not only are they all among the list of my favorite video games, but also on the list of video games produced by Rockstar Games. Though all good games in the opinion of many, looking back at them now I realize that not many of the Rockstar games I have played have had characters which were people of color, both playable and supporting. As someone who has grown to become aware of just how little of myself I see on-screen I was not too surprised; Latinx people are very rarely seen as central characters in any type of media . However, the realization also raises two questions: how often have minorities been main characters in Rockstar franchises — specifically in the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) franchise -, and how heavily has Rockstar relied on stereotypes to create the characters in question?
When I embarked on my research journey for this piece, I was not sure what information I would discover. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the first and original Grand Theft Auto, often referred to as GTA 1, was the first game in the franchise to have playable characters of color. This is due to the fact that GTA 1 gives the player the option of choosing who their protagonist is from a pool of characters, five of which are people of color. A franchise only twenty-two years in the making though, Grand Theft Auto has come a long way since the original GTA was released in 1997. Today in 2019, the GTA most often talked about is Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V). It is the most recent installment in the franchise, having been released in September of 2013. It is also the most successful GTA with over 100 million copies sold since its release. (Crescente, 2018). The growth and development of the franchise is very apparent when comparing the two side by side, with innovations and improvements in mechanics and graphics obvious throughout the game play. An example of just how much has changed between the first and last GTA is that GTA V does not give one the option of choosing their avatar, instead giving the player three assigned protagonists.
What about all the years between the first GTA and GTA V? Rockstar went on to produce 14 more installments for the franchise between the years of 1999 and 2013. As the years went by and innovations were implemented, Rockstar also altered how many possible protagonists were in each game, going from having protagonists to choose from, to having a single and assigned protagonist, then finally to three playable main characters in GTA V. This meant that between all 15 of the games there were 27 possible main characters. Out of these 27 playable characters, only 11 were people of color. If we break it down even further, there were five protagonists which were Black, four which were Latinx (though they were referred to as “Hispanic”), and two which were Asian. 11 protagonists of color is less than half of their total, but it is still a considerably good number for the video game industry. However, despite the fact that their number of playable characters of color were high for the industry, only three other ethnicities besides white are represented, and in a shallow and stereotypical manner.
Say we were to focus on the top three best-selling games in the franchise; Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (San Andreas), Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV), and Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V). Within these three games there is five avatars, and two of these avatars are people of color. In fact, both of these avatars are black (which is an example of America’s simultaneous obsession with black culture and its problem with Blaxploitation, but that is a whole other story).
The avatars in question are CJ (full name Carl Johnson) from San Andreas and Franklin Clinton from GTA V. One cannot judge Rockstar for making their black protagonists criminals in a game about committing crimes. Unlike their white counterparts who are mobsters and big-time bank robbers, however, CJ and Franklin are both “gangbangers” in the “ghetto”. In comparison to the mob/mafia and pulling heists, being a gangbanger seems like a much pettier type of criminal life.
CJ, the protagonist in the 2004 San Andreas, is “the second-in-command of the Los Santos-based street gang, the Grove Street Families.” (https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Carl_Johnson) CJ comes back to Los Santos after his mother’s death to find that his hometown gang has lost its social influence. The player then goes through the game with the goal of gaining that power and influence back. It could be argued that CJ was created in such a manner that allows others to “experience” what it is like to be black, even though CJ’s story is not an accurate depiction of what it is like to be black since not all black people are poor, uneducated, or criminals. San Andreas, which is “set in the early 1990’s,” “offers the player the opportunity to act out popular-culture fantasies of middle-class youths through the representation of poor, inner city, African-American existence.” (Barrett, 2006). Not only is CJ’s character very much the stereotypical power-hungry thug, but his backstory is similar to those of other black characters across different forms of media. Think Kiara from the Fosters, Marcus Reed from True Crime, or Terry Jeffords from Brooklyn 99. All of these characters have had single parents and an unnamed, abusive, or criminalized parent. CJ is no different in this phenomenon: CJ’s mother was a single mother with four children, and had a father that he did not know.
Not much has changed in the way that Rockstar depicted Franklin nine years later in GTA V . Franklin, this generation’s black character, “… smokes marijuana all day and is constantly referred to as [the N-word] by his friend Lamar.” (Polasek, 2014), which already is a heavy generalization of a whole population. Franklin is a “gangbanger” and “dope dealer” turned heist man. Despite being nine years apart in creation, Franklin can mirror CJ in several ways. Franklin too had a single mother and a father he had never met. However, unlike CJ’s mother, Franklin’s mother was a drug addict who eventually died as a result of her addiction. To add to that, Franklin is a part of the gang which CJ also belonged to. As a cherry on top, Rockstar commissioned CJ’s voice actor to voice Franklin — which may be harmless, but they could have put some effort into finding someone just as talented and qualifying for the role. Sixteen years after the original GTA, and nine years after San Andreas, the details put into the visual simulation of a city are much more advanced in GTA V. The in-game version South Central however may not shed a positive light on the city. “The game design of Franklin’s community illustrates the criminal threat hypothesis; where whites rely on the racial stereotype of blacks posing a greater criminal threat, linking the presence of blacks in an area to an increase in the perceived risk of crime. (Pickett et al. 2012)” (Polasek, 2014) When playing this criminal threat hypothesis can be seen through the increased violence, increased non-playable character car chases, and through the spontaneous shoot outs.
Besides being created as street thugs, there is so much more evidence that shows just how much Rockstar was relying on stereotypes to give “depth” to their black characters, while also looking for any means possible to ensure they would not have to take responsibility for actions related to the depictions of their characters. Rockstar wanted to give the player a chance at the “black experience,” but may have done so through the eyes of non-black game developers seeking no repercussions .
Looking at CJ, the first non-white avatar of the franchise, we can see this. Rockstar would hand over CJ’s aesthetic appearance to the player, which “may have… helped Rockstar avoid criticism for creating a racial caricature,” because “if players want to give him the huge muscles, gold chains, cornrows, and tattoos of a stereotypical street thug, they are the ones who carry the burden of representation.” (Miller, 2007). Yet, in game play, every time that Miller would attempt “a particular drive-by shooting mission, my car radio switched to the gangsta rap station with no input from me.” (Miller, 2007). Though an “apparent programing glitch,” the impact this would have is further ingraining incorrect or stereotypes of black men into the players.
Relying heavily on stereotypes leads to characters not having as great of an experience too, as some of the experiences which Franklin or CJ may go through too closely resemble the day-to-day life for black people. Many players noticed that when playing as Franklin, the in-game police would act much more aggressively towards the player.
This prompted Rockstar to release a statement saying that “This is absolutely false, the in-game police don’t treat one lead character any differently from the others,” (Bernstein, 2013), yet “there are countless videos on YouTube from game players that show police officers attacking Franklin for no apparent reason …” (Jouvenaar, 2017). The fact that in GTA V a white character might “… change speech and start talking with street language when interacting with Franklin,” is something that very much resembles the awkward conversations that black people in real life may go through, whether or not they actually speak in “street language”. For those who played San Andreas, “CJ actually seems too real … the race and class issues raised by the game too close to home to be funny.” (Miller, 2007). Though the game developers and non-black players might see this as just fun and games, black players might not.
Rockstar may have created a plentiful amount of their Grand Theft Auto characters to be people of color, but it is obvious through the caricatures of Franklin and CJ that not much effort was put into really creating their characters. The characters are much too cookie-cut, copy-paste in terms of backgrounds, characteristics, and true personality. Highly successful and known world-wide, Rockstar is benefiting from their stereotypical and shallow characters of color without thinking about how this may change how a whole group of already marginalized people may be seen across the whole world. There is, of course, a connection between how accurate the people of color are depicted in these games and how many people of color are behind the scenes. Were Rockstar to portray their characters of color in a more accurate manner, perhaps players of color would be able to further enjoy their gaming experience in the world of Grand Theft Auto.
Note: This piece was written for the Digital Games History course taught by A.M. Darke of UCSC. This is an academic piece, please treat it kindly.
