Representations in San Andreas

Alot of fellow students have defended San Andreas, arguing that it does not harm or impact how we live out our 'real' lives. San Andreas is indeed harmful to society, in particular Afro-American culture.

The concept of playing a black street gangsta must not be ignored when looking at the effects the game has on us. It represents a particular segment of society and as such changes our understanding of this particular segment of society through representing it in the manner it does. San Andreas is definitely not the sole element in this representation but belongs to a larger discourse in popular culture of Afro-American representation. As we learned in stage one this representation is neither fully absorbed or completely denied and is instead negotiated into our understanding. Although there may be an element of 'truth' to this representation of ganglands in America (nobody can deny the existence of street gangs in urban America), the decision to portray this to a global audience can dominate our perception of what is to be black in America.

Furthermore the idea of creating a game with an anti-social, violent Afro-American protagonist, in conjunction with the lack of other Afro-American protagonists represented in popular culture is very irresponsible. In much the same way hip-hop culture can be argued as harmful to black culture, San Andreas perpetuates a character (CJ) that those which he represents aspire to be. In this regard a white middle class male may not be affected in the same way, as representation of him in popular media would be different, thus not feel the desire to aspire to be like CJ.

The argument of San Andreas brainwashing us on a unifrom level to shoot prostitutes and jack cars may be wrong but it doesn't make the game any less harmless.