The Importance of Black Representation in Games

It’s Black History Month in the UK right now, and we wanted to take the time to talk about representation in games, why it matters, and how to do it. So without further ado, here we go!

Why it's important

For many white people, particularly in majority white nations like those in Europe and North America, it can be difficult to understand why representation matters to people of colour. In many of these countries, people will have spent their entire lives being the majority, if not the only ethnicity represented in media, whether it’s film, television, and more recently, video games. For black people especially, outside of a few popular actors and TV shows, the majority of black representation came in the form of sportspeople and music, with much of the latter eventually being co-opted by white artists, too.

Seeing yourself in the media you consume is affirming. Seeing people that look like you succeed and seeing stories similar to yours being told show that someone like you can succeed too. Part of what made Black Panther such a critical success when it came out in 2018 was that it showed the black people (and most importantly young black people) that the glory and values pushed by superhero films were reflected by black people, providing great role models for young people both in terms of the values the characters exemplify, but also that black people can achieve great things in real life, in industries like film and beyond.

Marvel’s iconic comic creator Stan Lee famously noted that one of Spider-Man’s greatest strength as a character is that anyone could imagine themselves underneath the costume, whether they are white or not. For white players, taking up the role of Peter Parker again in Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man is nothing noteworthy, but for black people, the chance to play as Miles Morales in his eponymous game is a big deal – it’s the chance to truly see themselves as the character they’re playing as, and seeing stories they can relate to being told in their favourite medium. ?

How it should be done?

Since the late 1990s, we’ve certainly seen an increase in representation, and black characters now represent some of the most iconic and beloved characters in gaming history. Dee Jay and Eddy Gordo from Street Fighter and Tekken, Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2, and of course CJ from GTA San Andreas are all vastly different, well-designed, and iconic characters representing some of the best games of their eras.

But representation also has to be positive, and not simply representation for representation’s sake. One of the earliest examples of a black character in gaming was Jim, the escaped slave in the 1989 NES adaptation of Tom Sawyer, in which he is depicted as a frankly horrendous, golliwog-like caricature. And while this is certainly an extreme example, it illustrates the fact that simply putting black characters in a game isn’t enough, and that they should be treated with the same respect as white characters, without resorting to stereotypes.

While CJ in GTA: San Andreas is a complex and well-written character, the nature of the GTA series meant that his character risked feeding into stereotypes of black people and their relationship with violence, provoking a negative image of the black community. This certainly isn’t to say that black people should never be represented in this way, as like previously mentioned, CJ is an incredible character in an incredible game, but it does speak to the necessity for black characters to be represented in a variety of ways and walks of life, similarly to the portrayal of white characters.

One of the greatest examples of this, in my opinion, is that of Lee Everett in The Walking Dead. Lee is one of the best written characters in gaming history, representing an emotional, complex person coming to terms with the fall of humanity, all while protecting and helping to raise a young girl he takes under his wing. The values extolled by Lee in the games are prevalent enough that the series’ future protagonist, Clementine, continues to look back on Lee and the lessons he taught. Lee is the perfect example of a black character who isn’t there for tokenistic reasons. He represents elements of black culture without being dominated by stereotypes, all the while providing an extremely relatable and likeable protagonist for the player to control. While it certainly isn’t the only way to represent black culture, it’s hard to argue that Lee isn’t one of the best characters to do it.

Final Thoughts

For people who have always been represented in the media they consume, it can be difficult to understand why it’s so important. Representation is hugely meaningful to underrepresented groups and can have great benefits in terms of providing great role models for young people, as well as providing great representation of those groups to people outside of those groups too. This piece only touches on some of the great stories told by black characters, and there are so many more we could have included. Great black characters in gaming have the propensity to be so much to so many people, and it’s so important that we keep working to make sure that black people get the representation they deserve.

Next week we’ll be diving into some of the best black talent in the gaming industry, the impact they’ve had and how they have paved the way for the future of black game development, so stick around!