The Color Of Mayhem Rhetorical Analysis

Grand Theft Auto has been on the market since 1998 and since then 30 million copies have been sold (A Guide For College and Beyond, 2010, p. 494). After reading the article, The Color of Mayhem by Michael Marriot, I found out that over the years issues of this and many other video games have risen dramatically. Racial stereotyping, discrimination, and violence were explained as the most looked at. Parents are suspecting kids are learning ways from the game they are playing. Is the video game actually giving kids the wrong image or is it all just for fun?
The screen crackles with criminality as a gang of urban predators itch for a kill. The scene erupts into automatic-weapons fire in a drive-by nightmare of screaming car engines, senseless
death, and destruction set to a thumping rap soundtrack. (The Color of Mayhem, 2004, pp.494-496)
This is exactly how Michael Marriot describes the game Grand Theft Auto.
He gives details like “partly set in city resembling gang-ridden stretches”, “aiming Uzi’s out of low riding cars” and many others (The Color of Mayhem, 2004, p. 294). His article gives factual information of this game, and gives the reader many other opinions. For example, Joe Morgan quotes, “A lot of young people are unable to discern between reality and satirical depictions”. Michael also tells the reader about the many other games with these same types of critical claims: 25 to life, Notorious: Die to Drive, NBA Ballers, and many others. He tells about the cultural and political sides talked about. He also leaves the reader with thoughts of their own opinion, not just telling them which side he’s
on.
In America, racial discrimination has never gone away, it’s just over looked more today. Video games, like Grand Theft Auto, are only making matters worse. The guys from the games are only Hispanic or African American. Their hair is braided, they wear scarves covering their faces, and they are also armed and ready to shoot anyone or anything that crosses their path or gets in their way. Is this the image you want your children to follow?
This is affecting the self image of every Hispanic and African American youth in schools, malls and every other public place.
The video game teaches no respect, tolerance or responsibility. It’s giving kids more apt to “violence is the answer”, which is the main value being pushed out of school systems. They say we go to history class to keep history from repeating itself, but we make and play video games teaching kids all the wrong things to do. Don’t you think they are just going to repeat what they see?
Many of these video games are just representing the hip-hop style, attitude and appearance. The life of a gang member isn’t what any parent wants for their children, so why do they let them play these types of video games? They have to have some type of influence on them, if they are so interested in playing them. Parents are allowing their 7-13 year old children play Grand Theft Auto. Even after sitting and watching exactly what goes on, they allow it. Some of these games goal is to rule the streets and kill as many people as you
can.
Video game developers may argue with this point. They have been noted to saying there is no offence intended by these games, it’s just for fun (The Color of Mayhem, 2004). They are just putting into these games exactly what children see in the world around them. No one is trying to take away their artistic ability, but is there a reason for such racial stereotyping? Can’t they change things around a little so they don’t seem so racial? It seems to me that things could be change and then this problem would not being uprising. In 2001, magazine Children Now put out an issue stating that 1,500 video game characters were African American. Two hundred and eighty eight percent of them were being put into a stereotype and eighty three percent were presented as athletes (The Color of Mayhem, 2004). All these video games are notable for portrayal of urban black culture.
Being put into these stereotypes as a youth can determine where a child sits at the lunch table, whom he/she can be friends with and whom he/she can’t, and even as bad as where he/she can sit on the bus ride home from school. All the same issues are reoccurring on racial discrimination and these types of video games are helping none. Caucasians, Chinese, Japanese, even Arabic’s are criminals too. Why aren’t they part of these video games? Being equal means we should all be treated the same and given the same rights. No one should be more overlooked and no one should be pinpointed the way Hispanics and African Americans are today. Giving and letting your children play these types of video games in only making matters worse.