{"id":21408,"date":"2020-12-22T11:59:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T19:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=21408"},"modified":"2023-10-02T11:37:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T18:37:45","slug":"leveling-up-representation-depictions-of-people-of-color-in-video-games","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/leveling-up-representation-depictions-of-people-of-color-in-video-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Leveling Up Representation: Depictions of People of Color in Video Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nadine Dornieden<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The $100+ billion video game industry is big. So big, in fact, that it dwarfs both the film and music industry <\/span>combined.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0Gaming as a hobby has become much more popular every year since the 1990s, after Nintendo <\/span>paved the way<\/span><\/a> with their seminal game Super Mario Bros<\/em>. for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and later with the Gameboy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some may be surprised to learn that the most-active gameplaying demographic is African American teenagers: A 2015 <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> showed that 83%<\/strong> of non-Hispanic Black teenagers play video games, compared to 71% of Caucasian teenagers, with 69% of Hispanic teens not too far behind. With the high percentage of teens of color playing games, representation is incredibly important but has \u2014 at least historically \u2014 been lacking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s step back for a moment into that history, such as it is.<\/p>\n

The first video game featuring a Black person was <\/span>Heavyweight Champ<\/i><\/strong>, an arcade fighting game released by SEGA in 1976, then remade in 1987, and re-released again in the early ’90s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\"SEGA\n

For a time, some of the only places where Black characters could be found was in sports games, such as <\/span>PUNCH OUT!!<\/span><\/i>, released in 1987 for the NES. Unfortunately, these characters were often cast as caricatures, with exaggerated, grotesque features, like Jim in Square\u2019s family computer game <\/span>Tom Sawyer<\/i><\/strong>, which UGO<\/a><\/i> ranked as the #4 most racist video game in history.<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n\"NES\n