Blaming Games for Violence is the Same as Racism

[Scrustle]

I found an interesting article today on the Gameinformer website, in which a psychologist says that blaming video games for violence equates to racism. He says this because he claims when violent acts are carried out in white communities video games are often blamed, while they are not in communities which have more of a racial mix.

Here's the article:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/07/29/psychologist-says-blaming-games-for-violence-is-racist.aspx

It kind of makes sense to me, since being an ex-psychology student I have always recognised there is a similar kind of cognition between racism and peoples' view of other groups in society which they don't understand (like the way people treat fans of different consoles with such scorn). Also it could be that the type of people who would blame video games for violence are the type of people who are more likely to be racist anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if either were true.

What do you guys think of this? It's certainly food for thought and something I've never thought about before myself.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

Someone beat you to it by a couple hours. Sorry.

 

[Saelune]

Its a type of prejudice, just as racism is a type of prejudice.

 

[Palademon]

Makes sense to me. When I read the title I thought "Well yeah, it's discrimination".
But the point that you've said that goes a little further does make sense.

 

[Metaphysic]

Interesting. Makes sense, really.

 

[Scrustle]

Someone beat you to it by a couple hours. Sorry.

Oops sorry about that. I took a quick scan of the front page before posting, but didn't see anything that looked like it was to do with it.

 

[yuval152]

Unfortanely, The media industry always gives gamers bad repution.

 

[furmaster3000]

Its a type of prejudice, just as racism is a type of prejudice.

And just all around short sighted thinking. Nuff said ^^

 

[RedMore Trout]

Well thats just about the dumbest thing I've heard all day. There is evidence that suggests violent games can increase the likelyhood of a violent actions. And, I haven't seen a single scientific study that suggests people should be racist. Now, I am not saying that violent games should be banned (I love em myself) or even that those studies are accurate. I am simply saying "discriminating" against gamers is very, very different than discriminating against blacks.

 

[siahsargus]

Clearly, the solution here is to ban all white people /sarcasm. That was well stated, although I feel like he could have elaborated more. It wasn't racism, it was like racism. When video games are blamed for violence, it is stereotyping, scapegoating, and moral panic that do most of the thinking for people. While this is very similar to racism, it does not make it racism.