Videos games play a major role in today’s popular culture.  They are normally played by all ages, but especially by younger generations.  Certain video games can sometimes influence the way children think, or portray a specific image.

            I was never a video game guru, but my cousin was.  I would go to his house often and we would spend countless hours playing his Playstation 2.  Instead of games like The Mario Bros, Fantasia, or Go Diego Go, he played games violent games like Saints Row, and the infamous Grand Theft Auto.  The first time I played Grand Theft Auto was at his house.  I was around seven or eight and did not know how to play.  He turned the game on and suddenly the screen became dark.  The setting was an inner city and displayed all of the characteristics.  Characters were migrating on street corners, shops were bordered up, stores looked broken into, and police officers roamed the streets.  I asked my cousin what I was supposed to do, and he replied “Get money!”

            He instructed me to use the gun to steal cars, rob stores, and kill people in order to obtain money.  I even could run people over to steal their belongings.  Now that I am looking back at this game, stereotypical characters were involved – minorities.  There were mainly Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asians robbing white people.  Is this what the video game producers assumed as normal life for minorities?

            I cannot determine if playing Grand Theft Auto endlessly had an effect on my cousin, but subconsciously, he, like all the other children playing, believed this is how the minority interacted with the majority.