Race and Ethnicity

If you're an educated person, then you are aware that racism and discrimination is still at large. May not be as severe during the black vs. white days but these issues are still present. People unfortunately still classify race in different groups based on the individuals charactericts. If you look at the big picture, there is only one race, the human race. It should not be the color of your skin or any other bodily features that defines who you are or what category you should be placed based on human perception. We should all be treated equally. I recently saw on CNN that some Americans are not pleased how Obama is running our country and they are balsy enough to address the color of his skin as part of the problem. It's shocking to see that racism is still around and will continue to be for as long as the human race is around. One thing that caught my attention in the article is the "one-drop" rule. It states that any degree of African ancestry is enough to classify an individual as black. It is very sad to see how black people have been viewed as bad. As if it's almost a sin to be a black person. It is wrong to have that kind of perception and not everyone sees that even now in the 21st century. Current films such as District 9 and The Final Destination address the issue. Yes, I know I included Final Destination and for those who havent seen it, watch it and you will see what I'm talking about. In regards to video games, it's clear that majority of video game characters are white. Solid snake, Drake from Uncharted, Prototype, Infamous and many others. If there is an asian, black or hispanic character in a game, they are protrayed as gangsters or criminals and are killed off shortly during the story line. None are given the lead role in a video game story. Nevertheless, we play these games because they entertain us.

In regards to my game of choice, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the story centers around Nathan Drake, an white American treasure hunter. There are only two females in the game, Chloe and Elena. But keep in mind Elena was in the first Uncharted game and was just as agile as Nathan throughout his adventure. What I found interesting is there are two old characters in the entire game. One is named Sully. To be honest, that old man can not only hold his own during a gunfight but he can run, climb and do almost anything Nathan can. But there are scenes in the game that he reference his age as an excuse for not wanting to continue in Drake's journey. I did find very few black characters in the game who happen to be villains. What surprised me the most is the developers actually had Nepalese villagers of Tibet speak their language. I'm not sure if the language is accurate but it definitely had you guessing what the villagers were saying. Even the main character was clueless as to what the Nepalese village was saying. Talk about diversity! During the cutscenes of Nepalese village, I was surprised to see that the second old game character, village elder, was a westerner who claimed to be in an identical situation as Drake seven years ago. It comes to no surprise that the elder is later killed in the game and Sully survives the journey because he is one of the main supporting characters in the story.