Virtual Racism - A New Form of Hate Propaganda

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                Grooms

Casey Grooms

English 1312

Emmy Perez

9 December 2002

Virtual Racism:

A New Form of Hate Propaganda

        Racism has been around for years and with racism comes a force of persuasion and influence.  Manifestations of racism are exemplified through the relocation of American Indians, Japanese Internment Camps, and the enslavement and racist movements against blacks.  Now with war or any political engagements or racist movements comes the art and warfare of propaganda.  Propaganda is a selfish attempt to manipulate and persuade people in accepting ideas and beliefs in the interest of a person or group to take advantage of society.  Propaganda is used to persuade and influence people’s minds and beliefs resulting in either to convince them or to advance a step further by taking a call to action.  

This destructive form of hate propaganda that corrupts, deceives, and influences judgments comes in a variety of forms.  According to Montgomery Police Headquarters, hate propaganda manifests itself in many different forms such as the following:

  • A derogatory pamphlet, flyer or leaflet distributed door to door.         
  • Racial graffiti defacing walls, buildings, sidewalks, etc.
  • Recorded telephone messages expressing hatred against an identifiable group. (2)

These examples are correct in some simple aspects, but wrong in today’s society.  The forms of propaganda like flyers and pamphlets are deteriorating fast and for the most part no longer used.  Times have changed and new forms of hate propaganda have emerged.  Simply put, hate groups are afraid of a fast changing world where they might be abandoned in views.  Racist organizations are now adapting to the environment by shifting their tactics and strategies to concur with ever changing time and society.  According to Loretta Rosa, author of Ethnic Violence, “White supremacists desperately need to reinvigorate their movement with new recruits by manipulating white fears into action” (79).

        To advance their messages, hate organizations must catch people in a vulnerable state, and use their fears to corrupt them.  Hate groups aim at recruiting two main segments of society: young adults alienated from society, and distraught people angry with the federal government.  These are the most vulnerable people to succumb under the power of influence.  So along with this recruitment, new forms of rhetoric materials must be implemented and incorporated into the new wave of hate propaganda--the virtual realm of cyberspace.  

        During recent years there have been immense technological advances that have provided negative implications.  The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization lead to expose and combat all forms of racism and challenge hate propaganda, states, “Hate groups are manipulating available technology to create violently racist and anti-Semitic versions of popular video games”(ADL).  Video games are a popular form of entertainment and are now being used to corrupt, deceive, and demoralize our nations’ youth.  Racist video games instill hatred in the hearts and minds of the young, and increase hostile and aggressive behavior.    

        Government intervention is eminent in needing to regulate and/or ban this promotion of hate and violence marketed to the youth.  The Internet is fairly easy to use and the accessibility of these racist/violent video games is extremely easy.  “Ethnic Cleansing” is such a game that is used as white supremacist propaganda to advertise and market their “thought to be justified” argument on white superiority and dominance.  Therefore racist video games are a new form of hate propaganda and should be regulated against from being marketed and easily accessed by the youth.  Violence against non-whites is incorporated into these violent video games resulting in an arousal of aggressive and hostile behavior.  This essentially will have profound negative effects and consequences on children as well as adolescents to adults. 

        Since the introduction of video games they have contained a high degree of violence.  Racist and violent video games can be accounted for juvenile delinquency and misconduct.  Children tend to interpret this violence against humans as okay and justified if it is seen daily on their television screen.  Children copycat and imitate actions that they see; they are visual learners and have not developed cognitive recognition between the distinctions of reality vs. virtual reality.  A study done by Dale Irwin and Robert Gross (1995), two social psychologists, investigated this subject and compared the effects of violent or non-violent video games on second graders.  Irwin and Gross found that, “the boys who played the violent video games displayed more verbal and aggression to inanimate objects and playmates during a subsequent free play session” (5).

        This research demonstrates that playing violent video games can increase a person’s aggressive thought, behavior, and feelings.  Case studies provide clear evidence that there is a direct correlation between violent video games and an increase in aggressive tendencies and behaviors.  Although there were no case studies about racist video games and a relationship with aggressive behavior.  Human nature directs boys to violence, resulting in video game manufacturers to market and provide more violent games to attract their attention and money.  Time spent playing video games has increased and it has been reported that boys tend to play more than girls as well as favor violence.  A cause and effect relationship could be found in all aspects of this topic such as an increase in violent games results in an increase in amount of time spent playing.  This effects and decreases the time spent involved in academics like studying and doing homework.  This decrease in motivation of school results in an overall decrease in performance in school and academic grades.  To touch upon the subject of favorite video games according to Dr. David Walsh, an author from Media Family, an online journal:

A small-scale study found the most popular categories of video games of males were: fantasy violence, with 32 per cent of players preferring such games; sports (29 per cent), general entertainment (20 per cent), human violence (17 per cent), and educational (2 per cent). –(Media Family)

        This study demonstrates that violence was the most popular choice, especially with males.  Another case study, performed by Leonard Holmes whom has a PhD in psychology, found the direct relationship concerning violent video games and an increase in aggressive behavior in a controlled laboratory experiment.  In brief, college students competed against each other in either a violent or a non-violent video game. The winner was allowed to buzz the losing opponent with a sound of various decibels and intensities.  Research found that students who played the violent video game blasted the opponent louder and longer with the highest degree of intensity.  This aggressive behavior deriving from violent video games directly exemplifies the positive relationship that is claimed.  With increased aggressive behavior, in some cases, come violent acts imposed upon innocent people.  

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        Manifestations of this arousal in hostile and aggressive behavior can be seen in real life.  Evidence of this can be seen in April 1999 at Columbine High School by the actions of two male students named Eric Harris and Darren Klebold.  A large fraction of this violent rampage is claimed to be derivations of violent video games, music, and other sources that could have implanted messages into their minds.  These two male students engaged in a rampage of violence and hatred by shooting either random people, or stereotyped students like “jocks,” nerds, or mainly popular kids.  Harris and Klebold struck ...

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