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 the nation with fear and soon copycat and imitated crimes sprawled out of this deranged misfortune. The fact that copycat crimes, such as other mass school shootings, resulted emphasizes that people imitate actions, especially actions of violence.
This unfortunate mishappening has been linked with a popular violent video game entitled “Doom.” “Doom” is a first person shooting game where the player acts is a rage of violence and kills any living thing that crosses his aim/scope. In Harris and Klebolds’ personal web site they modified and customized this game to their own liking. In their personal version, that could be easily accessed on the Internet, there were two shooters instead of one, extra weapons, and the opponents could not shoot back. In essence, these two deranged students eventually acted out their manipulated version of the game in real life onto innocent classmates. This is clear evidence that violent video games threaten the well being of society.
There have been other manipulations of “Doom” such as “WPDoom.” WP stands for “white power,” and promotes the extinction of non-whites and other ethnic minorities. In WPDoom, the main character kills blacks instead of vicious aliens. Games such as these impose a serious threat and produce negative consequences that have resulted in aggressive behavior whether in a controlled laboratory experiment or the real world. “Ethnic Cleansing” (E.C.) is another game that incorporates racism into the mainstream plot. This severely racist video game was created by a white supremacist organization called Resistance Records. Resistance Records is a hate group that manufactures and sells hate paraphernalia. This game is used as hate propaganda to market and sell this game to the youth in hopes to influence and corrupt their vulnerable minds, while in the midst of recruiting them as a white supremacist. This will potentially increase the possibility of violent acts upon ethnic minorities and increase the populations of Klan members or white supremacists.
E.C. promotes the genocide of Blacks, Latinos, and Jews while engaging in a plot to regain American democracy in the hands of only whites. This would put whites in a dominant position and they would have the upper hand in all aspects of life. The player is in a battle to exterminate (cleanse) the nation of these different nationalities. In ADL’s report of E.C. they state, “The primary purpose of the game is to ‘kill the subhumans’ i.e. the Blacks, Latinos, and Jews, who are portrayed as the personification of evil” (“Racist Groups”).
This perception of being represented as the personification of evil derives from white hate groups’ views on different nationalities. These racist views come into the belief that whites are more superior to non-whites. Supposedly, inferiority comes in the form of character differentiation such as race, skin color, religion, and so on. Blacks, Latinos, and Jews are “evil” in the sense that they are naturally inferior and morally/ethically wicked. White supremacists claim that these races are at fault for everything wrong in their lives, or the human race in general, and are the imperfections of God. According to James A. Baldwin, an author of white power books, “The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world’s definitions.” (Brainyquote) To many of them, God’s most serious imperfection would be the creation of the now dark angel Lucifer. Lucifer is represented as the essence of all “evil” in the world and in the underground world. Therefore, Gods one fault would be the creation of evil; this imperfection results in the imperfections exemplified as non-whites.
These imperfections are now incorporated in virtual reality as a form of hate propaganda against the inferior chosen people according to white hate groups. In E.C., this virtual racist video game, the player can choose to be either a neo-nazi skinhead, or a KKK member fully clothed in the infamous and significantly symbolic white robes. These white robes are significant in the aspect that they portray the purity, cleanliness, and superiority of white people.
Ethnic Cleansing is set in a New York type city that has been overthrown and destroyed by “subhuman gangs.” The player must now proceed to kill these “subhumans,” and save this “white world.” Stereotypes are also overly exaggerated in this racist video game. These stereotypes can lead to discrimination, violence, decrease academic performance, and damage self-image and memory or other such negative effects, because victims of stereotypes will be hurt consciously and self-esteem levels will decrease. ADL comments:
During the game monkey and ape sounds are heard when Blacks are killed, poncho wearing Latinos say ‘I’ll take a siesta now!’ or ‘Ay Carumba!’ while ‘Oy Vey!’ rings out when Jewish characters are killed. The game has a high level of background detail and various National Alliance signs and posters appear throughout while racist rock blares on the soundtrack. (ADL)
There are backgrounds of swastikas and other hate related insignia depicting white power, which will provide negative effects such as supporting hate groups and ideologies which in turn creates more hatred and recruits more people. There is a video clip in Ethnic Cleansing of William Pierce discussing and promoting the need for a white revolution. He justifies this argument by claiming that whites are the chosen superior and dominant race and should have complete control of the nation. Pierce is the author of Turner Diaries, a famous white supremacist book justifying white supremacy. Resistance Records is also producing a video game based on the novel Turner Diaries where the player can use biological, chemical, and nuclear warfare to virtually eliminate non-white ethnicities (Resistance Records). The use of virtual extermination of a particular race is almost life threatening to the race and creates more hatred upon a race. While investigating the website of Resistance Records, the actual producer and manufacturer of E.C., I came across the advertisement for Ethnic Cleansing. It appeals to players by attracting their attention for a white revolution by stating in bold letters, “Celebrate Martin Luther King Day with a Virtual Race War!” This game can be bought on Resistance Records at the price of $14.88 and is used by right wing hate groups to corrupt and recruit the minds, hearts, and dollars of our nations’ youth.
Ethnic Cleansing is an extremely racist/violent video game that plays on the fears of whites as having subhumans rule the nation. This is clearly a tactic and strategy used by hate organizations as a form of hate propaganda. ADL states, “Ethnic Cleansing allows players to interact in a racist environment in which they indulge their fantasies.” (ADL) These fantasies of being to assassinate and virtually exterminate all minorities and non-whites can provide negative implications. There are other racist video games that embody the similar theme of genocide. Examples are “Shoot the Blacks,” WPDoom-WP standing for White Power, Aryan Nation, and other racist video games that can be easily accessed from children to adolescents to adults.
Electronic gaming industries, such as Resistance Records, promote these violent/racist video games to children whom are predominantly the market force. They themselves acknowledge that people between the ages of 12 and 25 make up a substantial percentage of the audience; therefore, these games are targeted directly to this market force. The accessibility of racist/violent video games is unbelievably ridiculous. Retailers and Internet sites make little or no effort to restrict the sale and access of products relating to violent/racist content. For example, Ubid.com, an online auction company allows the buy and sell of hate related material. Access to these games is extremely easy and can be obtained without parental consent. “Sex Sells” is a common phrase used by the media to argue the need for sexual material, as does violence sells. “Violence Sells” is a phrase that is necessary to be used as this grabs the attention of potential players. This racist and violent content is used as an instigator to propagate violent and malicious acts. This can lead to racist motivated hate crimes that inflict damage upon the victim and their race either physically and/or mentally. Racist organizations use this philosophy of “Violence Sells” and the fact that people imitate actions to solicit their propaganda to the potential recruits.
Nathaniel Sheppard Jr. is a Washington correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, and author of Racist Groups Are Thriving on the Internet, comments on the spread to hate propaganda on the Internet. Sheppard begins his introduction by stating:
Ku Klux Klan used to terrorize people in the dead of the night with ropes, and burning crosses. Now it sneaks in quietly through home computers and elicits pictures of horror and high-tech messages of hate. Spreading hate has become easy, inexpensive, and unrestricted. (24)
Hate groups are adapting to this high-tech world and using it to their advantage. As Sheppard states, it is “…easy, inexpensive, and unrestricted.”
The easier it is to create a web site, the easier it becomes to access it. Racist websites propagating the advancement of white supremacy have sprang up and are now countless. Websites such as National Alliance, Resistance Records, New World Order, Aryan Nation, and KKK online and other white supremacy sites or neo-nazi sites have infiltrated the Internet like annoying parasites living off the deprivation of their hosts. These numerous sites make it easier for children through irrational adults to access this hate related material. A website entitled “Las Vegas Skinheads” showed the amount of visitors since the website was established and read 15504 visitors.
These websites advertise and sell hate paraphernalia to spread their views to anybody ignorant enough to listen. Their products are relatively cheap in comparison to same products of a higher stature. For example, “Ethnic Cleansing” which is administered under Resistance Records sells the game at a very low price of $14.88 and will be shipped domestically or even internationally. Usually games for the computer running by CD-ROM format should cost well above $30. This CD-ROM game is at a “steal” when compared to similar non-hate games such as Grand Theft Auto 3 averaging from $30-$60. Hate sites also sell items such as t-shirts, buttons, stickers, hats, other hate items that can display “team logos” and messages. More valued items are also sold that are used to influence people such as music C.D’s, DVD’s, literature, pictures, video games, and other items that carry strong messages of hate. These materials of hate propaganda influence and corrupt the young so that their mind becomes filled with thoughts of hate.
Demos are available for FREE on their websites, and the order form is simple enough that if a child knows the address to their house they can simply order one. “Ethnic Cleansing” and other racist video games can be downloaded directly on file sharing programs like Kazaa.com or Bearshare.com. Although if someone does not want to download the entire version of E.C, one can however download the William Pierce video clip that justifies a white revolution. This video clip is installed in the CD-ROM for E.C., which will be accessed by kids who play the game. If someone does not feel like downloading or purchasing a racist video game, one can play it directly from these popular hate sites. Someone can play online versions of these games with or against other players, and chat about white supremacy while doing so. Organizations like Resistance Records have made it easy for people of all ages to access these games and sites. The world of virtual cyberspace is like a devil’s playground for racist organizations.
Racist Internet sites and racist video games take upon the form of hate propaganda. They introduce the realm of white supremacy and racism to children at an early age. These targeted children have accessed racist paraphernalia have not yet developed full cognitive reasoning skills and abilities. They cannot yet distinguish the difference between what is real and what is virtual reality in absolute form. Hate groups are marketing racist video games to the youth, who do not have logical and rational skills to always appropriately determine what is right/wrong, moral/immoral, and ethical or unethical. The virtual realm of cyberspace protects hate groups’ ideology, speeches, and advertisements to our nations’ youth because the First Amendment law applies to the Internet.
This protection of hate propaganda comes from the First Amendment of the Constitution. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;” This Constitutional Amendment translates into granting the privilege and right of freedom of expression. Although the Constitution protects Americans’ freedom of expression and people are entitled to their own opinion, it must protect against racism and forms of hate. Government protection of racism can be seen with the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and also the Civil Rights Act. These protected minorities especially Blacks against racism and secured their freedom and granted them equal citizenship.
For a statement or a speech to be protected under American law, it must be deemed as a direct and credible threat that might lead to a violent assault or an unlawful action. This threat must be against an identifiable individual, organization, or institution; it cannot be vague or broad in aspects like race, religion, and color of skin to be prosecuted. It must be a direct threat targeted to someone to be considered challengeable or prosecuted under U.S. law. According to ADL, Combating Extremism in Cyberspace:
It may be possible to prosecute racially motivated harassing speech transmitted over the Internet as a violation of state or Federal laws prohibiting harassment. In order for speech to be considered harassing, it must be persistent and pernicious and must inflict significant emotional or physical harm to specific individuals. (4)
These virtual hate crimes are unnecessary and inferior to our own intelligence and rationalization of what is deemed moral and ethical. These harassing hate crimes are uncompassionate, uncivilized, and inhumane. These written views are slander to non-whites name and reputation, which is illegal and punishable by law. These threats are persistent and hurtful to non-whites mental states and people might take action upon these threats and therefore be hurtful to non-whites physically as well. This is a direct threat to our humanitarian principles and ideologies of philanthropy perspectives. These Constitutionally protected hate crimes need to be restricted and/or regulated against from being easily accessed by children or for that matter, adults too. Hate propaganda are clear forms of hate motivated crimes, and promote the genocide of various ethnic races such as the video game “Ethnic Cleansing.” Whether in reality or virtual reality, hate propaganda are direct threats to a race and could possibly lead to unlawful and malicious acts by children whom often imitate actions seen.
Government intervention is eminent when needing to either prosecute hate group intentions and propaganda, or banning all together racist websites that threaten the lives of ethnic minorities. ADL reports, “Constitutionally protected speech may only be restricted if the government can demonstrate a compelling state interest in doing so.” (ADL) This state interest should be the protection of citizens and protection of civil liberties given to them by the Constitution. The state has an obligation to fulfill which is to protect all citizens and protect the rights given to them by the Constitution. It would be an infringement upon the Constitution and their citizenship rights if the government does not regulate the incoming threats and harassments to ethical minorities.
To protect these liberties from becoming obstructed regarding hate messages in the form of racist video games, the government appointed a board to rate games before being released to the market. The Electronic Software Ratings Board (ESRB) was created as a non-profit organization to provide ratings for electronic video games. ESRB provides comprehensive ratings for video and computer games, as well as websites. ESRB gives parents the knowledge and proper information in order to make decent decisions if a certain game is acceptable and appropriate for their child. ESRB actually decreases the chance that a random act of violence will occur due to the graphic nature of games if and only if the parents get involved with their child and uses the information given by ESRB to make proper decisions. ESRB made it distinctly clear about whose responsibility it is to protect the child from potential harmful games. ESRB states, “With the ESRB, the control is in your hands” (ESRB).
This immediately puts the responsibility on parents to take control of the problem in racist/violent video games. Video game manufacturers, retailers, and even hate groups condemn parents with the notion that parents lack of responsibility and control is to be blamed rather than actual racist/violent video games. Parental responsibility is another opposing argument to this controversial issue. The counter-argument is that the contribution of negative effects derives not only from video games, but also in the lack of parental control, responsibility, and discipline. The lack of good parenting techniques results in negligence and ignorance of parental concern. There needs to be some kind of education for the parents on proper parenting techniques and even explain to them thoroughly on how to understand how games might be rated.
Parents could be ignorant in the aspect that they themselves are racist. This then would contribute to their children being racist as well. Their children would have been brought up in a racist environment and family background. So the parents are teaching them early on and justifying the racist movements. The parents will themselves purchase racist material for their children to recruit them into their ideologies at an early age where they are more vulnerable to accept ideas. Children who come from moral and ethical families are not that susceptible to hate and not likely to be recruited from hate groups. But other influences such as who their friends are and where they live can have a contributing factor in influencing them into hate views. Therefore parents need to be educated on moral and ethical values with their delinquent children.
There are also other contributing factors to aggressive behavior such as economic educational status, place of residence, and other factors. To further counter-argue preceding claims regarding of racist video games and this form of hate propaganda, follows the argument that there are implications and complications involved when performing psychological case studies. Psychologists L. Bensley and J. van Eenwyk published an article in the Oct. 2001 issue of Journal of Adolescent Health they claim, “there are other factors such as family disruption and parental abuse or neglect are more predictive of youth violence and delinquency than the use of video games. Studies varied greatly in design and quality, that leads us to conclude that a major deficiency in randomized, well-controlled studies prevent firm determinations from being reached” (2).
Major inconsistencies are implied in this statement that involve controlled laboratory experiments. The implication drawn is that there are personal and social characteristics that differentiate amongst one another to accurately determine any effects, thus creating instability in a case study. Personal and social characteristics that create instability are for example: age, gender, economic and educational status, cultural heritage, surrounding environment, and other influences that create a disturbance in psychological analysis of case studies that alter and manipulate data.
Bensley and Eenwyk performed their own case study and found that both calming and arousal effects were seen, and there was no consistent relationship demonstrated between violent video games and actual behavior (2). This means that in the study of violent video games, both effects were common, arousal in aggression and a decrease in aggression. So depending on the actual person and their characteristics there should be no definite conclusion on whether video games increase aggression or not. Bensley and Eenwyk report, “In college students and young adults, calming effects were more common, particularly if prior mood was hostile, angry, or aggressive” (2). This evidence supports the claim that there are imperfections when performing studies and calculating the effects. The complications might very well depend on individual characteristics, as well as complexity of game that could frustrate someone.
In refutation to the opposing arguments, these claims are not indistinguishable from the truth. In reference to the Constitutional Amendments, these speeches and racist video games as a form of hate propaganda are virtual hate crimes that should be abolished. These virtual hate crimes harm citizens whom are targeted against psychologically and physically. Ethnic minorities are hurt mentally by being degraded, dishonored, and harassment is slander to their name. Physical harm comes from the manifestations of violent/racist video games enacted out upon non-whites, which was created by propaganda from white supremacists or neo-nazis. White supremacists might act out in a rage of “honor” for their views and violently hurt someone because they took it upon the nature to act out malicious acts either read, heard, or seen from a video game or other hate related propaganda.
These racist video games are threatening to the civil liberties and welfare of citizens especially the targeted ethnic races. It is a distinct form of harassment and therefore should be regulated against by government involvement. Ebay.com, an online auction website has combated against hate propaganda. They have forbidden the unauthorized distributing of racist related products unless otherwise authorized by being a part of an historical occasion. Clearly government regulation and private regulation has taken effect in combating racism.
Major inconsistencies and implications, such as personality and characteristics, may complicate and pose a disturbance in the conclusions and have always been a problem but at the best avoided. This one-single study trying to prove that there is no direct relationship with an increase in aggression and video games, but rather a decrease or no correlation in this relationship. This one study is just not enough evidence to conclude and determine that there is no correlation. Yes, personal and social characteristics do provide imperfections with a study but do not pose a serious problem when top leading psychologists perform controlled laboratory studies. Leading psychologists, such as Bensley and Eenwyk, still find a relationship with violent/racist video games and an increase in hostile and aggressive behavior.
The establishment of the ESRB board is just one contributing factor to help stabilize and put reassurance on the Constitution and First Amendment. True, the ESRB might help decrease negative effects by informing the parents about the video game, but the ESRB does have a major imperfection within its structure. For instance, the T for Teen category rating is recommended for ages 13 and over. The Teen category contains more animated violence than the Kids category, and may have more strong language and/or suggestive themes. When did more animated violence and strong language become approved and socially acceptable for children and teens? The fact that it says “Teens” does not justify the appropriateness of the degree in violence and language.
The ESRB is just there to assist “concerned parents” and government officials (civil libertarians) protecting the freedom of the Constitution. It was not created to regulate and control the level of violence in games. It is up to the “responsible” parents to take control. If the parents do not use the ESRB rating system or understand it, then it is useless to make any counter-argument claim that the ESRB helps with anything. All the ESRB does is rate a game, with their bias imperfections to automatically assume that animated violence is justifiably okay to “Teens.” The ESRB does not consider racism when evaluating a game. ESRB needs to revise their system of rating games and consider racism as a possible degree of suggestive theme. “Ethnic Cleansing” should be rated R for Racism.
Governmental regulation could be to have strict control over the sale and rental of video games, especially violent rated ones. Just like the strict sale of cigarettes and alcohol where one has to be of legal or certain age to purchase these items that are detrimental to ones health. There could be ID checks done to enforce the restricted sale or rental of games. The government could also control the amount of violence in a video game.
Therefore, virtual forms of hate propaganda contribute to negative effects in society. Hate propaganda in any form (in this case – Virtual Reality form), can lead to violent acts in the future. They increase aggression and hostile behavior while in the process of propagating hate messages. The accessibility of the hate messages like “Ethnic Cleansing” needs to be regulated and controlled. Almost anybody, no matter how young or old, can access these racist video games or Internet sites with immense ease. Racist groups play off the vulnerability of young minds and the dissatisfaction of adults to recruit them into the practice of racism. Virtual reality is not a safer way to kill and exterminate a specific civilization of non-whites; this claim is ignorant in itself. Children do not have the mental capabilities to distinguish between what is real and what is fantasy. While the manipulation of video games in turn creates manifestations of this increased aggression and can be seen by examples like the Columbine High School shootings. Actually violent video games integrated with racism could be more devastating than Columbine shootings because these games carry the potential for more shootings to occur. White supremacist and hate organizations have now shifted their tactics and strategies to advance with society. Governmental intervention is eminent in needing to regulate this protected form of virtual hate crimes and propaganda. Racist organizations are now using the virtual realm of cyberspace, as a means to propagate there hate messages on the Internet or –Devils’ Playground.