Playing the race card?

I stumbled upon an interesting article today by Game Informer where a prominent psychologist, Christopher Ferguson of Texas A & M, compared the blaming of video games for violent behavior as a form of racism. The subject alone sparked an interest in me to read the article and Ferguson brings up a very interesting argument to back up his claim.

“I know it’s a little controversial to say but there’s a certain type of racism in place with these killings,” said Ferguson. “When shootings happen in an inner city in minority-populated schools, video games are never brought up. But when these things happen in white majority schools and in the suburbs, people start to freak out and video games are inevitably blamed.  I think that there’s a certain element of racism or ignorance here.”

This made me think back to Columbine first. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's actions were blamed to have been brought up by the teens immersing themselves in Doom and Wolfenstein by Jerald Block, a US psychiatrist. The FBI findings of them being depressive and clinical psycho pathological were not good enough for him.

Then I thought about Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona state senator. Jared Lee Loughner was pinned as an "avid gamer" by his fellow peers and this was quickly brought to the media attention sparking more of a debate between a possible connection.

Lastly I thought about the recent tragedy in Norway. Anders Behring Breivik had brought into the media frenzy that his cover for him to become a social outcast was to become "addicted" to World of Warcraft. He also claims that he used games such as Modern Warfare as his training sims for the carnage he would wreak upon nearly a hundred innocents. Of course it didn't matter when his manifesto even pointed out that he was simply blaming the game for his absence in social circles.

“You will be amazed on how much you can do undetected while blaming this game. If your planning requires you to travel, say that you are visiting one of your WoW friends, or better yet, a girl from your “guild” (who lives in another country). No further questions will be raised if you present these arguments.”

Now when I think about the violence that happens in minority communities there never is a tie to violent media. It's usually summed up as gang related crime. But as I recall Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row games depict gang related crime at their worst. Why no connection?

The point that Ferguson made in his interview is that it is nearly impossible to fully blame violent media for individuals' violent behavior. Whether it be TV, music, or video games.

“Scientifically, the idea that video game violence, movie, or television violence contributes to mass homicides is pretty much a debunked idea that has no real basis to it. I think certainly the Supreme Court case helped, especially since they were so clear in pointing out that current research was not able to support that line of reasoning.”

Until a connection can be made with what really brings out violence in anyone we should stop trying to point the finger at sources. Not everyone is fueled by the same desire to hurt another living being. After all, most murders are committed by someone known to the victim(s) and there's always something that sparked the confrontation.

Come on media! Let's focus more on the real deal here. Don't take the easy way out!