#Bioshock infinite racism series#

Comstock is violently, stereotypically racist, but most of the townsfolk - who, given the era and the regime they gleefully tolerate, were almost certainly racist too - are treated as quaint and jolly citizens going about their lives. Racism was bad but then it went away.įor every sharp observation - the Black janitor able to eavesdrop because everyone ignores him - there are a dozen times Infinite ducks the issue. This might be excusable in a game that was prepared to confront you, the 21st century player, for the remaining systemic racism that the era Infinite depicts helped entrench, but it does not. Worse, racism is gamified, with Infinite inviting you to join in by tossing a baseball yourself. Yes, the scene confronts the racism Black people have historically been subjected to in America, but having baseballs thrown at you, while a layered visual metaphor, is tame and cartoonish. However, there are some huge missteps in this.

Still, several scenes involving Black characters, particularly the interacial couple being pelted with baseballs - itself a clever representation for Americana - lean in harder than you might expect a video game to, especially a decade ago. Infinite’s attitude towards racism is that some people definitely were racist, but your grandmothers and grandfathers definitely weren’t. It also attempts to hold up a mirror to America’s racist past, but it does so through a very modern lens. It draws heavily from Ayn Rand, particularly Atlas Shrugged, and has politics to match. Where a lot of prestige games see themselves as movies, Infinite sees itself as literature. Why did we all decide it was a masterpiece? In the canon of video games, I’m glad BioShock, and particularly BioShock Infinite, exists. All in all, I’m happy that games are attempting to tackle meaningful themes with considered narratives over just blowing people to bits and grabbing naked women like they did in the days of Duke Nukem. TLDR version: Of course Bioshock Infinite has racist characters. It, along with The Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption, helped open the floodgates to triple-A games considering themselves art, but it’s far less cinematic. of racism are banned, or if some poster just went overboard and used derogatory language.

#Bioshock infinite racism series#

In fairness, the BioShock series does not want to be a film.