BioShock Infinite's Racist Arcade Games Based on Real Games from America's Dark Past That Echo in Its Present

The most disturbing elements in BioShock infinite are probably not the violent action of the game itself, but the games within the game -- that is to say, the racist arcade games that you as the protagonist can play, as you explore the floating city of Columbia. In Bioshock's alternate history, Columbia is created by the US government in the early 20th century to be a shining symbol of American exceptionalism, but actually becomes a dystopia of religious fundamentalism and racism. So in Columbia's arcades, you have a chance to shoot targets of a grotesquely caricatured black man from the sky, and even more crucial (in a now famous scene) the option to throw a baseball at an interracial couple. (Video below.)

This is a powerful element of BioShock Infinite, because it points to a couple profound truths: Since arcade games are built to be played by children and families, their themes often reveal a society's unquestioned assumptions. And here is another thing: Racist arcade games like those in BioShock Infinite really did exist in America, and were popular in many parts of the country:

The African Dodger, also known as "Hit the Nig*** Baby" or "Hit the Coon" was as commonplace in local fairs, carnivals, and circuses as Ferris wheels and roller coasters are today. The purpose of the game was to hit the target with a ball-with one of your three throws-and win a prize. It sounds like a common carnival target game, but there was one unsettling part of the game, namely, the game's target was a real live human being, a "negro" human being. In St. Louis in 1913, it was reported that carnival organizers were "unable for hours today to secure an 'African Dodger' who would allow baseballs to be thrown at his cranium at the usual rate of three for 5 cents;" the reason was that future Hall of Fame fastball pitcher Walter Johnson was rumored to be at the fair ("Don't Want", 1913). The game was so popular nationwide that newspapers mentioned the African Dodger game along with trained animals, illusionists, penny arcades, merry-go-rounds and magic shows in the list of a carnival's attractions. Dodgers made headlines when they were seriously and horrifically injured-otherwise, they were nameless victims.

Read more about this here. So like its predecessor, the original BioShock, lead designer Ken Levine has managed to evoke dark or unsettled truths about America's past that uncannily echo our present. The first BioShock evoked the Cold War-era libertarian philosophy of Ayn Rand just before the author experienced a new vogue largely provoked by Obama's election, and was cited as an influence by figures like Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, and Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who's actually funding an ocean-based city people compare to the city of Rapture in BioShock.

And here's the thing: With BioShock infinite, its racist arcade games not only expose dark realities of America's past, but also echo our still unsettled present. Because when I started writing this post, and Googled "racist arcade games", expecting to mainly find examples from a hundred years gone by, I instead found link after link of racist games currently playable on the web -- including one where you can "slap some sense" into the first African-American president. Just as Columbia's racist behavior leads it to secede from the union, President Obama's reelection has reignited a wave of unfettered racism from many who oppose him, and many who want to secede from the union (again). And so sad to say (though it's no surprise), in certain parts of the country, our own unquestioned assumptions about the wrongness of racism are being questioned again. And as if they appeared through a rupture in time, games depicted in BioShock Infinite are once again part of our present reality.

Please share this post with people you like:

Tweet

Comments

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Spot on. Every day I'm encountering people who openly advocate a return to segregation as the most "natural" path for humanity, and when you confront them with their blatant racism, they accuse you of being racist for even using the word.

It leads precisely to a climate in which racist organizations are emboldened to murder law enforcement and officers of the court, yet few even label their campaign of intimidation as what it is: terrorism. We too busy targeting peaceful demonstrators for social justice and people who vandalize torture labs and inconvenience illegal fishing vessels with that particular label.

Too many people want to undo the sixies... whether we're talking about the 1960s or the 1860s.

[Franklin Ross]

I'm curious. Isn't "coon" as objectionable as "nig***?" Yet one is partially blocked out in your article, and the other isn't. Why not block both?

[joker]

i never die.

[Hamlet Au]

Totally a personal judgement call, but I think the latter is far worse, especially since it's still used more often as a slur. I don't even like looking at the word when it's in a non-antagonistic context.

[Mickey Blue Eyes]

I am ashamed of you. You resort to the MSM's claim that anyone who objects to Obama's philosophy and polices are raaaacists. You assume that nobody would have any objection to Obama's policies and how he is running the country. You ignore how his Marxist philosophy has been proven to be a failure. You ignore how his Socialist and Crony Capitalism (Solyndra, A123, Fisker, etc.) policies have failed. You ignore that his efforts to create more jobs have only reduced the number of jobs, reduced the size of the workforce, and made the taxpaying class a minority of voters. Obama is the most extreme Socialist we have had in the White House since FDR.

None of this has to do whether he was from Kenya or Hawaii or Indonesia. It is all about his policies running the country into the ground. However, you'll probably still call me a raaaaaacist because only raaaaaaacists would object to anything Dear Ruler does.