New Video Game: Shoot Gays Before They Rape You

If they really wanted to mock hunters and rednecks

they could have made the PC a gay man who has to shoot any hunters and rednecks he finds before they can gay bash him.

I am the lizard queen!

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by: RainbowPhoenix @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 20:36:45 PM CDT

I'm just surprised more of these games haven't come out

My younger brother is a flash game designer in his spare time as a very lucratice hobby (nothing like this of course) and after seeing how easy it is for a 17 year old with some computer knowledge create these in a week or so after school, I'm surprised nobody has done this concept before.  Flash designers are often freelancers and many of the games are created and/or hosted in eastern Europe which definitely isn't the best place for gays.  There are hundreds of sites with flash games getting minuscule amounts of money per play relying on enormous amounts of players, often teenagers, some of whom may not have a mature sense of humor or knowledge of LGBT people.  Truth is, there is a market for this game, not huge, but a market, and it won't be pulled down in most websites that host it.  I've never seen this game before the controversy over it in the past week or so.  I think it's good this info is coming out so we can have a dialog about it but we are foolish if we think we can wipe this out.  In some ways, when it comes to games like this, drawing attention to it can just bring out more players.  not sure what the answer is though, just my thoughts.

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by: bryanthompson @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 21:55:28 PM CDT

I agree Bryan

There really is no way to get rid of this game now that it has spread (not that I think the makers would take it down anyway).  It is a good discussion point, however, on the pervasive nature of violence in our culture and how "gay panic" & violence is still seen as "juvenile humor" in many circles.

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by: waymonhudson @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 22:17:25 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I guess gay really is the new black

Before the Civil Rights Movement, it was not uncommon to see African Americans used as targets in carnival shows. A popular version was the game "African Dip." A Black person, usually a man, would sit on a plank and yell insults -- some racial -- at the White customers. The game's owner encouraged Blacks hired as "Africans" to verbally taunt Whites; thereby, ensuring long lines of angry, paying customers. The insulted White customers would try to hit a target device attached to the plank. When the target was hit squarely it caused the Black man to be dumped in the tank below. Typically, a huge crowd, some inebriated, would shout encouragement to the person throwing -- and shout insults at the Black man in the "cage." When a direct hit sent the Black men into the water there were shouts of joy. It was not uncommon for some Whites to throw the balls at the Black person -- protected by a net or cage -- instead of the painted, circular target.

The African Dip target game was found in many traveling carnival shows, seashore resorts, and fairgrounds across the United States...In the early 1940s the game was called "Dunk the Nigger," by the late 1940s it had been renamed "African Dip." The NAACP pressured carnival officials to close the game, but the game remained a part of Riverview entertainment until the late 1950s.

[...]

The physical violence associated with the "African Dip" game occurred outside the cage -- in some instances, angry White customers would wait hours for the Black "target" to leave the protected area so they could assault him. This was not necessary with "Hit the Coon," also popular at resorts, fairs, and festivals. A Black man would stick his head through a hole in a banner and the White customers would throw baseballs at him. Although the Black victim tried to avoid the baseballs, many White customers inflicted the physical damage they desired. Some carnival operators provided human targets with protective wooden helmets covered with curly hair; most did not. The banner was painted with a stereotypical scene, for example, a cotton plantation. A direct blow to the head resulted in the thrower receiving a small prize -- and the psychological benefit of believing that he or she was superior to the victim.

By the late 1950s racialized carnival games were disappearing, though a small number of carnival operators had target games where wooden "Negro Heads" were used. These wooden heads were used by carnival operators who did not want to offend customers by using actual Black people as targets -- or who were unable to find Black people poor and desperate enough to take the jobs. As the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum -- and the White American public became more aware of the injustices associated with Jim Crow segregation -- human target games increasingly grated against public sensibilities. In contemporary America, there are still variations of the African Dip game, but Blacks are not usually the targets, and the game's racist past is unknown to most present-day Americans.

Source: http://www.ferris.edu/JIMCROW/...

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

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by: Fritz @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 22:01:51 PM CDT

Holy shit

Fritz, that is horrendous. I know this is our past, but reading things like that makes me ashamed to be American. What a terrible thing.

I've seen flash games on the internet similar to this, except the player targets Arabs, including women in burqas.

God save ornery old queens! - kevinchi

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by: Keori @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 00:09:56 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

About 20 years ago...

My best friend who was black told me that the "dunk tanks" at fairs and carnivals have this racist origin. I had no idea.

My friend grew up knowing that these carnival games existed. I was sheltered from that knowledge and ignorant about what was going on in our society shortly before I was born.

That is why I knew to look up this information online. I bet there are many African Americans who don't know about this. And, most white people certainly do not.

You know what they say about those who don't remember the past.

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

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by: Fritz @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 01:15:42 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

That's disturbing...

not least because I've seen things exactly like that on kids' game shows in the UK. Now I know its origin, I won't be quite so comfortable with children watching them.

____________________________________
Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum.

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by: tavdy79 @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 03:12:53 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

This is disgusting, but I can rest a little easier knowing

that this flash game likely won't hold someone's attention for more than 10 minutes. The controls are poor at best and the game play is repetitious and uninspired. Personally, I get greater satisfaction from watching the hunter get buggered.

This is very 10 years ago for flash gaming. It's really amazing/frightening to look at how this subculture has grown in the last decade.

More likely than anything this will probably be disseminated more by adults through office emails, played for 10 minutes for a hearty queer-bashing chuckle, and then forgotten. There's no getting rid of it now, but I don't think it quite has the teeth to make a truly lasting impact.

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by: algernonandarthur @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 07:20:50 AM CDT

That's exactly what people say about Bruno!

"It mocks the homophobes, not gays!"

Uh huh.

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by: Pender @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 09:10:39 AM CDT

Not to put to fine a point on it...

but doesn't Grand Theft Auto have an element of this in its Vice City edition? I own the game and love it, but even I find it somewhat disconcerting that they typically have fairly effiminate men walking around that you can beat up. Granted you can beat up anyone on the street in that game but still...

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by: SciFi Geek @ Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 09:29:21 AM CDT