A censorship debate is festering at San Francisco’s Art Institute of California, where a student's short story led to the school administration’s confiscation of a small magazine which published the work. As reported by the Los Angeles Times:

Simone Mitchell enrolled in the Art Institute of California at San Francisco hoping to catch attention with his visual art, but it was his writing, contained in an essay about racial stereotypes in video games, that catapulted a small in-class short story to the front lines of debate on the timeless "what is art?" question.

Mitchell wrote the 10-page spread for Mute/Off, a small magazine produced as part of a cultural studies class. The school pulled the magazine from circulation December 6, hours after it was distributed, saying it hadn't been approved by the administration.

Soon after the cultural studies teacher, Robert Ovetz, protested the administration's actions, he was told not to come back for the next semester. Students and Ovetz say it was the latest in a pattern of recent censorship tactics, an allegation the school declines to discuss.

Mitchell's essay, titled "Homicide," centers on three African American males who address each other in vulgar street slang and go on a rape and killing spree. At the story's end, it's revealed that they are characters in a video game played by three white suburban boys.

"There are so many stereotypes in games, of African Americans as thugs, for example," said Mitchell, a video game art and design student who is African American. "Video gamers are exposed to this kind of violence and offensive language all the time and need to think about what they are doing."

Read the rest of the article, here.

Source: The Los Angeles Time

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Eric Sande said:

Wow, I wondered what they were thinking? Do people even consider context anymroe when coming to a determiniation about condeming a piece of work? It was clear?from the context alone that he was trying to make a point about racial stereotypes and violence within video games.

January 08, 2007

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