Under the Hood: an (Auto) Ethnographic Study of How White Adolescent Males Critically Engage with Race in Grand Theft Auto V
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UNDER THE HOOD: AN (AUTO) ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF HOW WHITE ADOLESCENT MALES CRITICALLY ENGAGE WITH RACE IN GRAND THEFT AUTO V PAUL DARVASI A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN EDUCTION YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO DECEMBER 2019 © Paul Darvasi 2019 ii ABSTRACT Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) is emblematic of the public controversies that asso- ciate video games with violence, misogyny, and damaging depictions of race and gender. However, it is also a layered referential and self-reflexive text that roundly critiques US culture, including the pernicious complicity of media on issues of identity. GTA V is the third best selling video game in history, and primarily targets white adolescent males, but its effects on the attitudes and behaviors of its chief consumers are virtually unstudied. Furthermore, the tendency for schools to keep controversial games at a distance may neg- lect a need to better equip adolescent boys with the tools to critically consume the com- plex media in which they are immersed. This doctoral dissertation employs a postcolonial lens and documents a month-long qualitative study where a high school class of ten white adolescent boys played GTA V while in a formal instructional context that encouraged them to critically reflect on their gameplay. Although they viewed the game through the lenses of gender, masculinities, violence, and hegemony, my research specifically reports on how they engaged with representations of race and racialized places in the elaborate urban simulation. The participants were positioned as co-researchers and trained in basic ethnographic methods, and the fieldnotes and filmed videos of their play were synthesized in autoethnographic accounts of their experiences. Data was also gathered from pre- and post-surveys, filmed classroom sessions, a private Facebook group, the counter-hegem- onic media they produced, and their notes and videos. The investigation revealed that participants naturalized racial stereotypes and problematic connections of race and place. And, the instructional approach was found to provoke a greater awareness about discriminatory depictions of race in the game and, in some cases, media at large. Some also become aware of their own tendencies to appropri- ate commodified forms of blackness. Finally, their discourse and views were found to be largely shaped by media, highlighting the need for a greater emphasis on media literacy in schools. iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my life partner, constant companion, and best friend, Leana. It was her encouragement, support, feedback, and sacrifice that conceived this project and saw it through to the end. I also dedicate this work to our two children, Max and Paloma, whose love and inspiration fueled this endeavour, and who often sat by me and played as I wrote. Finally, I dedicate this work to my students, who are and will continue to be my greatest teachers. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Jennifer Jenson for encouraging me to undertake this journey, and her continuous support from beginning to end. I am grateful for her keen insights, tough love, motiva- tion, and immense knowledge. I will be forever grateful to her for taking me under her wing, and none of this would have happened without her. I would also like to thank the rest of my thesis committee: Prof. Kurt Thumlert, Prof. Karen Krasny, Prof. Kurt Squire, Prof. Didi Khayat, and Prof. Aparna Tarc for their time and efforts to bring this project to fruition. They are the faces I will always associate with one of the most memorable moments in my life. I also thank my school administration, the participants and their parents who trust- ed me to carry out a potentially controversial study at our school. Their support for this work will hopefully lead to education becoming more relevant to the lives of the young people who we care for and teach. Finally, I acknowledge my family, both extended and immediate, who each, in their own way, encouraged me and pushed me along to the finish line. v Table of Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................ii Dedication...........................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................iv Table of Contents.................................................................................................................v List of Tables.......................................................................................................................vi List of Figures....................................................................................................................vii Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study ....................................................................................1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Background ..............................................................................................................1 Value of the Research ...............................................................................................3 Learning with video games ..........................................................................4 Learning to Race in Grand Theft Auto V .................................................................6 Focus of the Research ..............................................................................................8 Chapter 2: How They Race in Los Santos: White Adolescent Gamers and GTA V’s Dou- ble-Voice ............................................................................................................................12 Introduction ............................................................................................................12 In the Crosshairs: White Middle Class Adolescent Boys ......................................12 An Overview: “Where do you begin talking about Grand Theft Auto V?” ...........15 The Double-Voice: Irony, Parody, and Ambivalence .............................................16 The elusive neoliberal ideology of Los Santos ..........................................17 Critical Contexts to Unravel the Hegemony of Play .............................................20 Gaming schools: Solving the boy crisis with video game literacies ..........22 Conclusion .............................................................................................................25 Chapter 3: Postcolonialism: Polemics, Power, Praxis, and Cartographies of Play ............25 Introduction ............................................................................................................25 (Un)Settled: The Provisional and Contested Grounds of Postcolonialism ............27 vi Haunting Presence: Foucault, Said, and the Discursive Circulations of Know- ledge/Power ........................................................................................................................32 Postcolonial Playgrounds and Criminal Empires: The Sun Never Sets on GTA V .. 36 The cybernetic circuit: Incorporating the player ........................................41 Imaginative Geographies: Imperial Cartography and Unmapping the Island of Los Santos .................................................................................................................................43 GTA V and the adventure story legacy: Playing at the frayed edges of em- pire .....................................................................................................................................48 Conclusion: Localized Magic Networked Assemblies to Tell Untidy Stories .......50 Chapter 4: The New Grand Tour: White Boys, Black Bodies, and Ghettocentric Fantasies . 53 Introduction ............................................................................................................53 Discourses of Race: Contexts, Contingencies, and Constructions ........................54 Ghost in the Machine: Whiteness Studies..............................................................56 Slummin’ IT: Identity Tourism and Distanced Immersion in the Virtual Ghetto ..61 Identity tourism and asserting the dominant self .......................................62 Jamaican Trolls, Black Gangsters, and African Zombies ......................................66 Word of whitecraft: Essentialism and stereotypes in fantasy races ...........67 Blind alleys: To fear and desire African zombies and black gangsters ......68 Conclusion .............................................................................................................73 Chapter 5: Keepin’ it Real in the Hood: Staged AuthentiCITIES and Hip-Hop Tourism .74 Introduction ............................................................................................................74 Placing the Space of Los Santos ............................................................................76 The North-South Divide: Urban Racial Segregation in Los Santos ......................79 Los Santos: Media, Mediality, and the Fabrication of AuthentiCITIES ................84 Keepin’ it Real: Hip-Hop Tourism and Staged Authenticity in the