Production 7: "There ain't ever going to be another Dr. King or Bobby Kennedy. But there's always gonna be another Lincoln Clay": Anti-Racism, Stereotypes and Colonial Legacies in 'Mafia III'

Introduction

In November 2018, two years after the game's release, journalists reported that Mafia III developer Hangar 13 originally planned a radically different opening sequence than the one that shipped with the title. According to a Eurogamer (2018) report, the scene in question depicted the game's protagonist, Lincoln Clay, killing a police officer and murdering numerous others. "We went back at the eleventh hour and added a cold-open to the game that was a really violent prologue which basically shows Lincoln and a couple of his friends getting ambushed by the mob," the game's director, Haden Blackman, said. "It's super-violent and Lincoln has to resort to violence to escape. The team removed the content, Blackman said, because, "it felt exploitative...so we ended up cutting it." The section was so violent, so "controversial" and "shocking", that Hangar 13 erased it from its servers. It no longer exists. While Blackman's deleted content is lost forever, Hangar 13's last-minute changes to Mafia III demonstrate the complexity of its treatment of what Blackman calls "sensitive issues": racism, police brutality, poverty, and crime. Following Brock's (2011) treatise on race in games and Mukherjee's (2018) writings on postcolonial games, this production will examine how Mafia III interacts with these theories, often in conflicting ways. It will argue that, although the game's narrative and diegesis does encourage players to confront racism and see the world as a subaltern, postcolonial subject, its design positions Black men as violent criminals and complies with commonly held stereotypes, all the while reinforcing colonial attitudes towards land and empire.

"You didn't kill me because I said no; you kill me because you thought you owned me": Perspectives, History, and Race

Mafia III’'s unique treatment of American history remains an oddity in the AAA gaming space. Situating players in the Deep South at the height of the civil rights movement, Mafia III’s detailed rendition of 1960s New Bordeaux,a recreation of New Orleans, tackles topics that popular games rarely address. White and Black areas of the map are completely segregated, with Black families mostly living in the poorer neighborhood and swamps of the city's south-side. White elites dominate the pristine downtown and the mansions of the north-end. The police are complicit in this issue. As a Black man, Lincoln is continually harassed by the police: if spotted when driving a car, the police will suspect him of a crime, and sometimes can be called if he steps foot in a Whites-only area. Likewise, the game's mechanics reinforce this dichotomy. When someone calls the police to a White area, they respond immediately. But when a non-playable-character summons them to a Black area, they respond sluggishly or do not appear at all. Mafia III’s reflections on the legacy of racism and segregation are multi-faceted and distressing in equal measure.

To that end, the game's use of perspective is constructive. When playing as Clay, one comes to "empathize" with what it is like to live as a racialized subject in a racist society. For example, in many of the game's missions, Clay must enter the turf of the Dixie mafia. Here, he overhears numerous conversations of its members, who often refer to Blacks as "niggers" and "animals". When listening to the radio, one hears Remy Duvall, a local construction magnate, decry Blacks for their predisposition to violence. Even when he walks on the street, Whites will insult Clay with racial slurs. By placing players, regardless of race or gender, in the position of a Black man, players must endure racism in the game world just as he does. The game's process of identification earned it significant attention from critics, who praised its blunt portrayal of race and inequality. Tauriq Moosa (2016) posits that the game's treatment of history, one that exposes prejudice and encourages players to identify with victims of bigotry, is "cathartic" for Black players like him. Correspondingly, The Washington Post (2016) called it a "cultural milestone" for its well-rounded cast of Black characters, and critic Yusuf Cole (2018) praised the game for its nuanced understanding of radical Black politics. Mafia III's attention-to-detail led one critic (Gerardi, 2016) to even call it a "simulation" of racism. Thus, one can say that Mafia III’s treatment of intolerance can be highly progressive, and can educate users about the subject.

Conversely, and as Brock notes, video game representations of race go beyond the surface and into the mechanics of play themselves (431). And these representations, "[trade] upon stereotypes and these stereotypes are essential to players’ understanding of the game," stereotypes that are made believable by mechanics, interfaces, and narrative (430). Although Mafia III’s narrative seems to counter racist notions, the game's mechanics paint Clay as a criminal and a brute. The game's mission structure is the same across its entire runtime: Clay must infiltrate the territory of a rival mob boss, kill the enemies in said territory, destroy some kind of contraband, or interrogate a capo. Granted, it is possible to play some of these levels non-violently by sneaking out of sight, but more often than not, enemies will spot Clay and gun-battles ensue, with Clay shooting, stabbing, impaling and running over a multitude of opponents (see Note #1). Writer Jed Pressgrove (2016) summarizes this problem well when he proposes, "the problem is that Mafia III...portrays droves of darker-skinned people as inherently violent rather than recognizable human beings. Before Clay is betrayed, he is shown and described as a natural killer."

The stereotype of the Black criminal is a common one in American media. As Kelly Welch (2007) notes, "throughout American history, Blacks have been consistently stereotyped as criminals...the evolving criminal image of Blacks appears to be of a more threatening nature." Ronald Jackson (2006) agrees, positing, "racialized images of Black men presented by the media are synonymous with poverty, crime, and a number of other social ills." This is not a new phenomenon in video games, either. Melinda Burgess et. al (2011) explain that Black men in games are, "overrepresented as thugs, using extreme guns," and that this representation can, "[confirm] the culturally held stereotype of the Black male criminal." (91) By implementing narrative and gameplay design that features a Black man murdering men and women over and over again, often without remorse, mercy or self-reflection, Mafia III becomes complicit with this trend of representation.

In one particularly violent level, for instance, Clay must assault a mob lieutenant in his railroad roundhouse base. After sneaking up to the lieutenant's office without firing a shot, my Clay was spotted, killed five or six men in quick succession, and accosted the lieutenant. Clay subdued him, cracked a quick one-liner, and slit the man's throat. This design philosophy is not a one-time occurrence, either: assassination levels occur dozens of times throughout the its 30 hour story. Mafia III’s mechanics and content, where Clay must commit heinous acts to secure resources and power in the game world, position Clay as a "delinquent" and mirror Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’s representation strategies (Brock, 433). Its design tells the player that Clay cannot take power just by his intellect or people skills, but rather his bare strength and ability to destroy. Similarly, Clay's hyper-masculine, muscular and broad appearance helps construct his brutish likeness. One critic,The Verges Chris Plante (2016), supports this interpretation, postulating that, "the game makes a number of points about the indignity and brutality of policing in black communities, but asks you to play as a man who steals cars to travel a couple blocks — and when someone spots you, you’re directed to choke the witness out, or just run them over." Still, others, including Dustin Seibert (2016), propound that Clay's "bad" side is what makes him more than a simple "black savior", declaring, "he’s our hero, but he’s a complex character and not exactly a good guy."

"If all you look for is evil, that's all you're ever gonna see": Postcolonialism and Identity

Per Mukherjee, games that respond to colonialism in its multitude of forms are postcolonial texts (518). Taking place in a location with a rich history of colonialism and slavery, Mafia III fits this mold. Its world is a colonial world. In the bayou area of the map, the player can explore abandoned colonial plantations. Clay even uses one of these plantations as a safehouse for him and his underlings. New Bordeaux contains a French Quarter akin to New Orleans', chock-full of colonial-era architecture and signs. Additionally, as discussed earlier, colonial ideas of race and class persist into the game's current day. Being a postcolonial text, Mafia III intersects with Mukherjee's ideas of subalternity and identity: Clay and his Black allies are intrinsically subaltern characters. The subaltern, Mukherjee says, is the attempt to view history from "below" (505). Instead of putting users into the shoes of a rich White person, Mafia III interacts with the subaltern because it tries to re-tell history from a marginalized subject's point-of-view. Clay is, after all, a man who comes from abject poverty and lives in the underbelly of society.

On the other hand, Clay fits Mukherjee's notion of the "postcolonial subject" because he endures a, "negotiation between his identity as the subaltern as well as one complicit in the activities of the elite." (515) As the game's story progresses, Clay becomes more and more powerful and creates alliances with numerous powerful players. In the same way, Clay works with a CIA agent, Donovan, who helps him dethrone his mob enemies. At a more basic level, too, Clay is half-white and half-Black, and hence struggles with his racial identity. Therefore, Mafia III’s engages with colonialism because, as with the Punjabi character in Far Cry 2, "the player too struggles to figure out his or her identity," when playing as Clay. (515)

Mukherjee believes that a significant postcolonial aspect of games is their capacity for creating alternate histories. He submits, "the video game...is also a space where alternative history(ies) are made possible. Here, it is possible to reverse the colonial process and conquer the erstwhile imperial powers." (509) Mafia III generates these possibilities because of its sandbox, open-world design. Put differently, because the game allows players to do what they please in its world, it is ripe for subversion. Players do not have to suffer under racism: they can fight back against racist police officers, react to racist slurs in whatever way they please, or generate income to support the Black communities of Cassandra, the leader of the Haitian mob. To use Mukherjee's terms, Mafia III becomes a "thirdspace" where struggle and protest against, and agreement with, colonial ideas can take place (509-10).

More fascinatingly, Mafia III’s treatment of space is colonial in nature and mostly at odds with its propensity for protest. Mukherjee argues that, "speaking of maps, cartography has always been a key element in the colonial construction of space." (507) Colonial empires mapped, renamed, and redefined space as something to be conquered. Mafia III, like many other games before and after it, reinforces this ideology. In the game, as with the Grand Theft Auto series, maps are tools that the player uses to navigate their way through New Bordeaux. Nevertheless, as Clay takes out mob bosses and captures turf, the map reflects this fact: the "dark", unclaimed areas of the map become his territory. When Clay takes one of these areas, it changes colour, denoting his control. As such, just as colonial maps did, Mafia III’s cartography contextualizes spaces as "empty" and spaces to be conquered, and colonized, by the player and their cronies. Unsurprisingly, the game's official website describes how one of the game's highlights is building a "criminal empire" with "muscle and firepower".

Conclusion

In sum, Mafia III is a game of contradictions, and Blackman's decision to cut the controversial opening demonstrates that its treatment of history and current affairs is extraordinarily complex. Its narrative and sandbox encourage players to gain a better understanding of, and resist, racism and inequalities. Meanwhile, its design sometimes reproduces stereotypes and confirms colonial attitudes. Yet, as Mukherjee notes, these contradictions are inherent to games. He suggests that, "the video game medium offers the simultaneous possibilities of subalternity, protest, elitism, and hegemony." (515) Mafia III does just that. It is a mix of ideas operating alongside one another, ideas that are both constructive and not. Regardless of its issues, Mafia III is a rich text, from its erased cinematics to its end.

Notes

Note #1: Later in my research, I did find that the game does allow for non-lethal stealth takedowns. Strangely, one can only enable this feature by selecting an option hidden within a menu. The game does not prompt the player that this is a possibility. This article explains the choice in more detail. Even if one opts to play this way, there are numerous missions where Lincoln commits immeasurable violent acts, sometimes automatically.

Works Cited

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