Border Patrol begins with a title screen that divides up all Mexicans into nationalists, drug smugglers or "breeders" looking for a welfare check at the presumed expense of the American taxpayer. And the game's creator seems to feel that the only sensible solution to the problem of having neighbors who don't speak the same language as he does is to gun them all down at the border. This proves impossible however, as in a clear statement of defeat, the small batch of terrible Mexican stereotypes move far, far too quickly for any gamer to actually be able to stop. Yes, even within the confines of this person's own racist fantasies, they are still so pathetic as to be bound to lose. On the flip-side, there are games like Spanish for Everyone which was put out by an actual publisher and was shipped to actual stores. And yet that is a game in which your Nintendo DS is stolen as a direct result of you lending it to a Hispanic child, who immediately absconds to Mexico with the police in hot pursuit. Your goal is then to learn enough Spanish to allow you to successfully conquer the indigenous peoples. Sorry, we mean get your Nintendo DS back. In other words, being Latino apparently means putting up with really awful depictions of your culture in games of all development sizes. But racism is, ironically, quite diverse in gaming. As proven by our next several entries...
Eric Day co-hosts the Murderville Podcast at www.welcometomurderville.com
Give it a listen. Five minutes. Maybe you'll dig it. Maybe you'll hate it. But at least you'll have tried something new.
