The Call of Duty games that have been some of the most popular video games released in the past 10 years are extremely problematic because of their portrayal of Muslim people. In her piece “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game: The Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft”, Lisa Nakamura’s notion of racialization in video games, where racial stigmas are attached to characters in video games, is exemplified by the Muslim characters in the Call of Duty franchise. In games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 1 and 2, the main objective of the gameplay is for the player, an American soldier, to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of Muslim terrorists. The Muslim characters are rarely (if ever) given any type of identity and instead function as target practice villains that are meant to make the player feel as if they are doing something good by mindlessly shooting one after another. In our society today, it is imperative that we fight to stop the marginalization of Muslim people, who are often viewed through a tainted lens of untrue racist generalizations. The fact that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has over $1 billion in sales, with a large percentage of players under the age of 18, is extremely concerning because it shows the way racism is being bred on deep societal levels in the unconscious of young people. Upon viewing a clip of Call of Duty gameplay, one can immediately see the blatant, offensive dynamic in the game that no doubt furthers racism toward Muslim people around the globe.
