The American Ghoul – Race in the Fallout Games in the Context of US Race Relations

Abstract

This essay explores how the Fallout game series reimagines the zombie through its figure of the ghoul, questioning its role as a mirror of American racial politics. Unlike the generic video game zombie, which many titles use as a ubiquitous antagonist, Fallout’s ghoul foregrounds ongoing processes of racialization and de-racialization, showing how play, history, race, science fiction, and monstrosity intersect. Drawing on the cultural genealogy of zombie figures, the analysis details how the ghoul’s uncanny status as posthuman and monstrous Other invites players into affective and ethical entanglements that may reveal the persistence of racial antagonisms. While encounters with ghouls tend to expose the racist basis of xenophobia and anti-ghoul bigotry in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, the later titles increasingly downplay or erase these dimensions. By tracing how ghouls oscillate between individualized voices and faceless hordes, the essay shows how game design mirrors larger cultural struggles to confront or suppress race. Situating Fallout’s shifting portrayals against the backdrop of US race relations, ranging from the Bush era’s War on Terror to Trump’s populist xenophobia, it reads the figure as a contested and complex site for America’s haunted racial unconscious.