A Week In Comments

As a black 25 year old, I sure as hell know what Sambo is. “that Ryan fellow seemed really down to earth, and then we had that discussion about sambo and he looked like he wanted to punch me in the throat. I wonder what happened?” People using a word that they don’t really know the history of is simply an error of ignorance, and once they know where the word came from, can choose to use something else. I’d rather tell people its history than sit and seethe in silence – and I don’t hold it against anyone if they honestly didn’t know.

While it is ‘the past’ for many people, it’s not for all of us. I’ve been called the n-word within the past 2 years, so how ‘past’ can it be? There are a lot of people in this country who grew up with these caricatures and still believe the insidious things they suggest about people who look like me. It’s not putting them on a pedestal, its enlightenment. If someone looks at the word and deliberately says it, knowing its meaning and history, then they deserve the condemnation it brings.

(For the record, 5th Cell’s explanation makes perfect sense. The only fault I can find with them is choosing to re-use the watermelon image instead of choosing another, or creating its own entry, and it’s not that big of a deal. )

That being said, I never thought it to be that big of a deal. It follows suit with traditional media. They need some character to be a badass space marine? Well base them off the stereotypical action type from Hollywood… who just so happen to be white as well.

So really the large amount of white characters is partially based off what is the norm in media. So take it up with Hollywood

And the other thing, in my opinion which is the bigger factor, is that people get in a riot when you have a non-white character do anything of questionable nature. Remember the hell raised over GTA San Andreas because it featured a black protaganist? It wasnt an issue when he was a white guy (or European in GTA4).

So there is something of an issue when it comes to including any non-white character (particularly black) because if they have them do anything of questional nature, people freak out and say its racist. And then going back to the guy complaining about his avatar being too-white….well if game devs did do things more associated with the actions and verbal style of blacks, hispanic, etc… then hell would be raised over sterotypes being resorted to. Like Coletrain didnt come off as a racist stereotype in my eyes because I know people who act like that who just so happen to be black. It was just a former athlete akeen to a sport like football that was written to be large and loud who just happens to be black.

I agree that diversity is great and all in game developing, but at the same time I dont think its a big deal. The game devs write and design characters based on what they know (themselves and Hollywood)…overcompensating by putting more ethnicities is still racist because you are doing it on purpose.

Example: Louis in Left 4 Dead just so happens to be black. And as pointed out about fighting games, black people tend to be put in on purpose for their drastically different appearence.

Then again, Im white…

It is a bit annoying when you see a lack of ethnicities in large groups where you know there is diversity. COD4 put in some diversity in the soldiers to a degree (as opposed to the others, then again…the Army was segregated in WW2 [note on how there hasnt been anything featuring the black corps, then again…you can argue they had a diminished role]). Assuming COD6 is about Vietnam, which seems to be the indication, I will be pretty annoyed with TreyArch considering how big of a role the desegregation of the Army played in that war when it came to dynamics of the platoons.

I may sound a bit like a hippocrite saying it doesnt matter if the main protaganist is white and its annoying if the other ethnicities arent represented when it comes to a group; however, you need to realize the difference between a protaganist who happens to be white verse a group of characters that lack any diversity for no particular reason.

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