@SharkEthic said:
@FluxWaveZ: So to answer my question: some people claiming to be black on a forum is your source. Look, dude, of cause it doesn't stop there, and your sources are as valid as mine, but do you see where I'm coming from? A bunch of white men calling to arms over issues that has nothing to do with them, and thereby calling attention to and victimizing groups of people perfectly capable to fight their own fight, but chooses not to because they themselves don't see a problem.
Anita Sarkeesian claimed that ICO was misogynistic. Disqualified.
Whoa now.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/18/team-icos-the-last-guardian-and-the-illusion-of-half-realism/
“But in the end I decided a boy would have a little more grip to climb the Trico. Another problem is that girls tend to wear skirts, and The Last Guardian features a lot of climbing.”
And apparently a lot of shots from below, making all girls and all traditionally-clad Scotsmen simply out of the question.
Because all girls wear skirts.
I think Anita has a leg to stand on, there.
Plus, you convieniently ignored Fluxwavez' reference to N'Gai Croal, who offered completely justified criticism of RE5's othering of Africans.
I'm not interested in getting into a "some of my family members are black" or "some of my best friends are black" conversation with anyone, because it's stupid. It just degenerates into a pissing contest.
It's a fair point that there's something a little weird about straight white dudes "white knighting" for communities that they don't represent. But that's a terribly narrow perspective to take on the discussion. In point of fact, it comes off as deliberately myopic, like you're trying to stop the discussion from happening, which doesn't seem to be the case, but that's how it comes across. Especially coupled with posts that seem to be disproportionately contrarian.
However, as far as video games are part of culture (specifically "Westernized"/first world culture) they're beholden to certain attitudes and power structures that were set in place long before any of us were born. So, yeah, as a straight white dude, I'm absolutely baffled by the insistence on normative white male power fantasies as protagonists in most games. I'm disgusted by the fact that women always have to fall into these absurd categories, and that black characters are routinely relegated into comic relief or gangsta stereotypes. It's absolutely fucking insane to me that Lee Everett stands out as a character because he's generally depicted as a person and as fucked up as the rest of us. That it's a rarity that people outside of a small section of the population are given the same consideration and agency as this specific, privileged class.
Agreed, that senator/murder thing seemed a bit too blown-out for my tastes, but I think TellTale did a pretty great job. Race is still important in these situations because it's a question of representation, and how that representation carries over into and reinforces existing cultural attitudes. Acting like the U.S. just "solved" its longstanding history of discrimination because it elected Obama is probably one of the most naive things I've heard. Especially in light of the embarrassing rhetoric that came from all sides during the last election.
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