Black people all over the world share prejudice, that's why BLM movement is universal despite being focused on situation in US.
But do you think all black people share same cultural expierience? Africa is huge continent with more ethnic groups that you can imagine.
I hate how African Americans see Africa as one fairy tale land. It's not like that at all. And it is ignorant towards varied ethnic groups of Africa.
Problem comes from other groups also seeing Africa like that, but are they portraying black people in US or black Africans? Or maybe some specific group of Africans. And yes it is most of the time racist generalization but towards black Africans.
Concerns in regards to racist portrayal are legitimate, but we should stop thinking black Americans have same exact experience as every culture in Africa.
My point is people try to do good but by generalizing African cultures they hijack them for themselves.
It's like me as a polish person being offended by "redneck" portrayal of southern americans. I know that in US white people are white people, but not in rest of the world. It is not my culture.
Same goes for black people, they suffer a lot in US and rest of the world so solidarity is great. But let's not think that black person from US has right to claim every culture of Africa and dictate how it should be portrayed.
On regars to game I have no context what are they try to portray and they better explain themselves.
You should have stopped at the first lines of this post.
Black people all over the world share the common plight of racial prejudice as a result of racist ideas and stereotypes propagated in the various media forms over the past few hundred years.
This particular racist caricature of black people being tribal savages isn't simply exclusive to the region of the Americas, and has directly contributed to a lot of the irrational fear of black people as violent and aggressive that exists in Europe as well as the rest of the world.
As an African myself, I can very easily see and comprehend why an African-American could (and should in fact) take offence at such a problematic portrayal of black people in media. When African Americans are indiscriminately brutalised and killed on the basis of a certain sentiment towards them, that is also derived from centuries of such propagandising stereotyping, it's not particularly hard to comprehend why someone from that demographic wouldn't also feel grieved and hurt by this caricature in a similar way as I (an African) would; off not even more so.
They are aware of this, and will be modifying the character. It is on their fb page and they have apologized, if they can't tweak the model, they'll remove it.
Full facebook post:
"Dear all,
In answer to a series of inquries made in the last 24 hours regarding certain character deign revealed in the PlayStation PS5 Reveal Event showcase trailer yesterday, the LDI team wish to make the following announcement.
Racist stereotypes of any kind were absolutely not intended, we were not aware of the stereotypical connotations and wish to apologize to anyone who may have been offended by the character design.
In addition, no one (not just limited to team members) has ever commented or hinted on the character designs. However, these characters have not been revealed publicly elsewhere prior to the event.
The design intention was to create characters who are protectors/guardians of a particular mystic region in the world of Little Devil Inside. We were not producing character designs referenced on any real African and/or Afro-American human tribes.
The focus was on creating colorful masks and our designers were researching masks from all various cultures. As characters in the game, they move in groups and use blow darts that paralyze when hit. We wished to add character to the mask design and give it life to it - something like the little Kakamora characters in Disney's Moana.
However, regardless of our intentions, if any people were offended in any way, we sincerely apologize.
We will be making the following fixes to the current characters but if it ends up not being suitable to the game as a whole, we may change the design entirely.
1. Remove the Dreadlocks.
2. Change the bold lips.
3. Change skin tone.
4. Tweak the dart blower so it looks less like a joint.
On a minor note, this is our first game title and we are still quite naive in many areas.
As always, we thank you all for your support!"
Glad for the apology and prompt action. On the other hand, what is a "real Afro-American tribe"?
Isnt that actually some kind of star in Korea that apparently everyone knows?
Afaik, yes. And the woman isn't afraid of him, rather she's his biggest fan. So her response is one of surprise but great delight; as you can see her smiling at the end of the gif.
I agree.
If a typical African mask, is considered racist, why not consider racist Ghost of Tsushima with the typical Japanese samurai suit?
And Guacamelee with all its Mexican tropes?
I think that BLM movement is absolutely right, but we have to be careful and not exceed with extremism too
Ugh...!
Context is everything. Japanese people haven't predominantly been depicted as samurai in media for hundreds of years as a means to dehumanise them and portray them in a more bestial, sub-human fashion in the same way has been done to black people.
Similarly for Mexican people with the Lucha libre trope.
You're making a very ignorant false equivalence and trying to minimise the fact that demeaning stereotypes like this "sub-human black savages" one, have had a very real and salient impact in the global societal perception of black people throughout centuries of global history, and have directly contributed to the justification for centuries of atrocities committed against black people (both inside and outside Africa).
So African masks cannot be used in anything now bc they are racist?
Not saying they were never used for racism..
As a black african myself, do you know what I think? I'd much rather they aren't used.
Tribal war masks are a part of my cultural heritage, but given how they've effectively been (mis-)used as a weapon to dehumanise me, i'd simply rather not see them represented in any form in media; apart from that created by black people for the sole purpose of accurate historical representation (which examples like this are ostensibly not).
Stop and consider that if an element of your cultural artistic history had been wielded as a weapon against your ethnic group, over the course of hundreds of years, embedding in the wider societal consciousness an irrational fear of you and an unfairly negative perception, would you want to continue to see that element used in media in any form?
I don't suppose you would.
