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MikeZ, lead designer of Skullgirls, makes an "I can't breathe" joke on stream
- Thread starter Professor Beef
- Start date
Maybe it is, but if you're white and youve never known anybody like what he described you either haven't had a big friend group or don't pay attention enough to edgy creeps in your circle.
(edit: or are just young enough that "edgy friends" havent matured into fascists, but if so watch out)
You would wish it were.
It would start with how Germany had the best tanks and how "Fury" was bullshit, but before long:
Germany had to invade other countries to defend itself. They wanted to unite Europe because Russia wanted to destroy it. And that is not even the worst. This constant 'Germany did nothing wrong'-argumentation mixed with the casual antisemitism made it more clear and clear that he was a little POS holocaust denying racist
Really disappointed in the responses from Sharpie and Fox. It wasn't a tone deaf comment. It was a remark from someone who just doesn't get it. And I would like to say to them both; this whole thing is BIGGER than you. Just because you can forgive your 'friend', that does not invalidate his insensitivity, ignorance and making light of current events. I mean, he even admitted he could hear the protests outside his place. It's not a million miles away, in a distant land. This easy forgiveness of such behaviour has gone on for too long, and such individuals need to be taken to task on it.
Yea, if this was a lesser known indie dev or something, I don't know if there would be nearly as many defenses, or any at all.
Calls to remove it from EVO are a bit misguided. Skullgirls belongs to its community, it being in EVO is for their benefit, not Mikes.
Pretty much this.
Besides DaPurpleSharpie has busted her fucking ass off for this game, to have it taken away at the shot of EVO because Mike Z couldnt help himself would be atrocious.
That's all understandable. At the same time, it can also be argued that, as a project from a small indie studio, Mike has far more ownership of Skullgirls than Ono has of Street Fighter V, for example. Mike only recently made a big deal about adding wifi icons to the game by himself, didn't he? Yeah, there's a small team behind it, but as the lead designer and easily the most vocal member of Lab Zero, it's his game.
Which absolutely sucks for the game's community. But if his idiocy leads to a removal of the game from EVO, it's his own damn fault. And I doubt that EVO wants one of their headlining games this year, at this time in history, to be known as "that one game by that dumb fucker that made a joke on air at George Floyd's expense."
I agree. Seeing some weird caping in this thread.
Mike is the most dangerous sort of 'ally'.
Has black friends, ticks off on all the socially acceptable causes, and yet in his mind, that 'joke' is appropriate to say live on air. Those 'jokes' swirl around his head.
man, history really does repeat itself. racism does not need malicious intent.
User Banned (1 Month): Inflammatory Commentary Around Race
Shows why they stayed at the racist as fuck company Rick Fox bailed out on. I'm thankful that even though I've been gaming all these years I never succumbed to this token warrior behavior that many other black geeks seem to fall into.
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But he inherently benefits from the game being there. More so than pretty much any member of the community.
Geez Mike, all you had to do was apologise and admit it was insensitive. Does this guy have a history of making racist jokes? If so then fuck him but if not then hopefully it was just a dumb attempt at an edgy joke. Not that it makes it okay.
No idea why ppl are attacking SonicFox here. It's Sonic's choice to forgive Mike. Mike asked for forgiveness as well. Additionally, outside of the joke, his track record is that of integrity.
People make mistakes. I think it is unfair to punish the Skullsgirl community for this as well, especially with a repentant MikeZ.
People make mistakes. I think it is unfair to punish the Skullsgirl community for this as well, especially with a repentant MikeZ.
I definitely don't think the game should be removed from EVO. That would be super shitty to the community and everybody else excited about it.
Also think it's super silly to try and throw Sonicfox under the bus for coming to bat for their friend. It's their choice and they aren't saying they're speaking for everybody.
Also think it's super silly to try and throw Sonicfox under the bus for coming to bat for their friend. It's their choice and they aren't saying they're speaking for everybody.
Posts like this are why developers avoid this forum.
By the same token, is it fair to let Mike off the hook for something he did just because punishment could affect the game's presence at a tournament?
The answer is no.
The ball is in EVO's court now, and how they handle this is up to them. But if they do drop the game (the most extreme option) I'd hope that the Skullgirls community members have the sense to understand why it happened.
Hasn't he donated money to black charities as well?
He made a horrible joke. I agree. The man apologized, has been giving money to the movements, and so on. What else needs to happen?
Moreover, this is not something that is habitual. As far as ppl have mentioned, this was his first error here. He's not in the PDP camp of multiple violations, dog whistles, and using plausible deniability.
I'm big on the body of work, for both good and bad. And it doesn't seem his body of work is that of a vile character.
We need to give people a path to redemption, especially when they are sincere. The rest is on MikeZ. He has to live it out now.
To be clear, I'm not calling on others to accept his apology--that's a personal decision. I'm talking about further public censure. What's left for a guy that already apologized and committed to the cause financially?
What I don't get is how you can be a self-purported champion of disadvantaged groups and even think making that joke was alright.
By that logic though Mike benefits from literally any tournament the fame has. If the tournament is not run by Mr. Wizard then it would be run by some other members as has been the case for years now and will probably always be the case.
Speak on it. A lot of self-described 'black geeks' let their mostly white 'friends' cross the line without saying a word. But seem to think they're special and immune when these people toss out some slick 'jokes' at the expense of black people.
Ah he went for the "this is not who I am" apology. But glad to know he's fine getting bumped off. Give him a time out. Racist jokes should have consequences.
People keep asking others to forgive him and that we shouldn't remove the game because he apologized. Which is fine if you want to forgive him.
But the fact that he is thinking in his apology that it wasn't the time to do that joke is just something that baffles me. It's never the time to make that joke.
But the fact that he is thinking in his apology that it wasn't the time to do that joke is just something that baffles me. It's never the time to make that joke.
OP
OP
SF also said that nobody has to accept Mike's apology, which is completely fine.
User Banned (Permanent): Troll account
This is so fucking funny. Way to make yourself look like a complete ass, ha ha ha. But all he needs to do is apologize, it isn't a big deal.
SF uses They/Them, I understand thinking what they said was dumb as shit but let's try and refer to them properly
Whatever happens to Skullgirls, I can't say I have much faith in the same people who thought letting Infiltration back in was a good idea, honestly
this is why I love Twitch chat in small streams that aren't doing hive mind meming.
I'm sorry I didn't mean to refer to them incorrectly. I'll make the correction immediately.
Probably one of the most chill Twitch chat's I've seen. They deserved better.
Lol @ "michael what did you just do"
You know you fucked up when someone starts calling you with your full first name instead of the shorthand
You ain't lying. I'm very happy I'm not the "he's cool he can say nigga" black geek. I'll never want approval that bad.
Because our people in our country, of all ages, are risking injury to protest cops killing black people. "I can't breathe" is literally something that has happened multiple times times before. Cops are choking the shit out of black people. Sonicfox/purplesharpie telling everyone to relax literally makes things worse for black people. White people get away with shit too much already. Now I'm supposed to live and let be because of a twitlonger and a couple of black people said so? Shiiiiit. We haven't even seen the repercussions of them brushing this off to the side and I'm going to make sure I show up to say "I told you so".
This isn't a "mistake". He didn't let that slip out accidentally. He knew what he was going to say. Fuck everyone involved.
SF did not tell anyone to relax. They said that exactly this.....
...nobody was asked to relax and nobody was told to forgive Mike by SF. They forgave him based entirely on their own personal judgments and association and that's it. Nobody is being asked to agree with SF and they are not the be all end all of judgements and nowhere did SF imply otherwise.
So getting on their case about all this is not helpful. SF was asked what their personal feelings were on the matter and they gave them. Again, nobody was called to have the same feelings as them.
User Banned (1 Month): Inflammatory Commentary Around Race
Purple Sharpie did. And getting on Sonicfox's case isn't helpful to you because you don't understand which is whatever. Just like the LTG/Cero thing, people don't realize this isn't about fighting games anymore. This isn't some minor thing and every person going "leave them alone" is part of the problem whether they want to admit it or not. Hopefully no one reminds Sonicfox and purplesharpie that they are still black but after the wall of defense they are getting, I don't think they'll see it anyway. Sad bidness.