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Sakurai's recent Pic of the Day for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has anti-Black implications relating to use of water cannons on civil rights activists.
- Thread starter Chief Malik
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If someone was ignorant to the history of another country, then why would posting a picture like this give them pause for concern? They wouldn't think anything of it and just see it as a funny picture of a couple of characters dodging water.
I really don't think it's a specific reference to that event, but it's pretty tiresome that Sakurai keeps making mistakes that come off as insensitive, intentional or not. Someone at Nintendo needs to really let him know about this and those certain problematic Spirit battles if they haven't already.
I don't know that it's safe to assume that he's seen even a single clip of the civil rights movement though given he's a Japanese person who was born in 1970
I'm black but I read it as Rodin protecting Peach from getting blasted.
I really didn't think it had to do with racism at all.
The Deejay diddy kong shit is much more damning on its own and I'm really mad it hasn't been fixed yet.
EDIT:I should note that while I feel this instance was out of ignorance I still definitely don't think it's OK to be in or that it should stay up.
I really didn't think it had to do with racism at all.
The Deejay diddy kong shit is much more damning on its own and I'm really mad it hasn't been fixed yet.
EDIT:I should note that while I feel this instance was out of ignorance I still definitely don't think it's OK to be in or that it should stay up.
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So if Sakurai put in a Black character with big red lips looking like a coon, it's totally alright because that kind of imagery is perfectly fine in Japan right?
Get what you're saying once again, but I still think you're underselling it. Especially considering what we've gone through over the past few years with race relations being at an all-time breaking point.
Like I don't consider myself as smart as Sakurai. And when shit is going on in Hong Kong, I read up at least some about it. When Uyghurs are being tortured and actually ripped apart for organs in China, I read up at least some about it.
That way if I'm making a game, and someone wants to post a picture of the main character I created who's from Hong Kong patriotically waving a Chinese flag over their head with a big ol' smile, I can say "hey, I know that's probably not a good idea, because I at least have basic world knowledge".
So basically what we're saying is, throughout the entirety of the George Floyd/BLM/Trump/ACAB shit that the US has been going through for decades but has been impossible to ignore for the last few years...Sakurai, the man behind one of the largest global video games ever, never decided to read up on civil rights in America even enough to learn one of the most basic things which is "black people + blasted with hose = bad"?
That's what I'm saying. I'm not saying it couldn't happen. It could. But it's still highly disappointing if that's the case. And might show he just doesn't have much interest in that subject too, which also sucks.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's alright. It's not. I'm saying it's born of ignorance and that the goal should be to discuss how to educate, not to lay blame. I've gotten the impression most Japanese people are completely ignorant to the implications of the imagery you posted about as well. But starting by assigning blame tends to end the conversation before you can have a chance to educate, whether that's right or not
He's a game designer for a multinational corporation that sells millions of copies of his work to people in those other countries. I don't expect directors of MCU movies to have in depth knowledge of Chinese history, but I do expect someone at Disney who does to actually greenlight their movies.
Now granted, this is a social media post and not anything in Smash itself, but it's not like his Twitter audience consists solely of Japanese people.
I think most people generally aren't that interested in foreign events unless they stand to be personally impacted. I'd bet if you asked most americans about the uyghurs they'd have no idea what you're even talking about. And while the events with Trump and the like are heavily reported about and framed as such in the US, why are you so quick to assume the reporting and framing is the same in Japan when they're probably more interested in domestic news?
Are you really implying Sakurai intentionally tried to reference this specific image as to make fun of the civil rights movement? Are you serious? If you hadn't pointed it out even I would have not made that connection. How would a middle aged japanese person do that? Like the implication of this is that he is a hardcore racist.
Aaronrules380 will reply to you with something indicating the innocent Japanese business man was entirely unaware of what happened last summer, despite Japan having its own BLM protests at the time.
I mean...that would be just as bad. The problem here is
1.he's the only black character in the game
2.out of all said characters that aren't black you chose the assist trophy of a black guy getting hosed
3. Our people have a trauma from getting hosed
4. We go with your bolded it still looks like a black guy jumping in front of a fire hose for a white woman.
I'm not assuming anything but the basis of Sakurai's intelligence. You can absolutely learn about the world around you in this day and age if you want to. It's not like Japan exists on Mars. And even if did, I'm sure we'd still have the tech for him to learn that basic fact that black people getting blasted = bad if he wanted to.
I feel like it's this, but yeah… that's not really better. Just a different kinda fucked up, compounded with an extra layer of ignorance of why "black + hoses" miiiight not be the best look.
I'm gonna be honest, as a black man in America, this is coming across as a stretch to me, it's possible that he may be portraying Rodin as shadow Mario (but he already has a shadow Mario model) but what I got from it is Rodin dodging the water in a comical way while looks like peach dodges in a cool way, kinda a reverse of roles where you expect Rodin to be the cool one
I think the link is somewhat tenuous, although if it is leading to a bunch of people interpreting it that way then it's problematic. Especially given how poor the representation of PoC in Smash is + those awful spirits which I'm still shocked got through the pipeline in the first place.
Sort of off-topic, but this thread highlights a huge problem I have with the discourse surrounding race online, in that it's overwhelmingly US-centric. And I think people from the US grossly underestimate how ignorant a lot of the world is to racial issues in society, even in Europe. That's not to excuse it at all, but to give context to all of this because constantly tackling the global issues surrounding race and civil rights through the African-American experience isn't helpful. At all.
To that end, Japan having a relative handful of black people and small BLM movement doesn't mean that Sakurai is going to be conscious of the Brimingham campaign. I'm black, living in Europe, feeling pretty well educated on the social issues affecting my community and even I didn't put the two together until it was pointed out to me. I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that some nuance in these discussions would be great.
Sort of off-topic, but this thread highlights a huge problem I have with the discourse surrounding race online, in that it's overwhelmingly US-centric. And I think people from the US grossly underestimate how ignorant a lot of the world is to racial issues in society, even in Europe. That's not to excuse it at all, but to give context to all of this because constantly tackling the global issues surrounding race and civil rights through the African-American experience isn't helpful. At all.
To that end, Japan having a relative handful of black people and small BLM movement doesn't mean that Sakurai is going to be conscious of the Brimingham campaign. I'm black, living in Europe, feeling pretty well educated on the social issues affecting my community and even I didn't put the two together until it was pointed out to me. I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that some nuance in these discussions would be great.
I cannot believe people are seriously looking at this and going "way too specific to be a coincidence!"
I thought Era was better than this conspiracy theory nonsense.
This thread is enraging me but not in the way it seems to be enraging everyone else. Y'all should be ashamed.
I thought Era was better than this conspiracy theory nonsense.
This thread is enraging me but not in the way it seems to be enraging everyone else. Y'all should be ashamed.
Aint no way this man found the only Black character in the game (who's not even playable for goodness sake) and put him being hit a hose
thats wild as fuck
thats wild as fuck
I doubt this is explicit, but it could certainly draw parallels to Emmett Till, a child who was murdered because he allegedly whistled at a white woman(I can't recall if this is 100% certain, but I think the woman in question admitted to fabricating the incident).
Some of these posts have a strong "you're all reading way too much into JK Rowling liking random TERF Tweets every other day" vibe.
Yeah, I'm like-- Why Rodin? I forgot his ass was in the game-- who's still using assist trophies?
Why do you think this is a slam dunk. What even is this response? "ahkchually that's not a hose, it's an ultra dousing device"
I should have made it clear I wasn't exonerating him of posting the image as it's still stupidly ignorant at its worst, like what you described. I was merely pointing out it didn't jump out at me like potential closet racist unlike the Diddy Kong/villager/and Mr. Game and Watch spirit battles.
This is an extremely limp defense of Nintendo's problems with representation and racism. Nintendo is a multibillion dollar entertainment company that does most of its business in the United States, in fact. Sakurai and the company leadership should in fact give a shit about these issues. They should have people in-house to advise them about stuff like this. There's just no excuse, this is 2021 and Nintendo has not improved on this front, at all, when other Japanese developers have made noted efforts to do so.
I will never understand why Nintendo gets a pass on Era from a lot of users for this shit and has for years. They make good games sometimes but it's not worth all of this.
People keep shifting attention to "what was Sakurai thinking/feeling?" because they can always dismiss the matter with "well, we can't read his mind, so there's no point talking about it."
The picture itself is bad, and should be taken down—intent doesn't change that.
And if you want to run defence for this in the wake of the multiple "black character spirits represented with DK apes/monkeys and thieves," go right ahead and get indignant over people being bothered by this stuff. Just know it's bad look.
This is always a relevant point. This isn't even people voicing desire for a black playable character which would take a lot of work to develope—"not drawing racist parallels between black people and apes" (the World of Light spirits issue) or "not posting questionable pictures of the one black guy in the game" are really easy-to-change things in the grand scheme of development, and Smash and Nintendo are big enough to accommodate that bare minimum.
A slam dunk? I was replying to a post I felt was incorrect.
Why is it always on Black people to have to educate others about why people may find something offensive? I truly don't understand this notion.
That's a damn good point. 🤔
See my edit. If you really think "TECHNICALLY that's not a hose per se" is the correction you think it is, then I dunno man
Of course if he wanted to he could learn. But that he assumes he wants to or believes he has a reason he should. If he hasn't heard anything to suggest what he's doing is wrong, of course he's not going to go out of his way to check. To do what you're asking without preexisting cultural knowledge, he'd have to be looking up possible implications and such that could be gained from literally every picture he posts. You're starting with the result of a problematic picture and working backwards, but that's not the position Sakurai is in
I don't think he is referencing that specific event, but I do think it is a racist image, very similar to this ad
youtu.be
Racism in a Chinese laundry detergent advertisement
http://www.nation.co.keA laundry detergent firm in China has come under fire for its racist commercial.The advertisement, which quickly went viral after it w...
youtu.be
This.
I don't know much about Sakurai and I haven't played SSB games in my life (except a few minutes, years ago with emulator), so I'm not a fan who wants to defend. But there are lots of things that Non-American people (like me) don't know much about them.
I mean I didn't even know about some of the most crazy racist things in US until 6,7 years ago, like using separated water coolers until 1960s.
Also, "Nintendo should talk to him"
Pretty much no one else is seeing this stuff. Like, the replies under the tweet aren't even hinting at this.
But more interesting is that this is the immediate reaction here when a black char is in the pic of the day.
Pretty much no one else is seeing this stuff. Like, the replies under the tweet aren't even hinting at this.
But more interesting is that this is the immediate reaction here when a black char is in the pic of the day.
I don't understand why Nintendo gets a pass on Era either. The representation of ethnic minorities in their games is shockingly poor, if not often non-existent. Easily the worst out of the three platform holders and worse than many other Japanese third-party publishers. There's obviously a societal element to it but if Capcom can make an internal effort to improve representation across the board then there is zero reason why Nintendo can't.
They're supposed to be leaders in the industry but don't seem to be doing it where it really counts.
I think he was more referring to how Rodin wasn't actually getting hit by FLUDD there, than saying it is not a hose.
User Banned (2 Weeks): Dismissive and Pedantic Commentary over Numerous Posts
It's not on black people, it's on people who are familiar with the issue regardless of race. The fact is that nobody is going to educate themselves on an issue that they aren't even aware exists in the first place. If it's not something he ever thinks about or comes into contact with in his daily life, why would you think it's reasonable for him to educate himself about the issue? Like this isn't the same as when dealing with someone in the US where this stuff is repeatedly brought up so much that it'd be impossible to not be at least somewhat familiar with the issue, if you go your life without ever being given a reason to think about the issue you aren't going to educate yourself on it. Like have you educated yourself on everything that could be considered offensive to every ethnicity on the planet?
I think a lot of people are rightfully heated but a lot of people are also seeing what they want to see. I personally wouldn't have put the pictures in the OP together as if they were the same. In my opinion If Sakurai were really trying to recreate that event he would've made it more explicit.
I think we absolutely should put pressure on Nintendo, but the way to do that is by pushing their international branches to discuss the issue with NCL. The fact is that barring a major news story or something, NCL isn't going to take notice of these issues on their own. If you want the developers to be educated on the issue, you need to push the people at the top to impose training on the issue, otherwise you're never going to make much headway because you'll never directly contact the people making the games and they'll never be given a reason to think of it in their own daily lives
The OP title:
The OP text:
The thread is framed just fine, it's posters immediately going on the defensive/claiming Sakurai isn't racist (saying someone has done something racist =/= they have KKK outfit in their closet) that messes up discussion.
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