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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had an offensive stereotype regarding Native Americans (Update: Removed)
- Thread starter Regulus Tera
- Start date
Just look sat the comment section, it shouldn't surprise you. Almost completely full of right-wing idiots, likely pro-gamergate, screaming "SWJ strike againzz!" Shouting SWJ is basically the only shield these morons have to use, and by God, they're going to use it until it wears out.
Honestly there's no argument for this caracature to remain. Are people seriously trying to defend racist depictions of minorities? Because it "ruins" your precious video game? And yet they have the absurdity to put our priorities in question?
Please do not tell people to accept racism in their games. And yes, if we discover something shitty that shouldn't be in a piece of media, you can bet your ass we'll have something to say about it. In this case, that guy moans about it being just a feather. He's refusing to look at it in context.
Please do not tell people to accept racism in their games. And yes, if we discover something shitty that shouldn't be in a piece of media, you can bet your ass we'll have something to say about it. In this case, that guy moans about it being just a feather. He's refusing to look at it in context.
I saw this video and his other one earlier, and his argument seems to be that some people care too much about it apparently, puts it as "losing their minds" or something a few times. But I didn't see anyone getting massively butthurt over this, he's the one making two 10 minute videos ranting about it wherein he gets visibly angry that a few people tweeted Nintendo asking them to remove a small kind of racist thing. He has a problem with talking about this instead of universal health care and such, but considering the size of his audience he's really just diverting people's attention to this incredibly minor incident. I understand "triggered snowflakes are outraged" videos are the easiest kind of videos to shit out for lazy content creators, but it's pretty funny that he's making a quick buck off signal boosting an issue whose discussion is supposedly undermining greater causes.
I will admit it's frustrating that it seems Nintendo was going to remove it anyway, but it being noticed and signal-boosted and articles getting written about it means the "It's Not Racist It's A Fun Callback I Have No Critical Thinking Skills" crowd was drawn to it and got in a big hissy fit about it. We're really not allowed to say anything without that happening, huh
Shouting about "SJWs" has already worn out for anyone who isn't already also shouting about "SJWs."
In the attempt to get something positive out of this and also highlight why the "why don't all Native Americans speak against this then" argument is dumb, can I post this?
Now, I'm not neither native nor American and so I doubt that I'm the most knowledgeable about this, but my understanding is that Native Americans weren't really a thing until European settlers came. Rather, you had a hundreds of cultures with different traditions, languages, and political situations scattered over the continent. They became lumped together due to things like stereotyping and a common struggle. The regions are how the tribes have been classified based on their territory upon first encounter with settlers and common cultural traits.
So the fact that we lump them all together highlights how cultural depiction has a real effect. As for why not all of them feel the same way, besides the fact that no ethnicity is a monolith, it seems especially silly when you consider that the group that is supposed to reach a consensus was so diverse to begin with.
Now, I'm not neither native nor American and so I doubt that I'm the most knowledgeable about this, but my understanding is that Native Americans weren't really a thing until European settlers came. Rather, you had a hundreds of cultures with different traditions, languages, and political situations scattered over the continent. They became lumped together due to things like stereotyping and a common struggle. The regions are how the tribes have been classified based on their territory upon first encounter with settlers and common cultural traits.
So the fact that we lump them all together highlights how cultural depiction has a real effect. As for why not all of them feel the same way, besides the fact that no ethnicity is a monolith, it seems especially silly when you consider that the group that is supposed to reach a consensus was so diverse to begin with.
these idiots are crying like fucking babies and they're calling the people offended by the issue snowflakes?The incredibly rational reaction from gamers :
the irony...
The incredibly rational reaction from gamers :
man i love when this happens
cracks me up
I like how this ruins the game for people...The racist imagery just HAS to be there for the game to be fun to them.The incredibly rational reaction from gamers :
In the attempt to get something positive out of this and also highlight why the "why don't all Native Americans speak against this then" argument is dumb, can I post this?
Now, I'm not neither native nor American and so I doubt that I'm the most knowledgeable about this, but my understanding is that Native Americans weren't really a thing until European settlers came. Rather, you had a hundreds of cultures with different traditions, languages, and political situations scattered over the continent. They became lumped together due to things like stereotyping and a common struggle. The regions are how the tribes have been classified based on their territory upon first encounter with settlers and common cultural traits.
So the fact that we lump them all together highlights how cultural depiction has a real effect. As for why not all of them feel the same way, besides the fact that no ethnicity is a monolith, it seems especially silly when you consider that the group that is supposed to reach a consensus was so diverse to begin with.
Thanks for this post. I think it does a great job highlighting the cultural diversity of those lumped into the "Native American" category and why these kinds of topics are much more nuanced than how they are portrayed.
The feathered stereotype is meant to dehumanize and wash away the cultural subtleties of each Native American tribe so I am glad Nintendo decided to not propagate the stereotype further.
Who wants to bet that the guy who claims that the game is ruined by the minor visual alteration of one attack from one character in a roster of around seventy (with DLC characters incoming) is still going to be tweeting about his experience with the game when it comes out?
You're right, you would have to be a snowflake to get upset at Nintendo changing an offensive stereotype
The incredibly rational reaction from gamers :
Is there a way Nintendo can permanently ban these guys' NNID accounts?
The incredibly rational reaction from gamers :
As embarrassing as expected.
Everyone is so appalled by this but I am struggling to understand. Why is the depiction of feathers offensive to Native Americans?
Once upon a time, Indigenous people wore feathers in their hair/feathered headbands. Nowadays, they generally don't go walking around with feathered headbands... nor do they throw lit torches at cowboys.
Are we still talking about this? It's just people agreeing with each other considering ResetEra will ban anyone who has an opposite opinion on the matter.
I don't even remotely believe that, but sure
The people who are getting banned are using dumb, lazy arguments. If you have an opposite opinion, maybe state it in such a way that isn't "wow, people get offended about everything" and "SMASH RUINED, PREORDER CANCELLED" like every other assclown who's been banned in this thread.
EDIT: Ah, I notice you were banned as well. Let me add to the list, though: the "I have friends who aren't offended, therefore this isn't offensive" argument is an incredibly lazy argument. Your friends/colleagues don't speak for Native Americans as a whole.
You ate a 1 week ban trying to downplay this.
What on earth convinced you it was a good idea to immediately come back and complain more.
User banned (1 month): continuing to dismiss concerns of racism
Downplay isn't the word I'd use. However I'm not going to let some internet site banning me stop me from sharing my views. I'm not that weak.
It was probably a poorly worded attempt at saying if Natives are offended I think it should be changed but if they aren't then don't change it because white people say to. A few natives have obviously spoken up and Nintendo decided to change it. I am not upset about the change. However I have also seen natives that were not bothered, but I suppose that if some are offended that should be taken seriously.
I guess we'll see if this response is ResetEra approved.
Imagine typing "I hope not" in response to "I hope they remove this stereotypical imagery that reinforces harmful stereotypes."
You're the type of dude who says "That's not racist, I have a black friend."
Just to let you know, an INCREDIBLY common situation that occurs whenever something like this happens is a guy who's not actually "x" will say "I'm x and I don't care about this."
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i love the persecution complex with these types of posts lmao
Nope not at all. My reasoning for that was that I hadn't seen any Natives complain about it, so I felt no need to change it. I suppose that my response was a little too short so people imaginations of who I am went wild. Once I saw a few natives complain that it bothered them, my tune is more to the song of "If this offends the actual people it's refrerencing, I'm glad they changed it." But to me for a while it just seemed that white people were bothered and Natives weren't.
You were unironically calling people SJWs and pulling the "you're the real racists" card before you got banned the last time.
One of your first posts in this forum was pushing back against the "add a black character to Smash" thread.
You can piss off with this transparent shit.
Not a complex, nor am I being persecuted. I just feel ResetEra has an obvious bias for this kind of thing but I kind of get it to be honest.
It isn't the feather.
You have to look at the entire picture: Fire Attack plays into all the old offensive colonialist stereotypes about the savage Native American: It is a game where the player has to defend their fort from a horde of attacking Indians who want to burn it down. It isn't something that anyone would want to make a callback to.
Not sure why you're getting so hostile. I don't disagree that my initial posts in this thread may have been too brief and poorly worded and I've seen that. My expression behind my "SJWs" comment was to say that minorities don't need to be protected by them, they do a fine job of protecting themselves, especially these days. I think if a people have an issue with how their culture is portrayed they should be they ones to speak up is all. Which in this case they have.
As for the "black game characters" post I made originally on one of my first posts, I do believe that characters should be created out of someone's creativity, not pressure to create a specific character regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. I don't think that's an unfair thing to say and if you disagree that's totally okay.
Literally the most upvoted tweet about it that appeared in several articles was from someone who's Native American.
I do believe that tweet was shown in this thread after my initial reply. That's one of the things that I saw that made me say "Okay, if Natives fee that way maybe it should in-fact be changed"
You're essentially arguing that because YOU haven't specifically seen people who're Native American taking issue that obviously they must not exist and that the only people who took issue are caucasian. You don't have the self awareness to see how ridiculous that sounds? That's never the right way to approach a situation like this.
I'm Native. I'm bothered.
I'd honestly be more bothered if non-Native folks would be okay with it until told otherwise. It's okay to learn and grow but these depictions haven't been acceptable for awhile now.
I've traversed pretty far on the internet and I only saw a few natives express their complaints even since this whole thing happened. I'm not doubting they exist but because the natives that I did see discuss the topic not seem offended and even seem annoyed that people were getting offended for them, I felt the hysteria may have been a construct of non-natives seeing a potentially offensive thing. I have seen since then that some were offended so I'm not upset that it got changed.
These people are the real snowflakes. Also coming back into this topic was a bold move. Let's see if it pays off for him
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