Ha ha! Racist.

[blipblop]

Token native people can only be saved by white male.. yah it´s stupid and a bit racist and has been done before in Avatar, pocahontas, dancing with wolves and so on

 

[maninahat]

snip

So you're complaining because it's what, unrealistic? Grow up.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/racism

None of the definitions there apply to this. NONE. It was never implied in the video (nor, I expect, the game) that tribals are inferior to white people. It's simply not there. You're making things up.

Maybe if you spent more time not looking for things to complain about you'd enjoy the video more.

Actually, the first definition describes exactly what I was talking about; "inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others."

That tribes are invariably depicted as childish and in need of a chaperone, falls under that definition. In these stories, it falls to a mighty whitey to lead these people, because they apparently can't do it themselves.

I don't look for things to complain about. I don't have to.

 

[peruvianskys]

You do realise the use of tropes in of themselves, isn't racist, sexist or whatever kind of ism you can throw at them. The trope has to actually be racist for that point to matter.

And the trope of "White guy comes and saves a bunch of primitive exotic dark-skinned savages" is racist.

Showing tribes living as some tribes do doesn't fall into that category.

Do some African-Americans drink grape soda and drive around listening to rap music blaring on their giant, tricked out cars? Yes.

Is it racist to reduce an African-American character to such a stereotype? Yes.

The same thing applies here. Even if some tribal communities do occasionally live this way, it's still insensitive and tacky to portray them as dark=skinned cardboard cutouts instead of actual human beings.

If the protagonist was freaking Chinese or Middle Eastern we wouldn't even be having this discussion, despite the fact that he'd still be a foreign character being treated like a king amongst a tribe.

Because "Chinese man saves exotic tribe" is not a well-established racist trope whereas this is.

There isn't just one portrayal of tribal life. Each individual program/film/game handles them in their own way. And the fact is there are a lot of tribes that still live life in same manor as their ancestors, choosing to keep their culture, is fine and there is nothing wrong with a game using those types of cultures as a point of reference for fictitious tribes in a story.

But there sure as hell is a problem when media consistently portrays tribal communities not as legitimate, worthwhile collections of human beings, but exotic "savage" stereotypes, which is what they're doing here.

If I made a video game where the final level took place in a diamond cutting shop, and all the enemies were hook-nosed Hasidim, or if you had to fight a bunch of buck-toothed rednecks who were distilling poison moonshine, would you still just shrug it off? Because this is no different.

It's not a depiction of every tribe in existence, it's a depiction of one specific and fictional tribe in this game.

And that fictional tribe is a racially insensitive, culturally ignorant stereotype based on Eurocentric, Colonialist narratives.

 

[ShadowKatt]

Can't we just stop taking everything so goddamn damn fucking serious every damn time.

Nope. Not as long as we have a legal system that lets you sue someone into financial oblivion for making you feel the least bit uncomfortable. As long as we have that ability, we are guaranteed that anything we don't like can be legally and financially destroyed to make us happy.

 

[ShadowKatt]

Because "Chinese man saves exotic tribe" is not a well-established racist trope whereas this is.

So in other words, it's only racist because a white man is doing it.

You know, that seems a little racist in and of itself, hmm?

 

[RanD00M]

Snip.

You mean it's racist to make a group of people in a game resemble a slight stereotype, or to be based on something that exists? Wow, when did gamers think that they needed to be politically correct at every turn?

 

[peruvianskys]

So in other words, it's only racist because a white man is doing it.

You know, that seems a little racist in and of itself, hmm?

You're so clever.

My problem with this trailer is that it fulfills an offensive trope in which a paternal white figure encounters an exotic, "savage" tribe of natives who have a problem they cannot fix themselves. The white man, usually with help from a subservient or otherwise uncharacterized "magical negro," then solves the problem using his superior physical or mental skills.

The above narrative, which describes the content of this trailer perfectly, is a colonialist masturbation fantasy that relies on racially insensitive and cultural ignorant assumptions about tribal cultures.

This dynamic of superior white man saving savage brown tribe is racist, and yes, the racism comes from the fact that one side is white while the other is not.

 

[ShadowKatt]

So in other words, it's only racist because a white man is doing it.

You know, that seems a little racist in and of itself, hmm?

You're so clever.

My problem with this trailer is that it fulfills an offensive trope in which a paternal white figure encounters an exotic, "savage" tribe of natives who have a problem they cannot fix themselves. The white man, usually with help from a subservient or otherwise uncharacterized "magical negro," then solves the problem using his superior physical or mental skills.

The above narrative, which describes the content of this trailer perfectly, is a colonialist masturbation fantasy that relies on racially insensitive and cultural ignorant assumptions about tribal cultures.

This dynamic of superior white man saving savage brown tribe is racist, and yes, the racism comes from the fact that one side is white while the other is not.

So to sum up your post in a word, Yes.

This is the problem we have right now. If you're white, it doesn't matter what you do, what your intentions are, or where you're from. For all the talk of oppression and discrimination, we've come to the point where if you're white, you're automatically racist for being white. You're automatically the bad guy for being white. Everyone else is the poor innocent victim because they're not white. Oh, look, a group of non-whites. What's this, a white is going to help them? That racist bastard, descending on them with his supreme intellect and skill and pushing it on them. He's obviously only two minutes away from declaring them only 2/3 of a person and giving them a cotton patch doll as consolation.

We have some serious problems here regarding racism that need to be addressed, and this is one of the big ones. You cannot expect to find equality by blaming it all on one party and making them the scape goat.

Edit: This may, of course, be getting a little off track. This was about whether or not a game trailer was racist, after all, which it isn't.

 

[xomocekc]

lol at all the white dudes ITT deciding what's racist.

It's racist as fuck. Shut ur honkey mouths.

 

[TeletubbiesGolfGun]

lol at all the white dudes ITT deciding what's racist.

It's racist as fuck. Shut ur honkey mouths.

yes, it's racist because it's a white guy. changing the race somehow makes it not racist...


that isn't racist, if anything it's racist towards the white guy because he simple has a lighter skin color.

dear me, racism HARDCORE!


lol at your honkey shout out, i legitimately laugh out loud anytime i've been called that, feel free to try it again for another good laugh.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

Uhm, maybe waiting for the full game would answer the question. I can`t call out racism based on a short trailer. At least not this one, since there is almost none info about characters and background.
For what it is now i`m glad FarCry3 shows gameplay instead of a trailer showing nothing game related. The question if there`s racism never poped up while watching it.

Congrats for developing a good strategy to get this thread a high post- and viewing count, with this post you already have my support. I`ll be more carefull when you post something next time since this thread feels pretty pointless.

Edit: Reading some of the posts i think all devs should sit together and discuss a universial color for games with a realistic setting, not to white, not to black, not to red and not to yellow. Racial tropes regarding facial structures are solved by masks. When someone speaks there`s always a double layered voice male and female to hear. Maybe there should be six voices including old and young for both genders.
For avoiding sexism every person is portrayed as genderless and wears always a combination of both gender related clothes. We could solve three really really really really really BIG problems within the gaming industry this way.
Racism,
Sexism and finally there would be a great comeback for the horror genre.

 

[Pegghead]

In all fairness, the clash between ancient tribal mysticism and cold jungle mercenary operations was one of the features of the early Far Cry games (In your post you talked about how this trailer clashed with Far Cry 2 and it's Heart Of Darkness themes, and well, Far Cry 2 clashed with Far Cry) so it does have good reason to be there.

Sure, all the half-naked priestesses and talk of great warriors might seem a little cliched, but I'm sure it won't come off as offensive. Besides, it's a game about shooting people, blowing shit up, commandeering every vehicle known to man and tearing shit up while high on jungle drugs, so it's not like this is some dreaded smear against an otherwise totally straight-faced affair.

 

[DrBonBon]

Aren't white people allowed to join tribes?

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, it's supposed to be "exotic", right?

This usually calls for exaggerations.

It's stereotypical as seen in Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, Avatar, and John Carter of Mars (probably the first one to do it), but I wouldn't go as far as to call racism.

 

[poxyrom]

Let me get this straight: a sexy "exotic" priestess asks you (a white westerner who only turned up the other day) to use her magic and lead her tribe of chanting natives (the kind with tattoos, bones and loincloths, naturally) against some evil, modernised corperate types? Oh yes indeed. It's only a trailer, so perhaps this won't turn out to be Dances with the Last Avatar 2.

I'm assuming that you were talking about racism against the african people. However, the tribal guys were white. So I'm not really sure what you're referring to. Yeah, the whole "magical chanting natives" thing is a bit cliche, but it's not racist, and it's been done a million times before.