Is Square racist?

[EzraPound]

I found this image when I was reading about Square's Tom Sawyer, which was released in 1989 and--in spite of being based on the work of a popular American novelist--never made it stateside. Anyway, I think the depiction of Jim in it speaks for itself:

Anyway--what do you guys think? This isn't the first instance of racial insensitivity unearthed in Squaresoft's games--take Barret in Final Fantasy VII, for example (to boot: he beat his chest). I also think that a lot of people are likely to offer cultural apologia--to claim that Japan is different--but I'm not sure if that's really an adequate explanation.

Sorry to be so horribly PC, but this is just the way I feel.

 

[Radeonx]

Who cares? You have one example that is over 20 years old to back up your claims. (I'm not counting the FF7 claim, because that isn't racist at all.) You're just being overly pedantic and politically correct for the sake of being overly pedantic and politically correct.

 

[zehydra]

Who cares? You have one example that is over 20 years old to back up your claims. (I'm not counting the FF7 claim, because that isn't racist at all.) You're just being overly pedantic and politically correct for the sake of being overly pedantic and politically correct.

Yeah, maybe you wanted to use the past tense with this one?

Square was racist? at least once?

 

[Johnnyallstar]

Every time Square depicts a black person, it's always in a very stereotypical manner. Sometimes are worse than others, I suppose.

Stereotyping isn't exactly racism.

 

[Urgh76]

I am laughing so hard right now XD

OT: If they are, it's all in good humor, such as you mentioned Barret in FF VII

 

[Worgen]

a better question is are the Japanese racist, and yes they are, really most cultures are pretty racist, when it comes down to it the US is probably one of the least racist around.... for the most part

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

Yeah, the japanese never actually got that it's not cool to portray black dudes as these clownish people with comically large lips.
They're not racist, there's no hatred involved. Just a little ignorant, I guess.

Values dissonance at its finest.

 

[EzraPound]

Who cares? You have one example that is over 20 years old to back up your claims. (I'm not counting the FF7 claim, because that isn't racist at all.) You're just being overly pedantic and politically correct for the sake of being overly pedantic and politically correct.

I don't really think just leveling the allegation of being "politically-correct" at anyone who expresses concern at fairly degrading portrayals--such as the one above--is necessarily appropriate. The fact is, in our society racism is somewhat taboo, which means that it's usually at least thinly concealed (i.e., no one will self-describe as a "racist", and "you don't have a sense of humour" is a typical response). Sometimes reading between the lines, then, is necessary--though I agree that such a practice can be overstated.

Anyway--given how critical people have been of some of Square's other creative choices--I think an image like this can help provide greater context for assessing their actions.

a better question is are the Japanese racist, and yes they are, really most cultures are pretty racist, when it comes down to it the US is probably one of the least racist around.... for the most part

The U.S. has some of the worst racial tension of any western, developed nation--though I think the type of racism that pervades it is quite different than that of Japan.

Anyway, I see a lot of racialized humour in American games, mostly under the guise of humour--think of Homie Rollerz, Kung Fu Chaos, Bonetown, or Shadow Warrior. Actually, I like the latter game on its own terms, and obviously the sterotyping is intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but some of it is still faintly juvenile, like a fourteen year-old's idea of what'd be funny.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I'm sorry, thats just funny.

Anyway, I would say yes. But all Japanese are inherently racist.

 

[Elamdri]

All I have to say is Sahz from FF13

 

[Radeonx]

Who cares? You have one example that is over 20 years old to back up your claims. (I'm not counting the FF7 claim, because that isn't racist at all.) You're just being overly pedantic and politically correct for the sake of being overly pedantic and politically correct.

I don't really think just leveling the allegation of being "politically-correct" at anyone who expresses concern at fairly degrading portrayals--such as the one above--is necessarily appropriate. The fact is, in our society racism is somewhat taboo, which means that it's usually at least thinly concealed (i.e., no one will self-describe as a "racist", and "you don't have a sense of humour" is a typical response). Sometimes reading between the lines, then, is necessary--though I agree that such a practice can be overstated.

Anyway--given how critical people have been of some of Square's other creative choices--I think an image like this can help provide greater context for assessing their actions.

The fact is that this picture is from a game that is 20 years old and has no relevance to Square's current views of race whatsoever.
That's like looking at pre-MLK America and then immediately calling 2011 America racist towards black people.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I don't really think just leveling the allegation of being "politically-correct" at anyone who expresses concern at fairly degrading portrayals--such as the one above--is necessarily appropriate. The fact is, in our society racism is somewhat taboo, which means that it's usually at least thinly concealed (i.e., no one will self-describe as a "racist", and "you don't have a sense of humour" is a typical response). Sometimes reading between the lines, then, is necessary--though I agree that such a practice can be overstated.

Anyway--given how critical people have been of some of Square's other creative choices--I think an image like this can help provide greater context for assessing their actions.

Though I tend to agree, 20 years is a long time. How many people working there then were involved in much later projects?

 

[EzraPound]

Who cares? You have one example that is over 20 years old to back up your claims. (I'm not counting the FF7 claim, because that isn't racist at all.) You're just being overly pedantic and politically correct for the sake of being overly pedantic and politically correct.

I don't really think just leveling the allegation of being "politically-correct" at anyone who expresses concern at fairly degrading portrayals--such as the one above--is necessarily appropriate. The fact is, in our society racism is somewhat taboo, which means that it's usually at least thinly concealed (i.e., no one will self-describe as a "racist", and "you don't have a sense of humour" is a typical response). Sometimes reading between the lines, then, is necessary--though I agree that such a practice can be overstated.

Anyway--given how critical people have been of some of Square's other creative choices--I think an image like this can help provide greater context for assessing their actions.

The fact is that this picture is from a game that is 20 years old and has no relevance to Square's current views of race whatsoever.
That's like looking at pre-MLK America and then immediately calling 2011 America racist towards black people.

Which would be correct, though I'm not saying the methodology is accurate. Actually, it's not a bad analogy: Square's shifted from overtly racist portrayals like the one above to vaguely offensive ones like Barret, whereas the U.S. went from overt legal discrimination to black people just being a trenchant underclass that gets frisked for twice as long at concerts and whom white people move to the other side of the street when they walk by.

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

Just kill the term.Let it be known that from now on all racists are bast-zards
a combination of bastidon and charizard

 

[fulano]

Cultures are very, very different so something that may be offensive to one culture may not be to another.

For example, as I've posted before:

And that's totally not intended to be racist.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Have you seen the "black" crows in Disney films of the 70-80s? Or any of a dozen other American cartoons from before 1990? Yeah.

I'm just not sure why you think that Square stands out from the rest of Japan (who are known world-wide as pretty damn racist). At least Square acknowledges that other races exist. They may only be familiar with those races from TV shows from the 80s, but at least it's a sort of progress.

 

[Defense]

Barret has stereotypical traits, but he isn't a stereotype. He is an environmental terrorist who lives in a bar and tries to support his adopted white daughter as much as he can. Sazh isn't really a stereotypical character either, save the 'fro and the guns, but saying Sazh is stereotypical for his afro is like saying Jacob from Mass Effect 2 is stereotypical for his big nostrils.

However, Japanese companies can be extremely ignorant of races because there aren't much black people in Japan, so they base it off of characters in movies and other forms of media.

 

[EzraPound]

I don't really think just leveling the allegation of being "politically-correct" at anyone who expresses concern at fairly degrading portrayals--such as the one above--is necessarily appropriate. The fact is, in our society racism is somewhat taboo, which means that it's usually at least thinly concealed (i.e., no one will self-describe as a "racist", and "you don't have a sense of humour" is a typical response). Sometimes reading between the lines, then, is necessary--though I agree that such a practice can be overstated.

Anyway--given how critical people have been of some of Square's other creative choices--I think an image like this can help provide greater context for assessing their actions.

Though I tend to agree, 20 years is a long time. How many people working there then were involved in much later projects?

Nobuo Uematsu and Hiromichi Tanaka--the lead producer of Final Fantasy XI and XIV. Also Hiroyuki Ito, who did game-planning for a slew of later Final Fantasy titles, and Takashi Tokita, who wrote Parasite Eve and directed Chrono Trigger. So several of the major figures in Square now worked on it.

 

[badgersprite]

Judging Japanese portrayals of different peoples by American standards doesn't really make sense though. Japan doesn't exactly have a black community, now does it? So you see they aren't making fun of black people, they're depicting foreigners. In other words, they're depicting black people and white people the way they see them depicted in the media they get from America.