Resident Evil 5 is RACIST oh noes!

Meowster · Fri 03/08/2007 15:07:47

The only way to move past racism is for everybody to stop being so oversensitive to it. The way things are at the moment is ridiculous. Over-sensitivies are drawing attention to an imaginary divide between white and black people. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if people felt awkward or uncomfortable around people of a different colour simple because we're all so fucking afraid of offending each other.

Look at that stupid Emily Parr woman who got kicked off big brother for saying "nigger". She said it in a friendly way, to a friend, no different than people do every day. The black girl didn't even mind - she only decided to draw attention to it later when she realised she could use it to become the next Shilpa Shetty...

Now I understand that there are sensitivities to this word, but unfortunately, people are going to have to get over it. We can't keep tiptoeing around things like this, afraid of offending people. There is a huge difference between screaming at somebody that they are a nigger and using it as an insult, which is racism, and using it on a friendly basis, which is not racism. I used to jokingly greet one of my white friends by saying, "Yo, what up nigga?!???". Clearly I wasn't being racist...

In her post-big brother interview, the interviewer kept interrupting Emily when she was trying to explain why she'd said "nigger", to remind her "That's no excuse though is it?" "but you're not trying to excuse what you did?" FUCK OFF Davina Maccaul, grow a pair of balls and admit that it really wasn't a big deal! Even worse, the stupid girl apologised so profusely and didn't stick up for herself at all! Never was it mentioned that the black girl had already said "nigger" herself many times, never was it mentioned that it was simply a friendly joke, it was treated as though this girl was an actual racist! She was treated like a racist SHOULD be treated... except she wasn't racist and it was obvious!

Also I share the experience of having people give me uncomfy, unsure looks when I describe somebody as being black. For example, in our company there are about 6 girls, one of which is black. I asked somebody to deliver a message to one of the girls, but they didn't know what she looked like, so I said "she's the black girl that works upstairs." The person looked at me as though I'd just said the most horribly racist thing.

But 6 months ago, there was only one girl working upstairs, and when people asked me who "Jo" was, I would say, "She's the girl that works upstairs". When you're trying to describe somebody, you give their most immediately noticable features, correct? Everybody is going to immediately identify the only girl from a crowd of men. Everybody is going to immediately identify the only black girl in a crowd of white girls. To pretend there's no different in skin colour is not only silly, but it's also downright insulting. If people were afraid of describing me as a white girl in case it offended me, I'd be angry. I'd be angry too that there was some kind of unspoken awkwardness between us just because I had a different skin colour from everyone I worked with, and everybody was pretending not to notice it.

By constantly drawing attention to things like this, and by being so overly sensitive, people are making things a lot worse.

Afflict · Fri 03/08/2007 15:12:19

What's racism?

Cause if it's being against any race then I definitely am against three legged racing it sucks.

Meowster · Fri 03/08/2007 15:13:18

It's where niggas and crackas collide.

Actually the only people I hear screaming RACISM these days is over-sensitive white people panicking that another white person might have offended a non-white person...

(and that one black woman who's whining about RE5 and her 10 year old nephew magically getting a copy of RE4)

space boy · Fri 03/08/2007 15:23:40

The meaning of words changes. In the polish language the word "kobieta" used to mean whore. Today it simply means woman. Humbug used to be a really strong word. Today it has lost all it's impact.
The same with nigger. If we start to use it in a different context like a synonym for "buddy" the meaning will slowly change. Infact, look at the usage of negro in some spanish speaking countries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro

I'm not racist. Does typing a certain sequence of letters or saying a certain sequence of sounds, which has no meaning unless you apply one, make me racist? Bullshit. I'm gonna say nigger all i want. Saying that only black people have the exclusive right to say nigger while it's very bad for white people, that is racism. That's artificially enforcing a wall between both races.

Now, which of those two sentences sounds more racist?
"I love my niggers"
"I hate people of african descent"

Afflict · Fri 03/08/2007 16:43:07

The word nigger is an interesting one.

When A black guy says it to a black guy, no problem. eg: "Sup my nigger?"
When a white guy says "sup my nigger?" It is not taken in the same light as the earlier sentence, why not is it because the white guy is white?

Whose the racist then?

monkey0506 · Fri 03/08/2007 18:24:25

I once heard a black female comedian talking about this subject...the word "nigger" that is. She had an excellent point: "It only has power because we give it power." She then went on to say that if we start to use the word to mean something good, something that everyone likes, instead of using it to imply that the black race is less than human, we can all move past this one word.

Her suggestion was to start using the word "nigger" to mean "potato chips". "Yeah," she said, "We can have all kinds of niggers! Sour Cream and Onion Niggers, Jalapeno Niggers, Nacho Niggers...yeah...but we won't have no Barbecue Niggers...'cause that just not right."

Like I said, she was a comedian, and using "nigger" to mean "potato chips" probably isn't the greatest idea, but the point is still there. If we stop giving it that power to demean the black race, then we can get over it. Racism will always be there, but if we could rid "nigger" of its derogatory meaning, wouldn't that at least be a step in the right direction?

space boy · Fri 03/08/2007 18:31:01

Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Fri 03/08/2007 18:24:25
"It only has power because we give it power."

Exactly my point, that woman found the right words.

Quote
Racism will always be there, but if we could rid "nigger" of its derogatory meaning, wouldn't that at least be a step in the right direction?

Well said, my nigger.

LimpingFish · Fri 03/08/2007 19:10:22

This is why the Golliwog got kicked out of Toy Town.

As, apparently, the best way to educate people over the dangers of racism is to pretend it doesn't exist.

And to sanitize the past.

Mr Jake · Fri 03/08/2007 22:52:49

Personally I agree with this person, and in our modern world I think such a game is disgusting.

And Im shocked that so many people are defending blatent racism.

Nikolas · Fri 03/08/2007 22:54:00

hotspot:

WTF??!?

What racism? All previouds RE games where racistic towards white people?

PS. Trailer looks AWESMOE!

Darth Mandarb · Fri 03/08/2007 23:56:15

The sarcasm is sticky

CoffeeBob · Sat 04/08/2007 00:35:56

Haha, talk about over-reacting. I could go as far as calling Doom 3 racist for killing potentially friendly demons, but then I'd be sinking even below that womans level..

Reminds me of a situation we had here in Sweden not too long ago, there was this ice-cream GB released called Nogger Black, a liqourice(sp?) variant of the ordinary Nogger, which has been around for a good amount of decades too. I guess it doesn't surprise people that much that a "white", middle-aged woman reported this as offensive, if I recall correctly. I mean, come on.. :

EDIT: Oh yeah, there was a bit of discussion regarding another ice-cream that had been around for very long before anyone reacted to it as stupidly as they did, one called the 88'er (roughly translated), which some probably much paranoid people though was a reference to Hitler, as H is the eigth letter in the alphabet, deciphering the ice-cream's "secret code" to HH, like in "Heil Hitler". :o

Ah, stupidity. Had it not existed, then I would've had nothing to laugh at.

space boy · Sat 04/08/2007 01:03:08

Just stumbled across this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/09/AR2007070900609.html

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Sat 04/08/2007 07:07:08

QuoteThe only way to move past racism is for everybody to stop being so oversensitive to it.

And to stop drawing attention to it, as you have with this thread. I mean your points are interesting but invalidated when you draw in exterior people to a site that's essentially a racist counter-view (whether fake or serious). You're providing that person with hits, and even if only two or three people here post that the person is stupid that's fuel for the continuing fire. Don't fuel the fire.

Darth Mandarb · Sat 04/08/2007 14:36:37

I don't think the right path is stop drawing attention to it. If this person who wrote that article seriously believes the ignorance she's peddling then she must be educated. If we "ignore" it the problem will just continue on. Now, in the case of this website linked to in this thread, I believe ignoring it IS the right path because, as I stated earlier, this seems like an intentionally designed controversy generated to bring hits to her/their website.

I have been saying for years that the word "nigger" is just a string of letters like any other word. The only reason it continues to have "power" is because people react to it. It's like we're all 10 year olds on the playground crying 'cause somebody calls you a poo-poo head.

It's a word. Nothing else.

I love it when I hear the excuse, "but you're not black ... you can't understand!" Right ... it's inconcievable that a person not of a certain skin color can't understand the concept of an insult. That excuse is so ignorant in an of itself that it's no wonder the word continues to have power.

Harvester · Sun 05/08/2007 23:57:41

Off topic - Can anyone tell me is there an offensive word for white people? I'd like to start using it.

Harvester · Sun 05/08/2007 23:59:13

Quote from: space boy on Sat 04/08/2007 01:03:08
Just stumbled across this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/09/AR2007070900609.html

By that "N-word" they mean nigger, right?

LimpingFish · Mon 06/08/2007 00:00:28

Cracker, Honky, Whitey, etc.

Isn't the english language just awesmoe?!

EDIT: Actually, it's funny how the above Washington Post article can't even bring itself to print the word.

space boy · Mon 06/08/2007 00:22:56

Quote from: Harvester on Sun 05/08/2007 23:59:13
By that "N-word" they mean nigger, right?

Since we're still using the word nigger they can't have buried it. Unless it became a zombie, which brings us back to the main topic.

Ptraci · Mon 06/08/2007 02:28:04

This thread reminds me of an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air in which uncle Phil is introduced to a rich white man who tells him: 'You can call me whitey', to which he replies in horror 'Oh no, I can't'. In the end the man explains that everyone calls him 'whitey' because of his white hair and goes away without even noticing the Banks's family reaction to the word. Context is everything!

Assuming people are going to be offended every time we say something isn't going to help as they will be offended anyway if they wanted to in the first place :S

Now I'll go to bed singing: Everyone's a little bit racist...