Not-So-Subtle Racism In Video Games

freedominwickedness:

The only notable Asian character in the Mass Effect series is a sadistic, sociopathic killer ninja. Gee, thanks for the totally not stereotyped representation!

The only black character in the the Mass Effect series who is a romance option for the female player character is also the only romance option who will cheat on her.

In fact, he cheats on her in pretty much the most utterly douchebag way possible. If the player character dates him during the second game, she won’t see him again until a late-game side mission in the third game. At that point, you discover that he abandoned her during the six-month period between the two games — while she was under house arrest on Earth, he departed for parts unknown without so much as an e-mailed “Dear Jane” letter. If she confronts him over this, he’ll admit that he left because he didn’t want to wait for her, that he expected to never see her again, and that he’s seeing someone else now. Oh yeah, and he got his new girlfriend pregnant, so he can’t come back even though he still loves the player character.

Is there any ugly stereotype about black guys that Bioware didn’t manage to invoke with that?

This is not the first time Bioware’s been busted about an oppressed group of people, either (the nameless drag-queen dwarf prostitute in Dragon Age: Origins is a big one - Serendipity in Dragon Age II is less bad (at least she’s clearly female) but still a rolled-up pile of negative trans stereotypes).

Bioware doesn’t fail much but when they do they fail BIG TIME, and in ways that are absolutely inexcusable given their generally good track record.

131 Notes/ Hide

  1. athenaltena reblogged this from freedominwickedness and added:
    criticism, but the OP forgot about Kasumi Goto (and Keiji...that matter), Emily Wong and...
  2. trypr reblogged this from bmoburns
  3. bigmeandragonlady reblogged this from hamburgerjack
  4. pancakesinspace reblogged this from commanderbishoujo and added:
    I really don’t know how the hell anyone thought the whole Jacob thing was okay. Like, with all the smart and talented...
  5. necropantser reblogged this from hamburgerjack
  6. hamburgerjack reblogged this from commanderbishoujo
  7. commanderbishoujo reblogged this from hamburgerjack and added:
    and that isn’t even the worst thing about Jacob’s storyline tbh (can I also add that he found the most light skinned...
  8. thatmuchlove reblogged this from hamburgerjack
  9. bankuei reblogged this from hamburgerjack
  10. la-vida-de-gatita reblogged this from freedominwickedness and added:
    Not-So-Subtle Racism In Video Games
  11. heosic24 reblogged this from freedominwickedness and added:
    That bothered me too :I
  12. chargenovacharge reblogged this from bmoburns
  13. feuerkind reblogged this from bmoburns
  14. phdfan reblogged this from meronym
  15. theotakusupreme reblogged this from averagesparrow
  16. j0shua-l0r3nz0 reblogged this from sanityscraps and added:
    Regarding the outfit of the female Krogans, they all dress like that. I came upon a scene in this one playthrough I had...
  17. misket reblogged this from averagesparrow and added:
    [[MORE]]this was actually going to be my reply to i-sauntered-vaguely-downwards but I think it was too long and wouldn’t...
  18. vaguelysomething reblogged this from sanityscraps
  19. rebirth-of-the-cool reblogged this from sanityscraps and added:
    ^^^^^ Yep. It was even covered in the Bring Down The Sky DLC in Mass Effect 1.
  20. sanityscraps reblogged this from notabrobro and added:
    I thought that was weird too, but it’s the universal translator chips they all have in their brains. When Thane first...
  21. freedominwickedness reblogged this from misket and added:
    That’s a strawman argument, isofar as no one has been arguing that there are no people of color in the Mass Effect...
  22. notabrobro reblogged this from sanityscraps and added:
    think that everyone knows English? Because…. AMERICA, THAT’S WHY
  23. danke-dummkopfs reblogged this from meronym and added:
    Maybe translators only pick up alien languages? Still, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed that Jacob and...