» Tue Feb 12, 2013 2:02 pm Racism is bad. All of it. It doesn't matter who it's from or who it's directed at. Racist people deserve to be made outcast in our modern society. Now of course everyone who is racist has a cop out explanation for feeling the way they do. And most of the time people pick up on the fact that these are cop outs. That only makes me wonder why racism directed at white people is given a free pass. People don't even act like it's racism. You hear all kinds of cop outs, yet no body seems to see it.
Recently Resident Evil 6 and Call of Juarez: the Cartel were rightly dragged into the spotlight for their racist content. They site the waves of negro enemies that you have to plow through or the costumes that the ethnic characters are given. They bring up the event that revolve around extreme misconceptions about the subject matter. Theses are valid points. That's why I'm going to talk about parallels in Point Lookout.
Lets start by talking about some of the inventory items that are added in this DLC. The double barreled shotgun, for starters was added simply because it's "white trash" go to weapon. Now of course there's nothing directly racist about the double-barreled shotgun, but why add them here? There were already shot guns that work a hell of a lot better. Next are the coveralls. I guess we're in a place where a lot of the people wear coveralls. The drink added here is moonshine. I found this one a little bit confusing. You'd think that every town would have a distillery operation set up to brew their own bath tub alcohol. Why wait until Point Lookout to add Moonshine? Finally we have the confederate hats. Do I really need to elaborate?
Now let's talk about Point Lookout's mutants, the Swampfolk. These things were specifically designed to look, sound and act like inbred-white-trash-hicks. The classes may as well have names like the Jim-Bobs or the Billy-Joes. I didn't even draw this parallel until I heard 3 of them yell "YEEEEHAAAAAAAA!!!!!" at the same time before attacking me. But maybe 'm over reacting. Point Lookout also introduced the swamp ghouls... who are apparently albino.
How would you feel if you were playing a game that took place in post-apocalyptic Harlem and the new items were glocks, crack, sagging pants outfit, and bandanas, and the new enemies were monkey people who shout, "I'm gonna get you, svckuh!" before firing at you?
In conclusion, I want to say that I don't believe the development team of Point Lookout are racist or intended to be hurtful. As Americans we've all been conditioned to ignore racism when it's directed at white people. This is why there are so many hick characters in movies and games. And I know there are a lot of people who think white people have it coming because remarkably few of our long dead ancestors purchased black people's long dead ancestors from the African kings who were selling people cheaper than anywhere else, and than proceeded to put them through the exact same thing that some ancestor at some time of every last human being on the planet went through. But that's just a cop out.
I'm not pointing this out in an attempt to get the DLC removed or bring Bethesda under fire. I'm not even posting this out of anger. I'm bosting this because the time has come for us to stop using stereotypes. All racism is bad. We all need to put it away, and collectively grow up. We all need to begin judging the people we come by on a case by case basis. We need to regard all forms of prejudice as the vestigial savagery that it is. That means looking for it and pointing it out when you find it.
