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Racism at a gaming company

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Re: Racism at a gaming company

#121
post #29

"Dumbblack " "then proceeds to do what black men always can’t help but do" "black men always telling which way is up because they feel they are the “authority” when it comes to any and everything, most often when they don’t know shit about shit" " I know when black people start to speak down to me from their pedatsol which is white privilege, they aren’t listening, nor will they" "I cannot afford to take black people…

This is the equivalent of saying the author of this post is a reverse racist. When was the last time a white person was killed for being white? When was the last time someone came up to a white person and said they should be grateful that their ancestors were slaves? When was the last time the government systematically dismantled the white community in order to enforce racist class oppression? Repeat after me: WHITE…

Take a walk through half of Baltimore, friend, and you will discover that you will get the shit kicked out of you for being white. Murdered? Hopefully not, but I can assure you that, while the old, racist, static power structures of the USA are oppressive towards non-whites, power is not a static thing. It shifts depending on where you are. When you are taking said walk in Baltimore, and become surrounded by people who don't like you because of your skin color, you don't have power anymore. They do. I know this first hand. When I was 16, I took a short cut through a neighborhood that I shouldn't have. I was chased, cornered, and beaten by 5 young men. They were black, and they were yelling white slurs as they beat me and then branded the back of my neck with a lighter. I still have that little smiley on the back of my neck to this day. They didn't rob me by the way. NONE of my money was taken. They didn't even touch my wallet. They didn't want a white person in their neighborhood. Your theory holds up because you, clearly, have never lived in a majority black neighborhood in your entire life. It's obvious by your stupid statement. And no, I'm not a racist. Most of the black folks I grew up with would never have tolerated such a thing. They would have stopped it if they had seen it, but they weren't there.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#122
Uh, well. I don't know where to start really. On the one hand, this article is about racism and other forms of hatred at a large company, which is obviously wrong. It is about a personal experience. Every sentence written tells about what OP endured emotionally. I understand that this sort of discrimination is emotionally crippling and that it affects him deeply.

But this wouldn't be my comment if I agreed with everything. Then I'd just have upvoted the post further. The problem here is, that this article also paints a picture about the author and it doesn't paint a very welcoming one to me. The article itself is littered with racism and typical "anti-hate" buzzwords. The kind of words I usually hear from people filled with lots and lots of hate themselves.

That is definitely not the answer to any of the problems OP has faced. Is it understandable? Yes. Does it help? Not at all. Don't get me wrong: It's important that people get the word out to fight racism, because it's still prevalent all over the world but fighting fire with fire never helped and calling a racist any racist slurs only makes things worse.

Then there are some things I personally disagree with in general. PC speech is incredibly bad (and ineffective anyway) I think. Not only does it just shift the problem to a different domain, it also attacks free speech. Being pretty fundamentalist about free speech I can't find any good about trying to make a language "politically correct". After all, the problem aren't the words. The problem are the values different people assign to them. What we need to do isn't "banning bad words", we need to make people more open-minded. If this isn't accomplish, banning words won't help anyway, because one day the "politically correct" word will have the exact same value attached to them as - say, for example - "nigger" has today. Language isn't written in stone. It always moves and evolves and after all it's a reflection of culture and society.

Besides - not really related to the article - I don't believe in never offending anyone. In fact, I think I offend people on a daily basis just by stating my opinions and seriously, I couldn't care less. Obviously, racism is a bit more than just offending.

Oh yeah and by the way, last time I checked, neoliberalism was a school of economic thought.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#123
post #29

"Dumbblack " "then proceeds to do what black men always can’t help but do" "black men always telling which way is up because they feel they are the “authority” when it comes to any and everything, most often when they don’t know shit about shit" " I know when black people start to speak down to me from their pedatsol which is white privilege, they aren’t listening, nor will they" "I cannot afford to take black people…

This is the equivalent of saying the author of this post is a reverse racist. When was the last time a white person was killed for being white? When was the last time someone came up to a white person and said they should be grateful that their ancestors were slaves? When was the last time the government systematically dismantled the white community in order to enforce racist class oppression? Repeat after me: WHITE…

This attitude, and the casual "reverse" racism of this author, sets back social progress against institutional racism against blacks/hispanics so much.

I totally accept that blacks face more racism in many aspects of society today, especially professionally. But in Baltimore a bunch of black kids jumped me, and they told me it was because I was white and I "thought I could walk around their neighborhood" (a block from Penn Station which is actually pretty gentrified). It wasn't even a robbery, although they did rob me, but if that was their only goal they wouldn't have continued to beat me for the ten minutes after I had given up. Oh, and of course that's not considered a hate crime.

So when that happens, and then you tell me, in all caps, that white people are never the victims of racism, do you think I'm more or less inclined to agree with your other points?

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#124
I'm sadly not in the least bit surprised by the comments here, actually accusing the author of being the racist, professional victim, all of that horse-shit. I am a white man, but the author's points really hit home for me, not because I've myself been treated this way, but because I have had to tolerate conduct like this for pretty much my entire life, just not directed at me. I can't tell you the number of times I've come to the defense of minority views over the years, and I've basically given up on it because the racists just turn their anger on me:

"Hey, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but you're not black." (laughs all around...)

"You know you're white, right?"

"Slavery ended a long time ago, blacks have nobody to blame but themselves by now" (roughly paraphrased)

"I've got plenty of black friends. They agree with me on [fucked up view]."

I'm a human being and I've seen black Americans treated more like shit than anybody else, by far, throughout my life. Usually it's the side-swiping stuff the author talks about, but sometimes it's right in my face, usually when discussing politics and social issues with my peers.

Ultimately, I end up doing what most everybody else does in my situation: I withdraw. I don't debate anymore. I don't grin, but I bear it. I help people where I can, silently.

I know I really only make technical posts on this website, but shit, sometimes you've gotta vent.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#125
post #4

Interesting read. The number of times the author mentions "white men" honestly made me uncomfortable. How is a statement like "Steve then proceeds to do what white men always can’t help but do: “educate.”" not racist in and of itself?

> How is a statement like "Steve then proceeds to do what white men always can’t help but do: “educate.”" not racist in and of itself?

It is racist. Anti-white racism is a common feature of modern black culture, but it's not considered controversial because of the traditional oppression of black people and the lingering effects that has today.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#126
post #4

Interesting read. The number of times the author mentions "white men" honestly made me uncomfortable. How is a statement like "Steve then proceeds to do what white men always can’t help but do: “educate.”" not racist in and of itself?

There are several definitions of racist talk, one is essentially "making references to someone's race and implying everyone in that group is the same (in some attribute)". Lots of people like this definition because it's nice and simple and it means black people in the USA can be racist to white people if they say things like "Dumbwhite".

There's another definition, which is talk that's designed to maintain & reinforce the institutionalised power structure among races. Right now, if modern USA life was a video game, "white male" would be an easier difficulty level than "black male". There are statistically less problems for the "white male" group. Racist talk is talk that re-enforced that imbalance. This definition is harder for some people to accept because it means that you need to look at yourself and think about what power imbalances you might be benefiting from, and it means you can't just do s/white/black/g and make it just as racist.

So no, it's more racist to say "dumbblack" than "dumbwhite"

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#127

Kixeye should be ashamed. Hopefully enough bad press and folks commenting will get them to take a look how they operate and what they tolerate and change it. Maybe they should actually try and focus as a company. 1. insist the programmers work. There games are not that great. 2. insist their website get up to 2012 standards. I would assume they were not a serious company based upon their all Flash website. 3. Look at…

Look, I'm not a fan of Kixeye's games either but I think we should be able to agree that the quality of their website is not really a consideration when it comes to the topic of discussion here. What does Flash have to do with this?

You are right, it has no factor.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#128
post #54
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get past his politics and read the direct factual assertions he is making about things that happened at that company. They're spectacularly bad.

Also, read more about the company: Kixeye. Not only is this terribly racist and sexist culture not just a figment of the author's politics - it's something the company is proud of: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/08/... I really hope these jokers get sued out of existence. These kind of companies are the reason anti-discrimination laws should exist in the first place.

That actually made me think they are being unfair to Zynga. That's a pretty impressive level of douchebaggery.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#130
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno if he's just angry, I guess it makes sense, but I agree that some of his comments seem off, like he has "problems" beyond the situation, these are just as racist: Also, at some point after this conversation took place, one of the women looked at my prized necklace and said “Hey, that looks like a calculator, is that a calculator?” I said “um no, it’s a necklace, it’s African, from Nairobi.” And she replies “O…

You have no clue what it's like living under constant racial abuse from white people, it might make you not like white people.

It might. I'm also sure that if this were my problem, I might realize that 'doing what they do, while calling them out for doing it' might be seen as something of a double standard.

Much like some of the worst extremes of feminism, where it was forgotten that the goal was "equality", not "favorable treatment for women at the expense of men as recompense".

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