RipTen Videogame Blog » Racism

UNICO Calls Mafia II “racist nonsense,” Take-Two Responds

Dylan Duarte — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:48:39 +0000

UNICO National, the largest Italian American service organization in the USA, has lashed out at the upcoming Mafia II, calling it “a pile of racist nonsense” and asked that the game be not be released. Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick has responded.

UNICO claims that Mafia furthers the stereotype of, “organized crime being the exclusive domain of Italians and Italian-Americans.”

Zelnick, despite being told to “fuggedaboutit,” (just kidding, I made that part up), responded by saying that steps were taken to avoid stereotyping and that he’s fully behind the game.

“Mafia II tells a compelling story about organized crime in America – a subject that for decades has been featured in movies, television shows and novels.”

UNICO president Andre DiMino originally said:

“Why would [Take-Two] foist a game on their targeted audience of young people wherein they will indoctrinate a new generation into directly associating Italians and Italian-Americans with violent, murderous organized crime, to the exclusion of all of the other ‘mafias’ run by other ethnic and racial groups?.”

He then demanded that they delay the game to remove all references to Italians.

Racism and stereotyping of any kind is disgusting, but is that really what Take-Two is doing? Of course organized crime is not exclusive to Italians, but nobody can deny the effect the Italian Mafia has had. And like Zelnick himself said, it’s a subject that’s been covered for decades, and there’s a reason for that: it’s incredibly fascinating.

And I find it funny that DiMino thinks Mafia 2 is the thing that will “indoctrinate a new generation into directly associating Italians and Italian-Americans with violent, murderous organized crime,” when, after almost 40 years, The Godfather is still one of the most popular films of all time. The concept of the all-powerful La Cosa Nostra isn’t going away anytime soon, if ever.

And on top of all of this, Mafia II convincingly recreates the post-World War II world and nothing about the game feels remotely modern. If gamers were to somehow take away negative ideas about Italians, they would only be applicable if they were transported sixty years into the past. We’ll deal with time-traveling racism when it happens.

In fact, on a recent conference call with the developers of Mafia II (which Ripten was in on) 2k stated this in reply to a question about the future of the Mafia franchise:

“The Mafia has been around for hundreds of years and has become this sort of generalized term for organized crime, It doesn’t have to be the Italian mafia, we’ve all heard of the Russian Mafia or the Yakuza … so the franchise could go anywhere or do anything, really.”

2k didn’t set out to make a game about Italian stereotypes, they set out to make a game about an authentic time and place in American history, do you think if they made a game about the Russian mafia that similar organizations would be as upset? Have we seen any public outcry over the Yakuza franchise?

I fully support organizations like UNICO, I just think they’re making something out of nothing. They should save whatever energy they’re expending over Mafia II and direct it towards Jersey Shore.

Left 4 Dead 2 Joins the Racist Video Game Club

Demi Adejuyigbe — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:47:42 +0000

As an African-American male in today’s society, it absolutely pains me to see racism become so pervasive in video games. Sure, I’ll shoot the black zombies in Resident Evil 5, and I’ll absolutely love doing it, but behind these hazel brown eyes, a little black man (with a tiny hat, even) inside me cries- which is why it’s absolutely APPALLING to see Left 4 Dead 2 follow RE5′s pattern and include some black zombies.

Despicable!

The Houston Chronicle’s Willie Jefferson was quick to point out that several of the zombies in Left 4 Dead 2 are black. Sure, a lot, if not most of the zombies are white, but Valve putting any black zombies in the game? How insensitive, Valve! Even worse is that the game is set in New Orleans, a city famous for its black residents. And since everyone knows it was only black people that suffered in Hurricane Katrina, we can only assume Valve purposefully picked this setting for their own, racist purposes.

Well it’s not going to work, Valve. We can see through your eye-holed bedsheets and torches at the monsters you truly are, and we’re not gonna stand for it! Nobody puts blackie in the corner- especially when that corner is full of zombie discrimination! It’s absolutely sickening that a black man can’t get ahead in today’s society, and is reduced to playing the undead.

One point Jefferson fails to point out is the fact that half of the survivors are black as well. Only half? Come on Valve. Did Rosa Parks settled for only half of the front of the bus? Did Michael Jackson only half moonwalk into history? Did that one lady from Touched by an Angel only get half touched by a half angel?

No she did NOT.

[via Destructoid]

Dr. Phil Combats Racists On Xbox Live (Not Physically – That Would Be Too Awesome)

Dan Landis — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:15:10 +0000

A typical scene from Dr. Phil’s show

Dr. Phil is a good friend of mine. He’s full of nonsensical hillbilly analogies and great advice on how not to beat my wife. But for Terry, a gamer on Microsoft’s Xbox Live service, Dr. Phil has “valuable” advice on dealing with racist cyber-bullies.

Terry explains, that as a black gamer on Xbox Live, he endures heaps of racist verbal abuse, and on Tuesday’s show, Dr. Phil filled Terry with joyous psychobabble and helped heal his wounded gamer heart.

Terry admits to being a loyal 360 owner, but questions how long he can go on now that his headset is full of racism. He claims to have been called “monkey” on several occasions and was even told he was going to be lynched.

As a father of three, Terry fears for the safety of his family. He no longer allows his children to play online for fear they will also be harassed or threatened.

So what’s a guy to do? Well, he submits several complaints about the offenders, as well as calls customer support to report them. I wonder if “I’m being verbally threatened” is a phrase Xbox cool dude Max understands.

Apparently, Microsoft didn’t do anything, or at least not enough to satisfy Terry. The next logical step, obviously, is to call up Dr. Phil. I don’t mean to make light of his troubles, as I surely do not condone this type of behavior, but seriously, anyone who has played on Xbox Live has probably heard the n-word multiple times.

While it certainly is offensive, I don’t think anyone out there is actively hunting people through Xbox Live in order to find out where they live and attack them. Most people who use racial slurs on Live are idiot kids who think it’s cool because, well — they’re idiot kids. Going on Dr. Phil’s show just gives Terry’s favorite pastime an even worse reputation than it deserves.

Xbox Live has a system in place to block, report, and avoid users. While I don’t expect that Terry could prevent these things from ever happening again, at least he can get rid of a few bad seeds. In my experience, the system actually works quite well.

Of course I think Microsoft should do something about this, but the guests on Dr. Phil’s show think it crosses a more severe line. Larry Walters, a First Amendment attorney, believes that these online verbal threats are a federal crime and should be investigated by the FBI.

If somebody online is making threats to engage in some sort of violence toward this person or part of his family, that is absolutely a federal crime. The FBI should be all over it, and I’m surprised that they’re not.

If the FBI actually made cases out of all the morons on Xbox Live, or the Internet for that matter, they would be doing so at the detriment of more important issues. Isn’t the FBI doing a horrible enough job already?

Dr. Phil says he contacted Microsoft, who is now willing to make a case for Terry.

We explained to them that you have filed multiple complaints. You have the numbers; you have the tagline of the people who are doing this sort of thing, so Microsoft has said they are going to set up with [you] one of their security team members, and they are going to discuss this investigation regarding your complaints and try to get the ball rolling. So we have gotten them, at least, to assign an investigator specific to you, so they can sit down and start this ball rolling.

Great job, Dr. Phil. You got Microsoft’s security team to say they will think about doing their jobs. I’m sure Terry is very pleased to hear that.

You can go read the transcript from the show at Dr. Phil’s website, or just travel back in time and watch the show yourself.

Forget Racism, Capcom’s Resident Evil Franchise Is Biased Against Dead People

Chad Lakkis — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 04:23:49 +0000

Forget about the accusations of racism being made against Capcom’s Resident Evil 5, at least the offended living black people can defend themselves. What about the countless dead people that have been made a mockery of in every itteration of the game thus far?

They lay there, in peace (or pieces) just minding their own business, while the heartless crew over at Capcom thinks up new ways to portray them as evil beings full of life. It’s not only insulting, it’s flat out unrealistic.

Have you ever tried to wiggle your foot after it has fallen asleep? Now imagine trying to move your foot after you died. Not gonna happen, because dead people can’t move. Of course Capcom will claim that this was an oversight on their part, but we know the truth. They are out to make dead people look bad.

We decided to cut through all the BS and ask a few stiffs what they thought of the situation at hand. When asked about being portrayed as an evil individual who mindlessly tries to kill other humans in the Resident Evil franchise, dead person number one said … you guessed it, DP numero uno took the high road and declined to comment. When asked what color she originally was before biting the big one, DP2 kept her lips sealed as well. These two reeked of class and well … lets just leave it at class.

In closing, it is pretty obvious that the upset masses are focusing on the wrong issue here. The question is not what color was the skin on that dead person, it’s why the heck is he or she walking … aren’t they supposed to be dead? Get it together Capcom, gamers will not stand for these types of blatant inaccuracies in their games any longer.