Is this racist?
- Thread starter Quiet Stranger
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It's not racist to want to play with players who speak a language you can understand. In fact, in most multiplayer games, it's kind of a necessity.
I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the terms you are using. Racism is discrimination based on someones genetic background. Their 'ethnicity' as we call it now. Language is actually not part of someones genes, but rather of their culture. So no, this scenario isn't racist.Quiet Stranger said:
But I still understand what you mean. Is it 'inherently bad' that they do this? That is a little bit more complicated than it sounds like right off the bat.
1) Realize that free speech is not a concept that extends to pretty much any non governmentally regulated construct. Valve or Blizzard or whoever doesn't have to let you say what you want in their games' chatrooms. They are fully within their rights to restrict how their products work.
2) In less casual areas, speaking all the same language is a VERY unifying thing. In fact, specifically speaking a language others do not know can appear purposefully antagonistic. Europeans know this better than others, since there are many more languages there (per square foot(meter), you could say).
3) In most cases though, you are probably right. you will often have people make this claim not for altruistic reasons, but simply because they don't like others saying stuff they don't understand, and it scares them.
It's not racist, but even if it were, I'd like to point something out: the forum isn't a nation, and free speech isn't a right. If the forum rules dictate that posts must be in English, then posts must be in English, and that's that. If they dictate that all posts must include pictures of cute animals, then we'd all better find some cute animals to put up pictures of. The argument being made in regards to "speak English or else" isn't that English is necessarily superior to other languages, just that it's the language that shall be used here.
It's not racist because, as has been pointed out, language and race are two different (although often connected) things.
It is technically discrimination, however it is justified discrimination because the language spoken is important in a game where verbal or written communication is vital to success (I.E. most team based FPSes or similar).
This isn't much different from kicking somebody from the server for having too high of ping. In both cases, the issue makes play more difficult and acts as a liability to team members, reducing the overall enjoyment of the other players.
It is technically discrimination, however it is justified discrimination because the language spoken is important in a game where verbal or written communication is vital to success (I.E. most team based FPSes or similar).
This isn't much different from kicking somebody from the server for having too high of ping. In both cases, the issue makes play more difficult and acts as a liability to team members, reducing the overall enjoyment of the other players.
No, it's not. It's not nice to not speak English when you're in a game where people from many nations come together because that's the language everyone understands, so you should use it too. Same when it says "French only", don't go into a game with that label if you can't speak French.
Ah, but is it common sense that you speak ENGLISH? Why not German? If they don't speak English, should you be angry? Are they allowed to be angry if you don't speak German?dathwampeer said:
Also, Common Sense is not a real thing. Break yourself of this phrase.
Religious discrimination is completely different to racism.Quiet Stranger said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_discrimination
You're thinking of linguicism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_discrimination
Well, there are practical considerations.
For example, if someone is rampantly TK'ing a certain player, and they don't speak the same language the moderators speak, they'd probably have a hard time bringing the issue up. Same if the offending player is doing something the mods don't like; how are they supposed to warn them if they can't understand the language?
So no, not discrimination. There are genuine pragmatic concerns behind such rules.
For example, if someone is rampantly TK'ing a certain player, and they don't speak the same language the moderators speak, they'd probably have a hard time bringing the issue up. Same if the offending player is doing something the mods don't like; how are they supposed to warn them if they can't understand the language?
So no, not discrimination. There are genuine pragmatic concerns behind such rules.
Speech =/= RaceQuiet Stranger said:
if people are playing a team game, such as Dota where teamwork is necessary, you dont want to be stuck with the one guy that speaks something else. or worse yet, you dont want to be the one guy speakin english, not knowing wtf is going on and what they're saying.
Also, about taking away free speech, your not exactly correct. Racism is discrimination based on race, obviously. Those kinds of games arent saying "we hate your race, cuz you speak another langauge" they're saying, please dont join if you cant understand us,and vice versa.... in a very blunt way.
racism can be negative or positive comments. Saying Asians are smart, or black people are great at basketball are racist commentskhaimera said:
If I were to write in Romanian only (my national language) on this forum, what would ppl say? Ofc they would tell me to write in English so the masses can understat. And i totally understand them..if i want to speak Romanian, i would go on a Romanian forum.
Not racist at all imo.
Not racist at all imo.
No.
Whenever I play online, and people on my team talk in some language I don't know, I tell them to switch to English.
And I am Hungarian.
Whenever I play online, and people on my team talk in some language I don't know, I tell them to switch to English.
And I am Hungarian.
No its prejudice sir, racism, in my opinion, is about race hench it is called racism. And its not racist at all if it is a certain kind of language. Now if it had said "no blacks allowed" , God knows why that would be on a game server, then sure totally agree with it being racist.Quiet Stranger said:
I love how anything that might offend a certain type of person is branded immediately as racist. Racism is a pretty specific type of prejudice yet it gets applied to everything.
i read the OP, then immediately searched the thread for a response written in a different language.
I did not find one, i am disappoint.
Anyway, if they're speaking a different language on the english speaking server then no one will understand them anyway.
If i'm playing on a different language server i just don't say anything usually (though i never like using my mic anyway), so i suppose same goes for people coming onto an english server.
You can't communicate anyway, so all you're doing is spamming if no one understands you.
I did not find one, i am disappoint.
Anyway, if they're speaking a different language on the english speaking server then no one will understand them anyway.
If i'm playing on a different language server i just don't say anything usually (though i never like using my mic anyway), so i suppose same goes for people coming onto an english server.
You can't communicate anyway, so all you're doing is spamming if no one understands you.
No, no it isn't. A common language is useful if you want to talk to people on the server. English only servers aren't racist.
Besides, The Escapist is English language only. You callin' this place racist, foo?
Besides, The Escapist is English language only. You callin' this place racist, foo?