Nerjyzed Entertainment Announces Black College Football Experience

[Andy Chalk]

Nerjyzed Entertainment Announces Black College Football Experience

Unreal 3.0 [http://www.nerjyzed.com/]-powered "cultural experience" built around black college football.

The game will feature more than 40 teams, bands and mascots from "Classics [http://www.hbcunetwork.com/]. Nerjyzed has established a five-year exclusive licensing agreement with three HBCU conferences as well as independent schools. Nerjyzed CEO Jacqueline Beauchamp said, "As HBCU alumni and black college football enthusiasts, we're proud that BCFx honors our rich tradition and provides an incredibly fun football game for the whole family to play."

Nerjyzed Entertainment was founded in 2003 to develop PC and console games centered around African American perspectives for the "underserved urban market." The company is also working with the Louisiana state government to help train game developers in the state's college system.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities are post-secondary education institutions established in the United States prior to 1964 to serve the African American community. There are currently 114 such schools in the U.S.

Black College Football Experience is slated for release in fall 2007. A promotional trailer and pre-order link are available on the company's website [http://www.nerjyzed.com/].

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[Bongo Bill]

Cue Resident Evil 5-sized race scandal....

 

[Godheval]

Hardly. The only complaints will come from white people who want to call this "reverse racism". So let me save them all the trouble by voicing their complaints for them.

"Why, this is the worst thing since Affirmative Action!"

"It's ok for the blacks to have their own football game, but if we made an all-white football game, there'd be an outrage!"

"It's ok for blacks to beat up whites, but when whites beat up blacks it's a hate crime! Oh...we're...not that far off topic yet? Sorry, I'll wait."

What they fail to realize, of course, as do the people who complain that there is no "white history month" or "white entertainment television" is that nearly all protagonists of video games and other forms of entertainment are of European descent (or modeled after such individuals).

You want the all-white game? Go to a game store, close your eyes, spin around, and point. Chances are that you won't land on Shadowman. And not just because that game sucks.

And if you do land on a piece of media that features main characters who are non-white, then they're probably either some kind of stereotype, or the whole essence of the game revolves around the mere fact of their non-whiteness. Hardly EVER will you see a game (or movie, or tv show) - especially not in America - where the protagonists are simply of some non-European ethnic look "just because".

I tip my hat to games like Mark of Kri, Prey, Shadowman, Mass Effect, and others who dare to cast a non-white protagonist simply because it's "about damn time".

As for BCFX, the verdict's still out. If the game is intended to present some content that is somehow UNIQUE to the HBCU football experience, and it's not just a football game featuring only African-American characters, then perhaps it will have some merit. Too bad I can't stand sports games, and really couldn't give less of a damn...

Tangential article: http://www.godheval.com/exclusivity.html

 

[Dom Camus]

And if you do land on a piece of media that features main characters who are non-white, then they're probably either some kind of stereotype

This is true, but it's unfortunately also the case for most White videogame characters. Not that this undermines any of your points, but it is a fairly sad reflection on the quality of video game character and plot design.

 

[Godheval]

unfortunately also the case for most White videogame characters.

I'd have to disagree. While video game characters are caricatures of real people, like the women Erin Hoffman's talking about in this week's issue, I think the sheer diversity of "white" characters represents the wide range of personalities we see in the real world. Maybe none of the game characters are so rich and complex (or so mundane) as real people, but that's another issue entirely.

And furthermore...what IS a "white stereotype"? If there are such things, then hardly anyone takes them seriously, because there are so many other "white" images to offset them. Meanwhile non-white stereotypes often stand as a singular representation of their respective racial or ethnic group. Much like real people who perpetuate those stereotypes.

 

[Andy Chalk]

I'm not a big fan of things like "black history month." It's just another wedge that preserves a vague and hopelessly outdated mindset of "us and them," rather than letting us all just get on with things. Yes, my ancestors did some terrible things to your ancestors; that's the way we rolled back then. But we're not going to get past that until we get past it. Do we want to live in an egalitarian society where ethnicity and religion really don't matter? Or do we want to keep running our collective guilt and victimhood up the flagpole to remind ourselves how badly we feel about all the things done by the generations that preceded us?

To a more relevant point, I don't especially care about BCFx one way or the other. I hate sports games, but the HBCU is apparently a recognized league (varsity? conference? whatever) in the US college system, so they deserve their own sports game just like everyone else. But given the dearth of material available at this point, plus the fact the developer is pretty much a complete unknown, I have real reservations about the quality of the final product. I sure wouldn't be preordering based on what I've seen so far.

 

[gcason]

I'm OK with this, but no whining when "Ivy League College Football Experience" comes out. ;-)

 

[Godheval]

I'm not a big fan of things like "black history month." It's just another wedge that preserves a vague and hopelessly outdated mindset of "us and them," rather than letting us all just get on with things. Yes, my ancestors did some terrible things to your ancestors; that's the way we rolled back then. But we're not going to get past that until we get past it.

Unfortunately, it didn't end, and has not ended with what "your ancestors did to my ancestors" - the effects are still felt today, but you wouldn't know anything about that, unless it was your personal experience. Which, of course, it never will be.

As for Black History Month, in an ideal world it would not need to exist, i.e. if the whole continuum of U.S. history was all-inclusive, and adequately representative of the role of African-American figures. But that is not the case. So until such a time when things truly are "egalitarian", such conventions need to remain in place.

I love how quickly "white" people want to "just move on", or for "black" people to "get over it". Let me kill your mother, and tell you to get over it. After all, it's in the past, right? FOH.

 

[Kemmler0]

Unfortunately, it didn't end, and has not ended with what "your ancestors did to my ancestors" - the effects are still felt today, but you wouldn't know anything about that, unless it was your personal experience. Which, of course, it never will be.

So lets hear from someone who has shall we.
I was born in South Africa in 1983. I have seen forms of exploitation and prejudice that you will never know. Of course i cant prove any of this, so you are just going to have to take my word.

Malygris is very much correct in my opinion. It is just a reverse form of prejudice.

My country was in serious trouble when Apartheid ended, we were on the brink of civil war. There were riots for black rights, police, tear gas. The usual stuff. And believe me the rich white people were the last to suffer.
The people who suffered the most were the same people who suffered during Apartheid.

We had our first 100% democratic elections in 1994 and Nelson Mandela was elected to power, and he adopted the attitude of 'forgive and forget'. How can you put a price on the sins of the past? you can't. not without repeating them.

We don't have black history month, or any museums dedicated to black history. We do have a museum dedicated to Apartheid however. So that we never forget the mistakes of the past.

We overcame our racial boundaries in 10 short years. The united states has taken decades, because they have this 'us and them' attitude, this tit for tat state of affairs.

You say that that it will never be your personal experience. Neither is it the personal experience of 90% of U.S citizens to live in a separatists government, including the black population. You would have to be over sixty years old to even vaguely remember.
It's time to get over it.

 

[Jeff Richey]

I have to admit I am a middle class white American and I agree with Kemmler0 on this. If we keep this boundry between us it will be just that, between us, and it will not go away. To truely become equal we must make it equal. I'm sorry for what my ancestors may have did to your or any other African American but its time to ditch the victim attitude. Its true that racism still exists today. However its a lot less prevalent then many would have you believe.

Godheval says "I love how quickly "white" people want to "just move on", or for "black" people to "get over it". Let me kill your mother, and tell you to get over it. After all, it's in the past, right? FOH."

I wonder, was YOUR mother murdered by a white guy because he was racist? How many black people do you know who have been murdered or physicly harmed by a white person? Black people kill other black people, white people kill black people, black people kill white people, and yes even white people kill white people. And for all kinds of reasons. We need to stop automaticly labeling everything as a hate crime when a white person is the person commiting it. Nobodies denying racism doesn't happen. It does, but not to the degree that some would like to believe.

 

[Geoffrey42]

Godheval: Congratulations on staying cool and level-headed on such a potentially touchy subject, I really appreciate the addition of your viewpoint to the deba...

I love how quickly "white" people want to "just move on", or for "black" people to "get over it". Let me kill your mother, and tell you to get over it. After all, it's in the past, right? FOH.

I guess, up until that point, at least. Certainly, lets not mix and match issues. The issue of slavery in the United States is not one that I feel particularly guilty about. To my knowledge, my family tree never partook directly. The best I can offer is that my distant relatives enjoyed an artificially inflated value of the dollar due to the stolen fruits of slave labor hundreds of miles away. Your hyperbole is fun and all, but if you killed my mother, I would be angry at you. I would not likely get over it any time soon. Would I be angry at your offspring? Maybe. Would my offspring be angry at your offspring? Less likely. What about 4 generations distant, do you think they should care? I would hope not.

How about prejudice, and discrimination? Those are issues I care about. Those are issues that are relevant right now, in this world, and this discussion. I don't even have to feel guilty about something my ancestors did to feel a need to care. You can certainly argue that slavery is the origin of this particular variety of discrimination, but it is not a common root for all discrimination. Plus, I feel like this particular form of discrimination existed before people started shackling other human beings. I think Malygris was saying that he felt Black History Month helped to preserve a divide that he wants to have closed, and you seem to feel that Black History Month is helping to bridge a divide that still exists. Those are valid and arguable viewpoints. Why the vitriol all of a sudden?

 

[Andy Chalk]

I love how quickly "white" people want to "just move on", or for "black" people to "get over it". Let me kill your mother, and tell you to get over it. After all, it's in the past, right? FOH.

This isn't really relevant, I don't think. We're talking about letting go of the lingering bitterness of slavery, which I would guess your mother never directly experienced, much less was killed for. Certainly blacks have suffered discrimination over past generations, but hanging onto those feelings - or worse, dare I say it, seeking them out in nonsense like this or the RE5 thing - accomplishes nothing.

My grandmother had a deep-seated hatred of the Japanese. They were, to her, "dirty Japs," right up to her dying day. My grandmother was the nicest, sweetest lady you could ever know, generous to a fault, amazing with the kids, the prototypical perfect grandmother - but she could never forgive Pearl Harbour and the war. Several years before she died, Suzuki opened a plant in her small hometown, and her wheels nearly came off. The dirty Japs were going to come over here, take over everything, buy up all the property, spout their gibberish language and pretend that they didn't do their damnedest to stab us in the back and kill our boys for no good reason. Slanty-eyed bastards. When I first heard this, I was old enough to recognize unattenuated racial hatred when I saw it, but young enough to still look upon my grandmother as an infallible paragon of virtue, so it was a hell of a shock. I couldn't believe my wonderful grandmother could harbour such feelings, much less spout them off that way. My mother explained later that my grandmother had lost her brother in the war and had what you might call "bad feelings" because of it, and that she hoped I understood my grandmother's feelings came as a result of her "unique perspective" and not because there was anything inherently wrong with the Japanese. And of course, I did.

But the point is, the Japanese cost me a grandfather I never knew. They stirred up raw, cold hatred in my grandmother, who didn't deserve to feel such things. Would I be out of line to have some of those feelings myself, maybe not as intense but rooted in the same causes? By your way of thinking, maybe I would. Which is an absolutely horrible thing; even as a little sprout, seeing that hatred for the first time, I knew I never wanted to be like that. I'm not willing to have the entirety of my short life moulded around a desire to balance some long-ago wrongs committed against "my people." Why are you?

I think Malygris was saying that he felt Black History Month helped to preserve a divide that he wants to have closed, and you seem to feel that Black History Month is helping to bridge a divide that still exists.

Yes. How does dividing history serve to bring people together?

 

[Bongo Bill]

I was right!

 

[Andy Chalk]

Not like it was much of a tough call there, Bill.

 

[Godheval]

You won't get it. And unfortunately, I'm so burned out on the discussion - not just here - that I won't spend too much more time arguing it. To the fellow who said that South Africa has overcome its racial divide in a mere 10 years, I suspect that you're delusional. I doubt that's possible.

To those of you who claim that people should stop adopting a "victim mentality" - I am certain that none of you have actually ever BEEN the victim. It is very easy for someone who has not experienced something to tell others who have, not to feel a certain way about their own experiences. But as easy as it is, it is also categorically invalid. You have no place or right to even make such a statement, and you really have nothing to offer to the discussion, since it is not your issue.

The point that I made that everyone seems to have glossed over is that the reason something like Black history month exists is because of the very divide that you all claim to want to eliminate. However, it is not black history month that causes or even sustains the divide. Black history month exists in RESPONSE to the divide.

Getting rid of the divide requires some very simple, but clearly very difficult things. First, the acknowledgement by "white" people that racism is still very real, very prevalent, and still plays a very big role in social/political/economic dynamics in this country. "Black" people don't need an apology, and they don't want "white guilt" over what people did in the past. They need an abolishment of white privilege (click here to understand this term) [http://whiteprivilege.com/definition/] and an overhaul of general racist attitudes - some of which are evident even here on these boards.

The thing is, a lot of people only acknowledge racism in its more overt and blatant forms - manifest in the KKK and other hate groups and the like, but it is the institutionalized form of racism that is the most dangerous, and the most effective in sustaining inequality. This is the form that many of you fail to recognize or understand. I've exhausted myself on this kind of conversation, and so rather than repeat everything I've ever said, I'll just point you to some things I've written on the matter.

http://www.godheval.com/perceptions-of-racism.html
http://www.godheval.com/exclusivity.html
http://www.godheval.com/white.html
http://www.godheval.com/black.html

If you are REALLY invested in this discussion, and REALLY care to examine the issues, then read those and get back to me.

I don't have much time to check these boards, so feel free to email me at [email protected]. I am willing to share all parts of the discussion with all who contact me (reply-all) to keep it open.

 

[Godheval]

Another excellent related article (written by a Euro-American woman):

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking.html

 

[Bongo Bill]

Not like it was much of a tough call there, Bill.

I take my victories where I can get 'em.

 

[Godheval]

We don't have black history month, or any museums dedicated to black history. We do have a museum dedicated to Apartheid however. So that we never forget the mistakes of the past.

Um...yeah. That'd be because the majority of South Africans are "black" or "colored", and so there is no South African history without mentioning the roles of those people. In the U.S. African-Americans have comprised anywhere between 10% and 15% of the population. So, their roles in American history, without special mention, tend to be excluded from the general account.

And I thank you not to presume you understand the "black experience" in America, simply because you went through Apartheid. The two are entirely separate phenomena. So you are in no better a position to tell anyone here to "get over it" than a white person. Sorry.

 

[Godheval]

Not like it was much of a tough call there, Bill.

I take my victories where I can get 'em.

And Bill, you're a fool. There hasn't been any "race scandal" here, but merely a discussion. You could try engaging in it, or you can continue to sit back and be ignorant and cynical.

 

[Joe]

Good job keeping this one civil. (e: well, almost)

I can't help but think the idea of white privilege is bad way of looking at it, because it implies that white males are above some standard level of quality of life, when in reality the highest quality of life available in a developed nation should be the standard. I think it's best summed up in what McIntosh says in her article, in which she lists the 50 things she considers less-advantaged races unable to take for granted, and in the same breath asks men to "give up" some of their power, or in the case of the article, some of those 50 advantages. In reality, shouldn't everyone be working to ensure everyone has those 50 advantages (casting aside the fact some of her listed advantages are pretty racist), rather than worrying about the people who already do? I always thought one of the underlying goals of equality was to make everyone equally prosperous.

As far as the country's racism goes, yeah, it's still alive and well, but it flows both ways. Trust me. I live in the South, and there's still a lot of anger down here on both sides of the racial fence. It's getting better as more kids go to college, but the uneducated classes perpetuate a lot of the problems this place has had since Reconstruction - poor black kids harbor a lot of animosity toward rich white kids, and vice versa. Of course, the further you go up the education and socioeconomic ladders, the less apparent the problems become.