Cowabungaa said:
But even people of colour weren't strange in late-18th century Paris, especially folk of mixed race.
How common? Got numbers?
Right now the only numbers a basic internet search comes up with is "tens of thousands" of the population in Paris is African at all. Now, that's not necessarily black and that's a vague/wide range from 4% of the population if it's 90k to around 1% if closer to 20k. All this is in mind with the greatest immigration from Africa being in the 1920's. France as a whole is listed as having a 3.5% black demographic and Paris isn't at the top of the list. This is according to this document but you'll have to know French or use some kind of translator: http://www.conventioncitoyenne.com/documents/oubliesdelegalite.pdf
So considering that there's 6 million north Africans and only 2 million black people then you'll have to be extra careful on the numbers and statistics you get since numbers on Africans don't equate to black people and France outlawed taking statistics based on race and belief some time ago.
So when you say common/uncommon I'd say they're still not that common in Paris whereas Louisiana has a rich history of ethnic diversity.
Now, back in the 18th century? They were likely outright rare. People from all over the world assisted France in independence. Saying that black people played a significant role can still be true if they were few in number. I'd say the atomic bomb played a significant role in WWII but how many showed up?
As for your argument that the critique we're giving is sexist by itself makes little sense, it would mean we could give no critique at all.
Correct. Whenever you say that you'd rather this person of X race and Y gender be a Z Race and W gender you are making an inherently racist and sexist request. So yes, my argument is somewhat along those lines in games with few or only one playable characters. Games that are overtly racist or ones that have many characters with a surprising absence of diversity may be critiqued because then you're saying a group isn't proportionately represented rather than complaining that a character isn't a race/gender you "prefer (aka, racial and gender bias).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3cGfrExozQ
Getting upset that a white male isn't a black female is not inherently different from someone getting upset that a black female isn't a white male. Any claims to the contrary is rationalizing a basic axiomatic relationship between those two scenarios.
In a world where the vast majority of the developed world is white then you're going to have to get used to seeing the majority far more often than the minority. Is someone racist for reaching into a bag of marbles and pulling out a white one when the bag of 100 marbles has 80 white ones? Is it racist to create something in the image of the majority of your clients? Now, as you pull out more and more marbles you'd better sure as heck start pulling out non-white marbles because they are in there. But if you can only pull out one you should expect a white one and not be all *gasp* about it having the audacity to not be something else.
I agree that where possible diversity should be offered either in the form of alternate main characters or fully customizeable protagonists. But I'm guessing these four characters are all the same guy in different clothes or something similar to that. Because from each of their own reference points they are all the main character. Heavily scripted games require a stable (non-customizeable) protagonist if you want the protagonist to speak. Voice acting being what it is.
