Scribblenauts Caught Being Accidentally Racist

[Susan Arendt]

Excuse my naivete, but how is a watermelon tied to afroamerican people?

It is said that blacks LOVE watermelons. And I am sure that many do, but so does a lot of white people.
OT- This is just stupid, I have never heard of that word before, and probably nor have most people. Something is only racist if the intent behind it is racist

Google "Little Black Sambo." I assure you, this is a well-known term in the States.

Not as well as one would think. The only reason I know about is is because I read Fahrenheit 451, and paid attention during history class.

I'm pretty sure most people nowadays would think the Martial Art beforehand. It's mostly because Sambo is a pretty archaic slur these days.

Archaic is a good word for it, yes.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

How can anyone possibly not know that "sambo" is offensive?

Very, very easily.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

So, it's not racist then, just unfortunate.

So no need for everyone to get their knickers in a twist.

 

[cobra_ky]

Excuse my naivete, but how is a watermelon tied to afroamerican people?

It is said that blacks LOVE watermelons. And I am sure that many do, but so does a lot of white people.
OT- This is just stupid, I have never heard of that word before, and probably nor have most people. Something is only racist if the intent behind it is racist

Google "Little Black Sambo." I assure you, this is a well-known term in the States.

it's certainly better known than an ecuadorean fig gourd. then again i just found the word "uppity" has racist connotations a year ago, so i can't really blame them.

I prefer the term "racially insensitive" to "accidentally racist," it's more refined and more descriptive of the situation and actions.

But they're not being insensitive. That would imply that they should have known better, that they should be sensitive but, perhaps by choice, weren't. The fact is that they just didn't know in the first place, that it was all just an accident.

I don't think there were "actions" to speak of in this situation at all. No actions were taken - in fact that's the problem, is that it was all just a bad coincidence and nobody at 5th Cell was trying to make this happen. I'm sure there are plenty of people who are racially sensitive at 5th Cell - Slaczka's quotes certainly attest to the fact that he is (at least after the fact) - so I feel like calling the game "racially insensitive" is giving it a harder time than it warrants.

The phrase "racially insensitive" certainly sounds a lot more official, but I don't think it's necessarily more descriptive here.

insensitive can mean "numb" as well as "indifferent". clearly 5th cell isn't that racially sensitive or they would have realized that linking the word "sambo" to a watermelon was a really, really bad idea. and the clumsy "but we made black characters before!" defense doesn't inspire confidence either.

incidentally this is why diversity in design teams is so important. if anyone at fifth cell was black this probably wouldn't have happened.

EDIT: i would be remiss if i didn't point out that "accidentally racist" makes for a much, much funnier headline.

 

[cobra_ky]

The only racial slur against blacks in common use that I'm aware of begins with an N

I'm not American, and please tell me that you're joking in your second sentence.

No, I've never heard anyone say anything other than the N-word.

Even in the media for that matter. What did Dog the Bounty Hunter get in trouble for, what did Kramer from Seinfeld get in trouble for, the N-word. Sambo? What's that? Maybe it's in common use but it's never graced my ears (not that there's anything graceful about racial slurs).

didn't see clerks 2, huh?

there was also this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Allen_%28U.S._politician%29#Macaca_controversy

kind of a shame, since he was actually trying to insult indians and nobody knew macaca was a racial slur.

 

[sheic99]

Excuse my naivete, but how is a watermelon tied to afroamerican people?

It is said that blacks LOVE watermelons. And I am sure that many do, but so does a lot of white people.
OT- This is just stupid, I have never heard of that word before, and probably nor have most people. Something is only racist if the intent behind it is racist

Google "Little Black Sambo." I assure you, this is a well-known term in the States.

I've never herd that phrase. It could just be that only a small percentage of the population in southern California is black.

edit: I just looked up their headquarters and it's in Bellevue, Washington, so they made not have heard the term either.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

Excuse my naivete, but how is a watermelon tied to afroamerican people?

It's an old stereotype that African Americans love chicken and watermelon.

I believe Dave Chappelle said, "If you don't like chicken and watermelon ************ something is wrong with you." Because chicken and watermelon is awesome no matter what race you are

*laughs* I have to agree, I love watermelon and all kinds of chicken

but on topic, yeah glad that's all cleared up before someone in the media blows this wayyy out of proportion

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Which region is Sambo a slur from? I've lived in the northeast, the southeast, the south, the west, and the northwest for a time, and never once in my years of being ironically racist have I ever heard the term. Plenty of others, sure, but never once has Sambo ever been uttered or even murmured near me. When I first saw Sambo, I thought I thought I misread the word "samba", the kind of dance, only to then correct myself and think of the martial art. So good for Scribblenauts, including foreign gourds in their massive dictionary.

 

[Fritzvalt]

I live in the southeastern part of the US (A part that is generally considered racist and ignorant [no comment]), however I have never heard this slur. When I hear sambo I... well, I usually don't hear it.... BUT when I do, I usually think of the martial art.

 

[Sephiwind]

I would love to know when will people get it through their heads that words only have power because you give them power. Every time you scream that a word is racist then you are just giving that word power. Words only hurt people because they allow them to do so.

It just like cursing. The word is only as offensive as people allow it to be. I say if you want to really want to to make a word go away then let people use it as much as possible untill it holds no real meaning. All censorship really does is give these words more and more power. Sony's text chat on the PS3 is a prime example of this bull shit.

My room mate was talking to a friend of ours about how he wanted to get Assassin's Creed 2. Wouldn't you know it but Sony's text chat program censors the shit out of what you type. When he typed Assassin's Creed it came out ******in's Creed. Jesus Christ it's crazy. You can't even type in the name of a title for a game that will be coming out for the system because it has the word ass in it... twice.

Sony bleeps out any instance of a curse word even if it is part of another word, and it doesn't stop with American slang, if there is a curse word in other English speaking regions that also gets bleeped as well.

 

[Chicago Ted]

There's really no 'accidental' racism. Either they mean it or they don't. They don't. It was just a simple mistake. Not trying to be racist at all.

 

[YurdleTheTurtle]

Slaczka, who said he didn't even know what "sambo" meant as a slur until now, went on to explain that his company is far from racist by citing the fact that many of the characters in Scribblenauts and previous 5th Cell games are black. That's kind of a flimsy defense, and an unnecessary one.

I agree with the author. That was a terrible way to defend yourself. Saying "We have black characters in our games, so we're not racist at all"...I mean, really? It sounds more like Slaczka panicked and simply said what came to mind.

At any rate, this sounds like an extremely random and unlucky controversy. Besides, I don't think this is a common derogatory word, and on top of all the words they had to keep track of, I don't blame them for making it an object in the game.

Just a bad coincidence.

Oh and the Kanye West thing made me chuckle. That was fast.

 

[whaleswiththumbs]

I've heard of the martial art form, not the racial slur. When i just read the watermelon thing, i laughed so hard.

They don't seem to have done it on purpose.

 

[red_dawn_97]

i dint know what the hell that was man like really i didnt know that was a racial slur.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Excuse my naivete, but how is a watermelon tied to afroamerican people?

It's an old stereotype that African Americans love chicken and watermelon.

I believe Dave Chappelle said, "If you don't like chicken and watermelon ************ something is wrong with you." Because chicken and watermelon is awesome no matter what race you are

This.

Also, it's only racist if you see it as racist. Sambo is linked to Black People as a slur BECAUSE it means Watermelon. It's a link to another racial slur.

 

[Voltano]

Well...I don't think the game *is* racist, just *perceived* as racist. Okay, so "Sambo" is connected to racial roots, but also a martial art style in Russia and a fruit in some other country. Even then, the game connects the word with the fruit, so the only way anyone could label it as racist if they understand the word's definition from elsewhere.