Scribblenauts Caught Being Accidentally Racist

[thatstheguy]

Out of curiosity, who here actually know what a sambo was before reading this?

 

[Sephiwind]

You make some good points some of which I disagree with others I don't. I think that personally I am jaded by the P.C. culture of my area of the U.S. because it is full of hypocracy.

As an example.

I had lost my job a year ago due to the company down sizing. I hadn't worked there long enough to qualify for unemployment so I opted to try and go on welfare just so some money would be comming in to pay bills while i was job hunting. So I went to the welfare office

Which welfare office? State or Federal?

State I believe.

This is starting to sound like something you just made up--you don't even know what program you were applying for?

I mean, the thing we call Welfare is actually TANF--it replaced AFDC. Do you have dependent children? Because that's who Welfare is for: families, not individuals from what I know of the program. Maybe there is some weird aid program in your state called 'Welfare' but I've never heard of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanf

So first of all, this all sounds made up--you were in a government office where the worker, unprompted by you, said: "Now I am gong to be honest with you. You can apply but the chances of you geting welfare are very slim," and when you replied, "Why is that?" She responded with the following: "Because you are white." That sounds pretty unlikely to me, especially when you don't even know which government was running the office you applied at.

Even if it is true, do you see how...ridiculous this is? You went in and applied for Welfare--maybe, because you don't even know what government office you were in--and the white people there told you that you don't have a good chance to get aid because you're white.

Do you see how ridiculous that sounds? Did you sue? Complain? Do anything but become "jaded on the topic"? I mean, black people marched and got shot for their civil rights. You went into an office you didn't even learn enough about to find out which government was running it, some white person told you you'll probably not get benefits, and you just gave up.

I know there are people that would read this example and go "See now you know how we feel." To which I would reply, "I'm not the one you actually have to convince on the subject." It's the assholes that think that they are better then some one else just becasue they have less melonine in their skin (or how ever its spelled) or think they are better because they were born with blonde hair and blue eyes that are the ones that really need the realization that racisim is seriously idiotic.

Not really--those people aren't responsible for the racism we have in this country today for the most part. The racism we see today is institutional racism, where the person believes all the right things about how 'all men are created equal' when it comes to ideology, but when it comes to issues has an agenda that gets hidden--possibly even from themselves--by talk about "being jaded" or some other pretext for their behavior.

Well you can believe what ever you wish to believe I could honestly care less. So what if I don't know if it's state or federal welfare? All I know is that it's the welfare office. I had never been there before other then to apply for a replacement S.S. card and I never really put much thought into it.

As for welfare only being for families you are going to tell me that because someone is single with no children, and loses their job, they have no right to find government help to makes payment on bills while they are trying to get another job? Wow that sounds discriminatory to word single people.

As for the cracks about "being jaded" and this couldn't possibly happen well wake up and smell the coffie. Low income white people get crapped on just as much by the government as any other race, espicaly if they are single.

 

[Sephiwind]

Well you can believe what ever you wish to believe I could honestly care less. So what if I don't know if it's state or federal welfare? All I know is that it's the welfare office. I had never been there before other then to apply for a replacement S.S. card and I never really put much thought into it.

It kinda undercuts the authenticity of the story if you can't even tell us what you were applying for, other than to let us know some government worker put their job on the line without any sort of promting by explicitly telling you that you stand less of a chance of getting welfare because you're white.

As for welfare only being for families you are going to tell me that because someone is single with no children, and loses their job, they have no right to find government help to makes payment on bills while they are trying to get another job?

Am I? I was just explaining how the program works, and wondering if you were even eligible in the first place--again, it kinda makes this story look like shenanigans if you were white and single, and they told you that you probably won't get it if you're white when they could tell you that you're officially ineligible.

Wow that sounds discriminatory toward single people.

Um, what? It's for people with dependent children.

As for the cracks about "being jaded" and this couldn't possibly happen well wake up and smell the coffie. Low income white people get crapped on just as much by the government as any other race, espicaly if they are single.

Sure--maybe a lot of what we call racism is class discrimination. So...what's your point? Your response is to turn on the people who have misidentified the source of the discrimination but are working to end it instead of on those doing the actual discrimination?

Christ if I knew I was going to be interrigated just for shareing a real life story that I thought had some relivence to the topic I wouldn't have bothered. I don't know if you think i'm just Trolling for attention, or what ever it's called, just because I'm a new members and only have like 30 sum posts. I'll just remember from now on that if I have a relivent story to share I just won't bother unless I have like 1000 posts to give my self some credit.

 

[Kollega]

For information of those who will actually read it (that is,4-5 people),"sambo" in russian is an acronym of "self-defense without weapons",and was originally designed for law enforcement purposes.

 

[EnigmaticSevens]

Hmm... words can be used as symbols, symbols must be given their power by people. Therefore, if people as a collective ignore a certain word, it has absolutely no impact. Neither I nor by brethren would be offended by the word 'sambo.' Even if someone full of hatred and negativity told us it was a racial slur and meant to make us 'feel bad,' I doubt we'd bat an eye. Now if they began to curse us AND approach us with a large metallic baseball bat. Well then... we'd no doubt fillet them. It's the bat that makes it a party....

Racism will persist until we, this race of semievolved simians, perish, by an act of our own hand or by an act of a merciful God. Whenever we've bred enough and all end up a lovely shade of mocha, it'll just change from whities vs. darkies, to brownies vs. blueies vs. greenies....

On a slightly unrelated note, I've always been perplexed why so many of my dear Caucasian brothers and sisters give credence to the 'gangsta' phenom. Oh there's evidence, anecdotal and statistical, to give some meaning to gang related violence. But by and by the majority of 'black gangstas' are utterly superficial, given at most to physical brutality, but rarely serious harm.... No my dearies, don't fear the 'gangstas,' fear the educated, soft spoken and articulate black youths... we'll kill you with reasonable provocation, and do it in a rather subtle manner, we'll even weep at your funeral....

 

[headshotcatcher]

Isn't Sambo just a name for the halfbreed between black and native american or something?

 

[ErythorbicAcid]

Over on Kotaku they had a story about this. Sambo is also the spanish word for a fig-leaf gourd.

http://kotaku.com/5361276/racial-term-in-ds-scribblenauts-unintentional-developer-explains-%5Bupdate%5D

 

[Woem]

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

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

Are those stereotypes really racists? That's like saying that Americans like hamburgers, Dutch people like cheese, Germans like bratwurst, Belgians like beer and Englishmen like tea.

 

[Woem]

Isn't Sambo just a name for the halfbreed between black and native american or something?

It seems so. From wikipedia:

Sambo is a racial term for a person with mixed Amerindian and African heritage in the Caribbean, also for a black person in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is considered a racial slur.

I think that's really far fetched and definitely not meant as a racist reference.

This reminds me of the movie The Human Stain where the character played by Anthony Hopkins says "Do these people exist, or are they spooks?". In this reference he meant "spooks" as in "ghosts" but he got fired because people insisted he intended it as a racial remark, even though he'd never even seen the people he referred to and didn't know they were black.

 

[headshotcatcher]

Isn't Sambo just a name for the halfbreed between black and native american or something?

It seems so. From wikipedia:

Sambo is a racial term for a person with mixed Amerindian and African heritage in the Caribbean, also for a black person in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is considered a racial slur.

I think that's really far fetched and definitely not meant as a racist reference.

This reminds me of the movie The Human Stain where the character played by Anthony Hopkins says "Do these people exist, or are they spooks?". In this reference he meant "spooks" as in "ghosts" but he got fired because people insisted he intended it as a racial remark, even though he'd never even seen the people he referred to and didn't know they were black.

WHy does political correctness go so damn far. I bet there aren't ANY black people who take offense..

 

[Woem]

Isn't Sambo just a name for the halfbreed between black and native american or something?

It seems so. From wikipedia:

Sambo is a racial term for a person with mixed Amerindian and African heritage in the Caribbean, also for a black person in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is considered a racial slur.

I think that's really far fetched and definitely not meant as a racist reference.

This reminds me of the movie The Human Stain where the character played by Anthony Hopkins says "Do these people exist, or are they spooks?". In this reference he meant "spooks" as in "ghosts" but he got fired because people insisted he intended it as a racial remark, even though he'd never even seen the people he referred to and didn't know they were black.

WHy does political correctness go so damn far. I bet there aren't ANY black people who take offense..

Exactly. I looked it up to be sure and this word is on the leaked unofficial incomplete list of words [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94694-UPDATE-Entire-Scribblenauts-Vocabulary-Now-Unofficially-Online] from last week. I suppose someone saw the word (it's at the last page so it's pretty easy to spot) and thought he should complain about it. I really don't think anyone would have ever though about using that word to solve a puzzle in the first place.

I wonder who was the first one to report this, but I'm unable to find the original source.

 

[Xyphon]

I've never even heard of this bloody word....

Somewhere, someone is typing in every damn racial slur known to man just to see if something pops up.

 

[Player 2]

Out of curiosity, who here actually know what a sambo was before reading this?

I hadn't, I didn't even know cracker was racist until some guy on the internet told me. I just thought it meant biscuit.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

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

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

Are those stereotypes really racists? That's like saying that Americans like hamburgers, Dutch people like cheese, Germans like bratwurst, Belgians like beer and Englishmen like tea.

Sadly, because it's relating to a black person, it's racist, whereas it doesn't really count to call the French cheese eating surrender monkeys , or the Germans sausage munching warmongers, the moment you mention a lazy stereotype of a black person it's far more offensive.

People really will clutch at any straw nowadays to link something to discrimination. In WOW there's a werewolf style race called the Worgen, now, the castle they live in, Shadowfang Keep, is lorded over by a white guy, Worgen backwards is Negrow, and melon drops as good in there. Apparently that's enough to say that there is a massive anti black conspiracy going on at Blizzard, where in fact they're very happy to take a few million $15 a month from people whatever race they are.

Having said that, I remember 'sambo' being a slur used against the black guy on a sitcom on TV. Even then however, it was being used as a way to show the idiocy of the old white man's ignorance, and the black guy would tend to win out in arguments. Of course, most of this went over racist's heads and they'd see him as a hero. Also, despite its well meaning, it didn't stop the black kid getting called sambo at school the next day.

As for cracker, I think it's because a lot of black slurs relate to slavery or being 'below' the whites, whereas cracker is related to being plain, pale and dull, I believe. '******' has just always had a lot of hate behind it, you just don't say it to a black person unless you're trying to insult them, which is why I wish everyone would quit using it. You're not empowering yourself, you're just keeping the word alive.

Personally, I'm overweight and so is a friend of mine, and calling him a fat fuck doesn't make us feel empowered

Anyways, in conclusion, I blame the darkies.

 

[JohnSmith]

This is the single silliest reason to ***** about a game... EVER... If you look up the slur it has to be one of the most esoteric in existence, admittedly 5th Cell is based in America so they may have been in a position to hear it, but how does the watermelon even relate to the slur, the news article seems to suggest that it does but the wiki article makes no mention of this being a fruit related pejorative. Is this some special relationship between fruit and esoteric insults that only americans understand?

EDIT: hmm, Ninja'd by the answer to my question. Still weird though.

 

[ilikepie59]

What a wierd coincidence... I had never heard the word sambo before today(I live in Australia)
Then I checked escapist today, (which honestly, I rarely do) and saw this post.
And less than an hour later, I walk into a bookshop where I see a book titled "Little Black Sambo" on the counter in a little stand as I'm buying a book
What are the odds?

 

[Lord Krunk]

Whenever I hear Sambo, I think of that Australian T-shirt designer known as Mambo. I don't know why.

But I had no idea that it was a racial slur. Are they going to have to remove the word 'Curry' now as well?