Shrug I haven't talked to her in game but on hearing it if I talked to her in game wouldn't have seemed racist just that she was from somewhere in the south, but it's just one character that's a hobo and there are lots of hobos of different races.
Square Enix Responds to "Racist" Deus Ex Character
- Thread starter Greg Tito
- Start date
Yeah, we all laughed at her when she was talking about the racist RE5 zombies, but then we got to the part where we were fighting guys straight out of Birth of a Nation and we were like, oh shit, the crazy activist chick was right.
You run into two black people before Letitia, both of which are hostages and both of which are employees of the high profile Sarif Industries, which is an extremely prestigious corporation - one which you would have to be exceedingly intelligent to even be considered for a position in.
Both of the black hostages speak perfectly normal.
If you're going to attribute the portrayal of all blacks to a single character, why overlook the fact that the two hostages were executives of one of the most powerful corporations in America? Surely that would give the impression black people are intelligent and that equal opportunity is alive and kicking.
To pick on a single differential and make it a straw-man just because it happens to offend you does not make it offensive to everyone. To overlook the fact people are different and that not everyone are highly spoken well-educated individuals is to sugarcoat reality, which is far more ignorant than any portrayal of a single character, regardless of their ethnicity, gender or orientation.
Both of the black hostages speak perfectly normal.
If you're going to attribute the portrayal of all blacks to a single character, why overlook the fact that the two hostages were executives of one of the most powerful corporations in America? Surely that would give the impression black people are intelligent and that equal opportunity is alive and kicking.
To pick on a single differential and make it a straw-man just because it happens to offend you does not make it offensive to everyone. To overlook the fact people are different and that not everyone are highly spoken well-educated individuals is to sugarcoat reality, which is far more ignorant than any portrayal of a single character, regardless of their ethnicity, gender or orientation.
I played the xbox version and honestly didn't notice anything, but I dunno the computer version sounds different to me.
There's a bag lady who lurks around the front of the videostore I work at. She herself is pretty much a shambling stereotype.
I am pretty sure there are poor African-American women with Southern accents.
So the game is racist for including a very real and possible character, in the future of a quite divided society? She struck me as a real contrast to Sarif, and some of the thugs. Leticia has some street smarts, knows a bit about what is going on, and is trying to get by.
Yep, accents and unusual ways of speaking do exist.
Jensen is also in a sub-culture of his own, a corporate slave from a somewhat thuggish cop background who speaks far too curtly, but whom doesn't want to sound too inferior to his well-educated peers. He isn't stupid, but he isn't the best educated and most eloquent person around either. A good choice for a protagonist I suppose, not going to alienate too many people. He is tough, but smart, and doesn't risk being culturally offensive except by being so gravelly.
So the game is racist for including a very real and possible character, in the future of a quite divided society? She struck me as a real contrast to Sarif, and some of the thugs. Leticia has some street smarts, knows a bit about what is going on, and is trying to get by.
Yep, accents and unusual ways of speaking do exist.
Jensen is also in a sub-culture of his own, a corporate slave from a somewhat thuggish cop background who speaks far too curtly, but whom doesn't want to sound too inferior to his well-educated peers. He isn't stupid, but he isn't the best educated and most eloquent person around either. A good choice for a protagonist I suppose, not going to alienate too many people. He is tough, but smart, and doesn't risk being culturally offensive except by being so gravelly.
Knowing Deus Ex's voice acting "the horrible broken English Letitia speaks" probably wasn't even intentional.
After all, I too was offended by Günther's terrible German accent. Also offended by Deus Ex were the Chinese, the French and pretty much everyone with a nationality that appeared in the game.
Clearly Ionstorm/Eidos is racist against the entire world!
After all, I too was offended by Günther's terrible German accent. Also offended by Deus Ex were the Chinese, the French and pretty much everyone with a nationality that appeared in the game.
Clearly Ionstorm/Eidos is racist against the entire world!
I haven't laughed so much since some mob accused Jango Fett of being an offensive Hispanic stereotype... despite being played by a Maori who speaks with a typical kiwi accent.
Bah!Staskala said:
They didn't include a single painfully fake Aussie accent... You know, the one where the the director has said to the voice actor "Okay, do half-arsed cockney... right... now do it with extra nasal. Perfect."
What depresses me about stories like this is that people don't take the time to read them properly. No one is saying that Deus Ex is a racist game, or that the people who made it are racists, just that the character in question draws on old racist imagery. Seriously, listen to her speak, she sounds like a character from Huckleberry Finn. It's probably not intentional, and there are some very positive African-American characters in the game, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't point out the mistake.
Oh, and for the record, the problem with Resident Evil 5 wasn't that the zombies were black - the game is set in Africa, of course they're black - it was, again, the imagery used to portray them, which strayed into "Dark Continent" territory.
Oh, and for the record, the problem with Resident Evil 5 wasn't that the zombies were black - the game is set in Africa, of course they're black - it was, again, the imagery used to portray them, which strayed into "Dark Continent" territory.
Oh my god, again with the complaining. This is racist! That is Sexist! They're homophobic!
It. Is. A. Game.
You don't like one tiny thing in a game you have bigger issues in your life.
As the saying goes "If you don't like it, don't buy it."
It. Is. A. Game.
You don't like one tiny thing in a game you have bigger issues in your life.
As the saying goes "If you don't like it, don't buy it."
Can I call the Chinese people racist then because of the way they speak? Slightly broken English when they are speaking English to me in that game? I was very offended at that! 
Why is it a mistake? Are you seriously telling me that absolutely every individual living in an inner city area doesn't speak with such heavy affectation and slang? Because even here in the UK, people from the inner city areas, particularly around London, do have a significant "street speak" about their dialect. It's not just black people, either. White people who are brought up in the inner city who associate with what was generally seen as 'black culture' also adopt that way of speech and how they carry themselves. While Letitia does have something of the fifties about her, i think it's a bit myopic to not see inner city culture having its roots in what was once hyperbolised by the privileged majority. I would've considered it to be more jarring if she spoke with perfect diction. She already looks a little bit too neat to be a hobo as it is. (Then again, all hobos in Detroit seem to have that problem)Logan Westbrook said:
Africa is still a third world country by most standards. I appreciate the mud hut villages and savage portrayal of native Africans throwing spears and such is upsetting, but what else would you expect to find? Sprawling cities and paved streets? If Capcom didn't want to draw on that imagery, they shouldn't have chosen Africa as the stage. What bothers me is how people claim to have no problem with the game being set in Africa yet fail to recognise such imagery would be inevitable given the location. It's not even as if the entirety of the game was that one painful trudge through the mud hut villages; before that you had a reasonable shanty town and later on an escapade through a vast military complex.