its really not that hard to own up to casual racism

Posted by on March 15th 2013 @ 9:29 pm

its-really-not-that-hard-to-own-up-to-casual-racism

UPDATE: so actually my bad! hes as vietnamese boat merchant, which WOW GOOD JOB DAPHNY IDIOT

i dunno though

thats something for me to think about too! my ex used to go back and forth between vietnam a lot and like i guess one or two of the boat merchants dressed like that, some of them did have conical hats though

SOME OF THEM

i think its still stereotypical, not all boat merchants are the ones you saw in apocalypse now

but its also important for me to admit my own casual racism

its definitely  problematic, if visual stereotypes are supposed to tell me its vietnamese, then thats still casual racism.
if you google image search “vietnamese boat merchant” why yes quite a few conical hats pop up! hmmm
cooresponding with a friend who frequents vietnam, she says yes some people do wear conical hats. its hot and sunny. most people wear baseball caps and just plain clothes, the robe makes no sense at all
its something important to think about! im glad the dialogue has been so open 

its sneaky too, liek i never even noticed until deceased crab pointed it out, the dude is at the very bottom of the screen and i barely spend any time in the shop, i just click what new shit i can afford and get back to fishing
because i love fishing! what a good game! 

when DC confronted vlambeer about this problematic imagery, instead of owning up to it AT ALL they pointed DC to a fake twitter account of a ridiculous fishing videogame character. which is also… i hate to say it…. RIDICULOUS

it goes bottom up because i just copied my retweets of what happened

just say sorry and fix that shit in a patch! JUST ADMIT YEAH, OOPS I GUESS CASUAL RACISM IS SOMETHING SO SOCIALLY INGRAINED THAT SOMETIMES WE DONT EVEN FUCKING NOTICE! its way better to grow and learn than to just be a stupid jerk and POINT A PERSON TO A FAKE TWITTER ACCOUNT! goooooood
its okay to be wrong sometimes! im wrong all the time!

i remember like six or seven  years ago that i defended someone using the term ‘coolie hat’ on a forum! that was stupid, i didnt think casual racism was all that big a deal! its everywhere so who cares right? THE PEOPLE IT DIRECTLY AFFECTS CARE A WHOLE LOT

and i love this game, its great! which is why id hope the people who made it can be as neato as their game and admit that yeah, that shopkeeper is kinda gross huh? well good thing patches are so easy! thanks for pointing it out!
siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh

 

  • http://twitter.com/aeiowu Greg Wohlwend

    It’s racist to call him chinese. He’s a vietnamese boat merchant. I created the character and I take full responsibility for creating a vietnamese boat merchant. I did that because the coolest way to sell things on the sea is from that kind of boat. There’s also a lot more to him if you look and read his tweets on Byrdr.

    • http://daphaknee.livejournal.com daphny

      oh yeah thats a good point, its still a weird stereotype i live in a vietnamese neighborhood and none of the shopkeepers here have conical hats

      • http://twitter.com/aeiowu Greg Wohlwend

        You should go to Vietnam.

        • http://daphaknee.livejournal.com daphny

          my ex used to go to vietnam all the time and show me pictures, and i just talked to her very few people looked like this.
          google image search seems to tell a different story
          but she was saying its still sterotypical and uncomfortable, even if you love vietnam

          • http://twitter.com/coolpowers Simon Windmill

            Could very will be regional differences. A quick search for “Mekong market 2013″ found this example where the nón lá is very much evident: http://www.olympicwanderings.com/more-mekong-markets-and-the-best-pho-of-my-life/

            Calling out inadvertent and casual racism is good, you guys just jumped the gun.

          • http://daphaknee.livejournal.com daphny

            i edited the post, i think the stereotype in the clothes is still there, but i admitted my mistake as well. a whole ton of people arent wearing hte hat too, so like, its good to understand visual signifiers, he could be vietnamese without any of the visual signifiers, especially if the in game twitter talks about his background

          • http://twitter.com/coolpowers Simon Windmill

            Yeah, it can still be tricky to come up with something recognizable and iconic without falling back to lazy stereotypes. In this case though, Vietnamese boat markets are the first thing I think of when I think “floating shop”, so it’s legit.

            BUT ANYWAY Vlambeer could/should have addressed this differently, I think that’s the real thing to learn from. I think your reaction and tone was perfectly in tune with their response.

          • http://daphaknee.livejournal.com daphny

            appreciating this dialogue a lot though

        • http://daphaknee.livejournal.com daphny

          anyway i edited my post and admitted my mistake, its still a stereotype most boat merchants now just wear baseball caps and tshirts

      • Dominic Tarason

        I’m not so sure it’s even a stereotype. I just typed in ‘Vietnamese Boat Merchant’ in to Google and the very second fitting image was a guy wearing a very similar hat, running his little boat-stall shop. Seems like a pretty cool way to sell things.

      • Dominic Tarason

        Plus, Not many of the merchants in your neighbourhood sell stuff from boats either, I’d imagine.

        • http://daphaknee.livejournal.com daphny

          there are a ton of vietnamese fisherman here i live in a port town, they dress like everyone else

          google image search doesnt seem to agree with actual trip reports from vietnam, that people dont really dress like that anymore, its a stereotype.