Man, our culture doesn't get racism... (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Thursday, August 15, 2013, 14:30 (3907 days ago) @ davidfuchs

I know that I've got Indian-killing, slave-owning ancestors in my family tree, and I don't fault them too much for their actions, nor do I feel that guilty about it myself. What matters is what we do in the present to right past wrongs. Overreacting to a video game is focusing on the wrong idea of what the problem is.

This is of course why the game sucks: it uses racism to make the villain seem bad. Because racist = bad.

But as you point out, 150 years ago, owning slaves was socially acceptable. I'm sure a lot of good people owned slaves. Who were they to argue with accepted social convention? Lots of people in lots of reviews of Django Unchained call Leonardo Dicaprio's character an evil slave owner. From what I can tell, he actually seemed like a pretty good one. He let the slaves live in the house, and generally was concerned for their welfare. His rationalizations for slavery based on skull bumps is just his way of justifying something that he probably has reservations about in the first place. I mean, why else would a man go to such great lengths to justify slavery?

Had you grown up in the South at that time, you probably would have owned slaves too, because it was acceptable and expected. It only seems wrong now in hindsight.

That's why hitting us over the head with how racist Comstock was in order to make us think he's a bad dude is so ridiculously cheap, and uninspired.