Professor Beef
Banned
Like I said, future Earthlings!
omfg
i bet he just ate too many bananas, that's why he's yellow, correct
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Inkling Boy & Girl are the first black non-Mii characters in Mario Kart
- Thread starter Garrett Hawke
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omfg
i bet he just ate too many bananas, that's why he's yellow, correct
Messofanego
Banned
First, your colourblindness ideology is not helpful.
If they're imaginary cephalopods where diversity or ethnicity or whatever else doesn't matter, why is there an option to change your skin tone?
Forced representation is of white characters in everything. Forced representation of straight white males. Even down to erasing other races and white people playing as them aka whitewashing. If you truly care about forced representation, that's where you should start and not demanding standardised tests for POC representation that they have to be perfect out of the gate compared to white characters who have little to no standards to be pushed through.
Media is correlated with people's lives and has an effect on them. Where do you think people get their expectations of real life relationships or marriage from, "the one", princess, prince charming, etc from? Where do you think people get their assumptions and stereotypes and images of a group of people who they haven't interacted with from? People are scared of the sea because of the movie Jaws. People are scared of black people because they only hear about them in negative news coverage or never watch any black media. People are scared of Muslims because of Islamic terrorists. This is not helped when the majority of Muslim portrayals in fiction are of villains. The movie American Sniper caused an increase in anti-muslim hate crimes, so if you think media has no effect then tell it to victims of hate crimes.
Life IS a Benetton advert. I don't know where you live, but I can guarantee if it's a Western country, it won't be all-white.
You must live an incredibly privileged life if you hadn't had to care about race or skin tones in media. Where you didn't have to think about what's the status quo and why people want it to change.
Representation matters. Especially of the positive kind, when in real life there is a lot of oppression. Look at people bringing up Transparent, Laverne Cox, the Wachowskis, Erika Ervin, and others in relation to trans representation. The more positive portrayals you get of a kind of socially outcast people in media, the more people grow to understand them in reality and empathise.
If you can't understand why people can identify with and hold up people or characters who represent them in a majority white medium as idols, then too bad. There are hundreds of POC characters that are looked up to, whether you like it or not. If you're uncomfortable with people wanting more positive portrayals of their kind, deal with it.
Those Inkling are obviously transracial.
Nintendo isn't as stupid or clueless as some of your guys are making them out to be. They are not trying to represent tanning culture or ganguro, regardless of how committed you get to your faux expertise about japanese culture and societal views; those bits of knowledge are blinding you.
Maybe they got the idea from the NatGeo Scrolls or something~
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Answer the damn question you've been asked multiple times now. Your not fooling anyone. If you can't answer it then you need to do some serious self reflection and trolling won't help.
I mean, if we are talking about lore, the Inklings can change their appearance at will, including their skin tone and eye color, like squids with camouflage. But inklings are video characters invented to facilitate gameplay. This aspect of their lore, was invented backwards from the need to have character options representative of a wider span of human skin tones. Before people start getting into arguments about in-game universe science as though it isn't ridiculous.
dermannmitdemcolt
Member
Yeah, I'm very happy Mario Kart is sending the right message to our society here. It is important!
Why the fuck are we fighting.
What the fuck even is this thread.
I can't even deconstruct all of the fuckery going on in here.
Okay for my fellow nonblack minorities, the skin options for Inklings are there so that we, the players, can pick what we identify with. No one is trying to take our Inklings away from us by calling them black, these things are not mutually exclusive. They can be black Inklings. They can be hispanic Inklings. They can be middle eastern Inklings. And that's a wonderful thing. It's not about excluding other minorities, it's about celebrating the fact that they can be black at all. This is a good thing.
For those who say they're not black because they're canonically shellfish or something that's a pretty stupid argument and if you took a step back or even looked at the designs you'd probably realize it.
And honestly guys we have much more important things to worry about, like Sony and Microsoft and mobile phones. Aren't there precious few Nintendo fans already without pointless infighting over stupid shit? While we're getting each other banned over the blackness of Inklings people are spreading shit like this with impunity. Get some perspective!
What the fuck even is this thread.
I can't even deconstruct all of the fuckery going on in here.
Okay for my fellow nonblack minorities, the skin options for Inklings are there so that we, the players, can pick what we identify with. No one is trying to take our Inklings away from us by calling them black, these things are not mutually exclusive. They can be black Inklings. They can be hispanic Inklings. They can be middle eastern Inklings. And that's a wonderful thing. It's not about excluding other minorities, it's about celebrating the fact that they can be black at all. This is a good thing.
For those who say they're not black because they're canonically shellfish or something that's a pretty stupid argument and if you took a step back or even looked at the designs you'd probably realize it.
And honestly guys we have much more important things to worry about, like Sony and Microsoft and mobile phones. Aren't there precious few Nintendo fans already without pointless infighting over stupid shit? While we're getting each other banned over the blackness of Inklings people are spreading shit like this with impunity. Get some perspective!
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Yes because console wars are serious business!
Oh please, you got straight up bodybagged with that "blue eyes" nonsense, and rather than just holding the L like a champ you go and pout. Just stop.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
I know the exclamation mark gave it away.
So are those blue-eyed little girls black or not?
How about this little guy?
These kids don't fit in your preconceived (and dare I say racist) notion of what a black person should look like so they must not be black. Right?
Some of you are really showing your asses in this thread. I am not surprised you're one of them though.
King Gilga
Member
Maybe, I acknowledged as much a couple posts up.
But most of my posts were replying to questions.
I do regret that first post though, that is ugly.
MisterGrey3000
Member
Pffffffffttttt!
Come on now.
Huh?
You kiddin' me?
The inklings are stylized near-human/vulcan-esque avatars specifically made for the purpose of looking like/representing the real-life human player sitting in front of the television (or Switch) screen.
It's the whole reason why they specifically come in different human skin tones and you can customize their clothing, they're meant to be the player.
How can people not "drag" color/race into it?
Those devs knew what they were doing, they're not dumb or oblivious people.
If they didn't want people to identify with the inklings from a racial perspective they'd look more like this:
...they'd be more like Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse rather than what amounts to human teens with pointy ears and Japanese hair styles.
Yeah. Inklings are just human enough where you can easily project yourself into them without having to look like any specific race.
MegamanPoweredUP
Member
good lord, are we still discussing ethnicity of squid people? This is hilarious.
You know what? Black-inklings look more like dark skinned asians than afro people.
You know what? Black-inklings look more like dark skinned asians than afro people.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
This sorta racist shit right here is why we're still discussing this.
The fuck...
aygomyownroad
Member
I didn't realise that you had a choice of inkling character, that's cool.
Nintendo do struggle with diversity. But they haven't really had any new IPs except splatoon to push new characters.
We will hopefully see more as time goes on, but it will be a slow process.
Is there miis in the switch Mario kart?
Nintendo do struggle with diversity. But they haven't really had any new IPs except splatoon to push new characters.
We will hopefully see more as time goes on, but it will be a slow process.
Is there miis in the switch Mario kart?
Oh my god. I came in here hoping for a positive discussion over Nintendo's (good!) move bringing POC into their mostly white-dominated franchises for once. But this...what the fuck NeoGAF? There are a shitton of you in here arguing the extremely latently racist colorblindness ideology and it's incredibly disappointing. Can't y'all just be happy about positive representation in games? What is wrong with this move by Nintendo?
A Link to the Past
Banned
You're right. In fact, let's bring this to its natural end and redesign all of the Inklings to this.
The fact that they are vaguely human-like is just too real, you know?
I might be misunderstanding, but I think the thread is more blowing up over a small minority of people talking about the TC's use of black and handwaving the characters as not actually being POC, on top of Nintendo being given props for improving the diversity in their games.
Feels like I'm in a Spike Lee film.
The Inklings are supposed to be Japanese ?
Lol I hope for you there's actual documentation on the game explaining they are, because this sentence is ridiculous.
And for Elma, there's just nothing to say. I mean you'd have to explain to me how you can be half Anime half Japanese
While being an Alien
Really please, explain how it works, I'd be glad to read that.
I prefer not to even mention the absolute mess that follows the anime/Japanese part.
What a dumbass.
What are afro people?
The 70s
Sorry, being white is privileged? Complete nonsense. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your point. If so, I apologise.
Unless you look like a The Get Down character you really ain't black
I love this thread
Is there a secret contest to see who can post the most idiotic bullshit in this thread. You two geniuses are running neck and neck.
Updated again!
Official Alternative Facts List For This Thread
Official Alternative Facts List For This Thread
- Black inklings aren't black, they're white tan inklings.
- They look more like dark skinned asians than "afro people"
- Despite Monolith being Nintendo, Elma doesn't count as a Nintendo character
- Elma can't be black because (XCX spoilers)
but she can be Japaneseshe's an alien
- White people don't have privileges over black people
Black people can't have blue eyes, they're not black if they do.
One. Yes I do, because it relates to me directly. It comes from the observation that Games Media Americans tend to believe the spelling of the UK is London.
Two. I never said skin colour broke any camel's back. I just think this is all a bit silly getting uptight over accurate race representation in Mario Kart.
Three. I am all for race, gender, lgbt representation in games, but it needs to be done well and for the right reasons. Not to tick a box and trying to appease everyone.
Of course! The character customisation tool in splatoon should lock out blue eyes when selecting black skin. Having squid hair is fine, tho!
I can't believe people are actually so dense. It's legitimately amazing.
What are those right reasons? White people in games don't need reasons though right? That's just normal and correct?
Why would it lock blue eyes out is Inklings aren't even black 🤔
It's the classic deflect of saying if there is inclusion it has to have a good reason
Minorities are the exception and need an explanation why they fit and are who they are
Brushguy Woodthreep
Member
Maybe consider that the skin colour issue relates to other people directly? Like, try putting yourself in other people's shoes.
Analogy: Game developers in general tend to believe the spelling of "skin colour" is "white".
that just sounds like bullshit to keep different types of people out
Who exactly is "you people"?
You seem quite bitter.
I note the lack of empathy towards other minority representation in gaming and media. It isn't all just about race.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
What was the well done and right reasons for all the white and Japanese people in games. Hell look at your avatar what were the well done and right reasons for her
Nice assumption as you don't know my national background, the ethic background of current/previous partners or sexual orientation.
GG.
There's two sides
"It's not 'black' black because weird dumb reason X, Y and Z"
-or-
"I'm offended, making me morally superior"
PICK A SIDE, IT'S TIME TO SEE HOW DEEP THIS RABBIT HOLE REALLY IS.
What has my avatar got to do with anything? I like Lollipop Chainsaw.
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