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Wait, wait... Jade (BG&E) was black??

DSN2K

Member
uchadc0b.jpg
 
I want a Passenger 57 game using Wesley Snipes' likeness and dialog trees. I'd have him running from place to place always reminding all the white characters to "always bet on black".
 
Peacemaker said:
Isn't she related to Eddie in Tekken?

nope, Christie's grand-dad is Eddie's Capoeira master

Christie isn't black. you can tell by her nose shape. Allot of Caucasians in Brazil are tanned all year round some are darker skinned.

But Eddie is black though, and so is Sean in SF3.

Brazil is big mosaic, it's not just about white Portuguese descents and Black African descents and Native stocks. Allot of immigration from other European countries such as Italians and you have many Asians who immigrated there too, Brazil has one of the biggest Japanese communities outside of Japan
 
gutter_trash said:
nope, Christie's grand-dad is Eddie's Capoeira master

Christie isn't black. you can tell by her nose shape.


Never visited Central and East Africa then? Not all Black people are in the United States you know.

Regardless I always assumed she looked odd, but then I thought she was Eddie's sister or something.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
colbert.jpg

"Sorry guys, but I don't see color."

Never really dawned on me to apply human 'racial' divisions to a fictional universe centered on a different planet that had a talking humanoid pig as a sidekick. :lol
 

keanerie

Member
ssoass said:
Voiced by Phil LaMarr to boot.

Phil LaMarr? Seriously? I had no idea.

And I've always imagined Jade as of mixed descent: Asian, Black and Hispanic, or some mix thereof.

Kobun's probably right in some sense, though. We're all going to project either ourselves or our fantasies on to a character without any clear cut ethnic identity.
 

Oldschoolgamer

The physical form of blasphemy
Kobun Heat said:
You're all right.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/02/jades_black_rac.html

As I mention in the piece, I'd love to hear from everybody who posted in this thread about Jade's race -- how do you identify, ethnically? Jason Ellis is black, and he thinks Jade is black. I'm white, I figured she was white. This is going to be shitty science, but I'm starting to see a bit of a pattern there.

I guess we go by our own predetermined views as to what a person should look like, if they were a certain race. Little diagrams etched into the back of our mind, created from our first interactions with crayons, circumstance, and sometimes, how heavy the views of certain people around us are: culture and experience.

You brought up a lot of good points, and one of them I find to be the saddest.

I imagine that more black protagonists have been suggested, but ultimately vetoed, for game projects for the very reasons that I'm talking about here -- that designers and marketers might worry that the (predominantly nonblack) video game audience might not buy a game with a black main character

Are our views of our fellow people, that low? Why would they be able to identify with an alien, bald space marine Y, demon soldier U, or any other character before they would someone of opposite(different) race? That, and when they actually decide to let one in a game it has to be the most stereotyped character in the group? Are they trying to infer that one would be more likely to identify with the loud mouth blackman, than they would one like Mr.Freeman? Either that, or their role is reduced to forgettable side character X and their actual relevance to the main storyline is very little.

I can really care less about what race the character I am playing is. I never did care. I just find it sad that designers would have to change so much as a skin tone, because it might not sell to a particular group, based on "analysis" of the markets (how would they know?) preference in characters. Not really surprising though, since a lot of times, artistic freedom isn't always free.

I will give credit though, things have gotten a little better.


Enough of my mini rant though. That was an excellent article.
 

karasu

Member
How is Christie white? Didn't Namco say they based her look on Tyra Banks? 0_o (looks more like Beyonce to me). She has to be black, or mixed. Not a tan white chick.

326tk1.jpg


que?

I'm black but I didn't see Jade as black, I saw her as asian. Partially because of her look, name, martial arts mastery, and the asian influence running through the game.
 

S-Wind

Member
keanerie said:
Phil LaMarr? Seriously? I had no idea.

And I've always imagined Jade as of mixed descent: Asian, Black and Hispanic, or some mix thereof.

Kobun's probably right in some sense, though. We're all going to project either ourselves or our fantasies on to a character without any clear cut ethnic identity.

Quoted and Bolded for mother****ing truth!

It astounds me how many (white) people think various anime characters are white despite having Japanese names and living their whole lives in Japan. It seems for a lot of people that if a character doesn't resemble their (often stereotypical) conception of what an East Asian looks like (yellow skin, thin and slanty eyes, black hair, etc.), then by default that character is White.
 
The Japanese have been doing racially ambiguous characters for quite some time now; part of the reason I had the McCloud quote so handy is that I used it in Power-Up to describe why Japanese character designs fit so well into internationally-minded video games.
 

Dali

Member
Pimpbaa said:
You mean the Moops.
:lol :lol :lol


S-Wind said:
Quoted and Bolded for mother****ing truth!

It astounds me how many (white) people think various anime characters are white despite having Japanese names and living their whole lives in Japan. It seems for a lot of people that if a character doesn't resemble their (often stereotypical) conception of what an East Asian looks like (yellow skin, thin and slanty eyes, black hair, etc.), then by default that character is White.

A lot of characters in anime are supposed to be caucasian yet have Japanese names. Asuka in NGE is the first that springs to mind. There was a Black boxer in Hajime no Ippo who also had a Japanese surname. It also doesn't help out that they choose to portray most other ethnicities (particularly blacks) by accentuating stereotypical features yet almost never depict Japanese as looking remotely... Japanese.
 

hobbitx

Member
Also, that woman in Urban Chaos(I think that was the name of the game) was black.
Darci Stern, she was the coolest. I'd love to see that game get a sequel. I heard the Riot Response game was just a coincidence after a legal issue.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
Night_Trekker said:
Seems like LaMarr voices every black, male character in existence. And I never can tell until I see the credits.
He played the badass merc 'Chris Jacobs' in Mercenaries, which is kind of funny, considering how geeky his MadTV roles were.
 
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