Is LocoRoco racist? Related content
-
Latest LocoRoco screenshots
- Review LocoRoco [100]
- Interview The LocoMotion [15]
Advertisement
Is LocoRoco racist? News
PSP News by Ellie Gibson
A blogger has kicked up a right old storm of controversy after suggesting that PSP puzzler LocoRoco has racist overtones.
In a post on his 1UP blog, Alejandro Quan-Madrid argued that the Moja enemies in LocoRoco resemble the racist "blackface" caricature adopted by minstrel peformers at the start of the twentieth century. They remained commonplace for many years - in Britain, the BBC's own Black and White Minstrel Show ran until 1978.
"Today in virtually any public sphere in the US, a depiction of a blackface character is not met without much murmurings and harsh criticism," Quan-Madrid wrote.
"In comparison, some countries such as Japan (where LocoRoco was developed) do not have significant black populations and so blackface images can come about without any criticism.
"The images are also then okay to be labelled as the enemy or even serve as representations of black characters in general, despite the racist images they perpetuate. That and I hear that Japanese people (in Japan) at times can be pretty innocently racist."
Quan-Madrid even goes so far as to suggest that "One could also equate the "invasion of the Moja and the fleeing of the LocoRocos to black slaves being brought to American and the very common practice of today of white flight.
"But we're not even going to go there," he added, perhaps a bit too late.
According to Quan-Madrid, he's "not accusing the developers of being racist, nor am I accusing LocoRoco of being a racist game. I simply believe that this is a product of unchecked institutionalised racism that needs calling out."
He went on to suggest that a colour change for the Mojas should be implemented, because "I do feel these racist undertones, whether intentional or not, would stop me as well as others from fully enjoying this game".
So what does Sony have to say about it? Well, "LocoRoco is a fantasy game geared towards a worldwide audience that takes place in a vibrant pastel world with colorful landscapes and characters and is not based on real-life places, people or things." So there.
Let the comments commence!
Advertisement
Related Games
LocoRoco
Latest Features
Latest Videos
No videos found.
Latest News
-
More evidence of LocoRoco 2 emerges [8]
-
LocoRoco PS3 dated [15]
-
LocoRoco creator talks racism [25]
-
LocoRoco man on PSP line-up [8]
-
Sony quiet on LocoRoco PS3 [20]
Latest Screenshots
7 November, 2006 [1]
Developer Sony Computer Entertainment
Publisher Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Release Date Out now!
Want to comment on this article? Log in, or register!
Poster
|
Nostromo13
03/07/06 @ 14:59
0
i wouldn't call that racist, i would call that guy an attention whore.
|
|
justsomeone
03/07/06 @ 15:01
0
wouldn't darth vader also, under that definition of racism, be a product of institutional racism? ban lucas, i say.
|
|
0
Forget the colour, I'm outraged by the fact they portray obese shapes as seemingly unable to find their way around by themselves, requiring constant attention by some other, presumably thinner, entity to push them left and right and through gaps as they can't do it themselves.
It's stereotyping at it's worse, and should be banned NOW! |
|
the creeper
03/07/06 @ 15:08
0
Aren't some of this guys comments regarding the Japanese a little rascist?
With lines like "That and I hear that Japanese people (in Japan) at times can be pretty innocently racist" he's certainly talking about a racial stereotype that he's basing purely on circumstantial evidence... |
|
0
I'm damn well sick and tired of this.
As much as the Loco baddies look like stereotyped negroid peeps, it's worth pointing out that there are Loco Rocos (pictured in the article in fact) that look almost exactly the same as them. All of the racist assertions are total muck. The moyja troop dudes are based on the designer, who had (at the time) very shaggy hair. Silly 1up peeps cause fuss. Cabelo is on the case. |
|
0
Okay, he's identified the black ones. Isn't he also going to be identifying the green, yellow, red, blue etc. balls-that-aren't-even-remotey-human in the game? Maybe their singing is skill-ist since not everyone has a good singing voice? Equal time for Tom Waits/Shane McGowan/Sigurd "Satyr" Wongraven(*) wannabes!
(*) Singer in Norwegian black metal band Satyricon
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 03/07/06 @ 16:16
|
|
0
The blogger is correct. This is not intentionally racist, but Japan has a (bad) habit of using the blackface look to portray black people in all of it's medium: be it videogames, manga, anime, even on TV (variety shows).
Because of their largely homogeneous society, their ignorance allows them more liberties with issues regarding other races than most other countries, and so the blogger's comments with Japan's 'innocence' about such issues, is largely true. However the country's situation certainly isn't an excuse in this case and people involved with worldwide medium (such as the devs of LocoRoco) should know about such things.
Edited 3 times,
most recently on 03/07/06 @ 16:21
|
|
0
In the first world you are a yellow blob. This offends people of Asian and Far Eastern descent. By the second world you have turned into a shocking pink blob, thus making the developers homophobes to boot.
ps Lucas *has* been accused of using racial imagery in SW for many years..... Darth Vadar (black) Watto (Jewish) Jar-Jar (afro-carribean). Indeed!
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 03/07/06 @ 16:18
|
|
0
I worry about people that look so deeply into these things and seem to find this kind of stuff.
LocoRoco is game about cute little blobs or goo rolling around singing their songs and yelling when trying to pull themselves together. What more do you need to see into that? BTW, has the guy noticed that one of the LocoRoco (the good guys) is black and has the same imagery? Well if LocoRoco is racist then PokEmon is about false-imprisonment of wild animals, brain-washing and slavery. "I've taken you away from your friends and family Pikachu, so I can put you in fight to the death battles with others of your kind, for my enjoyment. And you'll love it!!!" |
|
0
Hey shouldn't the Red Loco's who seems to sing like Jamaicans at times be racist to oh noes i like the Red Loco's voice as well i'm racist to!!
OMG i was actually joking to my cousin that this game was racist I never thought there was an alternate universe where people actually took that to heart lol. Jack Thompson would have a field day with LocoRoco.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 03/07/06 @ 16:38
|
|
0
I think some people here need to know what it's like with certain medium in Japan, and indeed with much of the society of Japan itself.
One Piece for example (one of the more popular mangas out in Japan, up to chapter 400 and odd) has portrayed black people with large red lips, kooky hair, and the like. And this is the same with many other popular mangas. This isn't seen as, well, "not very right" in Japan and the reason being is that most don't even realise it should be considered as such. The One Piece thing is but an example, but the big red lips, kooky hair, and other stereotypes are used in many other mediums too. So I hope those saying "People are looking too much into this" realises the full extent of this now because in fact it's rather quite obvious, especially when one has read/watched medium straight from Japan.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 03/07/06 @ 16:36
|
|
SeesThroughAll
03/07/06 @ 15:36
0
But islamic people never complained about EA's "C&C Generals" political pro-US bias and latent anti-islamic discrimination. And that one REALLY was obvious.
But then again, the best GLA online players would always kick the a** off anyone playing as USA... Let the comments commence! They had already begun... |
|
0
try the african/american test in the demo section of this site, and you might get an idea of where people are coming from with this type of accusation.
Interesting, but scary https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 03/07/06 @ 16:38
|
|
DarthCheesiest
03/07/06 @ 15:49
0
I also think the gamertag picture of Balrog looks a bit dodgy, it doesn't even look like Mike Tyson.
|
|
0
Seriously, I doubt that the maker has ever considerd it and it's imo very, very far fetched. There are far more obvious cases of racism.
The prey demo was released last week. There where several racistic elements in that with stereotypes. I wonder how long it will take for ppl to moan about that as well. |
|
0
"not accusing the developers of being racist, nor am I accusing LocoRoco of being a racist game. I simply believe that this is a product of unchecked institutionalised racism that needs calling out." he needs to focus his energies on the real issue of racism. e.g. workplace, sports environment, rather than picking on the gaming environment. He is going down completely the wrong road. I honestly feel that he is wasting his intelligence. What i wish to know is that 'how did he come up with the conclusion that the black 'stars' in the game are indicative of institutional racism. he needs to let go of his inferiority complex or else he is on the road to negative thinking that every game has a ulterior motive. he needs to look further than his own nose. Overall i am insulted being asian myself that he would take a game like loco roco to be racist. If he is so obsessed with the way the game is portrayed, than he needs to look at his house. question? does he not hold minute levels of racism? If that is all he can see than i would say that he himself is a hypocrite. Why cant he see that all LocoRoco is is just a game? no more no less.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 03/07/06 @ 16:57
|
|
0
Exatcly, GDS. The only racism is in the intent. The Japenese do not intend to be Racist, One Piece (which i follow), is not intentionly racist at all, pretty much everything in it is a stereo-type its part of the series' charm.
Just with LocoRoco, any resemblance to anything racist was not intended as a racial slur so it would be foolish in the extreme to take it as such, if everyone went round only listening to words and never to the intent behind them the world would be even more messed up then it is right now. Leave innocent fun alone and go over-analyse the BNP's website or something. |
|
escapedape
03/07/06 @ 16:01
0
Strange as it may seem, he does have a point. I read a really cool book called Pikachu's Global Adventure, which is a series of quite serious essays by academics on different aspects of Pokemon (yeah, really!). One of them talks at length about the Pokemon known as 'Jynx', which is a quite deliberate racist caricature of a black woman. Apparently this is a deeply cultural thing in Japan, and isn't something that they consider to be offensive at all.
Seeing those LocoRoco characters immediately brought the Jynx thing to mind, so I did think the same thing. Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jynx_%28Pok... |
|
0
Decent reply from a 1up staffer that defends the blog and basically says the guy has a few good points:
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7221... Worth reading if only to make you realise what a total "LOL, WTF noob!" type-person the anonimity of the internet can turn you into. And just to throw my 2p in. Yes, I do think the enemies in LocoRoco could be seen by some sue-happy types as being racist - they have a resemblence to black and white minstrels and kinda look like they have dreadlocked hair. But I think the design was borne out of ignorance and the need to clearly colour-code good characters from bad ones (like it or not, black=dark and dark=evil in the world of cartoons) rather than racism, and besides, the game contains black LocoRocos, as well as those little guys you find (MuiMui's?) that are also black in colour. Its possible that the developers realised they may bee seen as racist, and therefore included other (good) black characters to try and balance things out, but no-one seems to have noticed. Either way, they should probably do a pallette-swap before the games US release - just to be safe. |
|
0
From toy_brain's link:
"Anyway, my original point was: if you're going to criticize someone for pointing out a potentially valid fact, you'll look like much less of a dick if you do some research first. Think about it, Internet." Point missed - dig into anything deep enough and you will find symbology related to religion, race and sex. That doesn't mean it was intended in the first place. Or are we talking about subconscious yet unintentional association now? edit: Or to correct my own train of thought now - well, yes, obviously we are talking about some form of association here but point is that every human creation is full of symbology, the key is to discern the important things from the streched and imagined ones. Dig deep, get stuck in the mud.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 03/07/06 @ 17:20
|
|
0
Well now. More than a few disingenuous comments on this thread, so let's be real for a moment...
The black Loco Rocos have dark skin, thick lips, sound like Animal from The Muppets and sing soul music. The baddies look similar too, with big dreads. Now, is it REALLY that surprising that some people in the western world think it looks reminiscent of those embarrassing, crass, hateful and offensive blackface images of the past? This sort of thing happens very frequently in Japanese manga, anime and videogames, and this is something that Sony need to be really aware of - they are a global company and sell to a global market. Foreigners who visit Japan are frequently surprised by how out-of-sync with the west Japan can be on certain racial and political issues, this is nothing new. Personally I don't know if anyone could really be offended by this, but the fact remains that when you are selling a product globally, you need to be aware of regional sensitivities and geopolitical issues. A company like Sony no doubt has a huge department devoted to the task. In the west, the shameful memory of blackface propaganda and minstrelsy has trained some people to have a knee jerk response against this kind of imagery and be offended by it. It may or may not be racist, and it may or may not be offensive, but it isn't that much of a leap to see why some people would find it offensive and frankly Sony should have fucking well known better.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 03/07/06 @ 17:17
|
|
0
Has the person who made these silly statements got nothing better to do than stir it? Or as someone already mentioned perhaps he is just a huge attention whore. It's like saying Predator is racist because he has dreadlocks and is the bad guy. For goodness sake. Surely he must have something better to think about!
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 03/07/06 @ 17:18
|
|
0
"Now, Is it REALLY that surprising that some people in the western world think it looks reminiscent of those embarrassing, crass, hateful and offensive blackface images of the past? This sort of thing happens very frequently in Japanese manga, anime and videogames, and this is something that Sony need to be really aware of - they are a global company and sell to a global market.
I don't know anyone who would really be offended by this, but the fact remains that when you are selling a product globally, you need to be aware of regional sensitivities and geopolitical issues." Exactly Kiigan, that's exactly my view on it too. |
|
0
Have to say, my first reaction to the picture of Jynx on the Wikipedia page was that she's meant to be a parody of Yamanba - a particularly hideous Japanese fashion which includes very deep fake tan along with really pale lipstick and white eyeshadow, and of course, bleached blonde hair.
Japan is undoubtedly quite a racist nation in general - more commonly among the older generation, since younger people are heavily exposed to European and US culture - but it's all too easy to start looking for racism where none is intended, and also very easy for those who go looking for racism to label what is actually simple ignorance as hateful, racist behaviour. The few black people I know who have gone to work in Japan have found that while things do happen or are said which they would find offensive at home in Europe, very often it's down to simple ignorance on the part of the Japanese, not any intended racism; although that clearly doesn't forgive the serious, genuine and sadly institutionalised racism in some parts of society there. Where "some parts of society" does not include Pokemon, One Piece or bloody LocoRoco, I might add. |
Want to comment on this article? Log in, or register!
