Redcurve Racism mechanical game design? Or systemic flaw

[E R Y N]

I wanted to highlight a question that Caboose relayed after his experience in KC, that has been bugging me.

"Do you have any black in you?"

Now Caboose's answer didn't strike me as something that every racist would hang you for. I still am a little wary, but fear is not something I have towards confronting things like this.

I wanna know how you all took this little bit. We all have different backgrounds, but having awareness in this day and age requires players and organizers to be smart about what they involve themselves with, ethically speaking.

Some additional opinions and observations, are totally welcome. I naturally havent been here long and can't always keep up with the influx of information. So if anyone can help answer the following questions.

1. Are the recurves racists?
2. Do they have racially motivated intentions of violence.
3. Is this intentional design?
4. Do you think it is appropriate to intentionally design something like this for the sake of a "scare"
5. Are they're any POCs involved in the making of this game
6. Are their any POCs here as players and what are their options on this?

I love a good scare but, racism. (Especially living inside the American Empire) isn't a tasteful ingredient and I hope for the sake of the games future it's handled with awareness and respectfulness. To the highest degree.

[Timsmyname]

To me when they said black, I thought internal darkness, not skin color.

[Caboose04]

I wanted to highlight a question that Caboose relayed after his experience in KC, that has been bugging me.

"Do you have any black in you?"

Now Caboose's answer didn't strike me as something that every racist would hang you for. I still am a little wary, but fear is not something I have towards confronting things like this.

I wanna know how you all took this little bit. We all have different backgrounds, but having awareness in this day and age requires players and organizers to be smart about what they involve themselves with, ethically speaking.

Some additional opinions and observations, are totally welcome. I naturally havent been here long and can't always keep up with the influx of information. So if anyone can help answer the following questions.

1. Are the recurves racists?
2. Do they have racially motivated intentions of violence.
3. Is this intentional design?
4. Do you think it is appropriate to intentionally design something like this for the sake of a "scare"
5. Are they're any POCs involved in the making of this game
6. Are their any POCs here as players and what are their options on this?

I love a good scare but, racism. (Especially living inside the American Empire) isn't a tasteful ingredient and I hope for the sake of the games future it's handled with awareness and respectfulness. To the highest degree.

No I don't feel they are. At least it did not feel that way to me. He made that comment to me when he was staring at me and looking at my hair. I have pretty thick hair being part Pacific Islander. It gets very curly and grows in to a legit Afro. I had an Afro in high school and currently I am actually in the middle of trying to grow my hair back out. So I don't think it was intentionally or made to be a racial comment just an observation. It was a detail I did think about leaving out because I felt it might be viewed that way.

[iambalrog]

Eryn I love this post.
Incredibly important topic and well articulated.

For good or for ill, like prettiest Tim, I read this as a darkness inside. But I’m coming with baggage…

Without wanting to stray away from Exiled, and definitely not saying ‘the creators’ are entirely ‘good’…
As a precious participant of iconfidant and prior experiences I’ve seen first hand how they value and respect this topic.
For iconfidant there was no fee, instead the creators and collaborators took the incredibly generous step of donating the entire fee to important causes, including BLM.

I’m trying to attach the Reddit link here but can’t…but search iConfidant Charity Donations.

Super important topic. Thank you for raising it.

[E R Y N]

No I don't feel they are. At least it did not feel that way to me. He made that comment to me when he was staring at me and looking at my hair. I have pretty thick hair being part Pacific Islander. It gets very curly and grows in to a legit Afro. I had an Afro in high school and currently I am actually in the middle of trying to grow my hair back out. So I don't think it was intentionally or made to be a racial comment just an observation. It was a detail I did think about leaving out because I felt it might be viewed that way.

Yeah, I'd like to think that incorporating gritty, disgusting, and all too real aspects of life is part of the experience. I wanna say again that I'm glad they don't come off racist to you. If they did this would probably be an even bigger issue.
However:

Real lives are lost to racism

Real people feel the hateful oppression

Real crimes are committed and NOT getting justice to this day.

Unlike elements that stem from fear of death, bodily harm, germs, loud notices, darkness, uncertainty, substance abuse, these elements stem from a cruel aspect of life full of hate. It needs to be handled in a way that has that in mind. If it's going to be present at all. It's why I ask are they're any people of color on the design side of things that could better understand these struggles and WHY they shouldn't or should be incorporated. I'm also NOT a person of color and would love the input of someone who has the black experience present their opinion if possible.

I like how you pointed out HOW Dorthea asked their question, and the clarification they gave about their stance to homosexuality. Why didn't they offer a clarification on their stance for people with " black " in them? It stands to reason that if we look at it critically they still very well can be racists. If so that may give us a clue about their intentions or background. Time will tell.

[E R Y N]

Eryn I love this post.
Incredibly important topic and well articulated.

For good or for ill, like prettiest Tim, I read this as a darkness inside. But I’m coming with baggage…

Without wanting to stray away from Exiled, and definitely not saying ‘the creators’ are entirely ‘good’…
As a precious participant of iconfidant and prior experiences I’ve seen first hand how they value and respect this topic.
For iconfidant there was no fee, instead the creators and collaborators took the incredibly generous step of donating the entire fee to important causes, including BLM.

I’m trying to attach the Reddit link here but can’t…but search iConfidant Charity Donations.

Super important topic. Thank you for raising it.

Thank you for the enthusiasm it's always comforting

I don't subscribe to "black" being synonymous with darkness more than people with African decent. Especially given Caboose's recalled experience, with Dorthea highlighting his curly hair specifically.

I think it's more believable they'd turn the "racists hillbilly" troupe on its head, but just didn't get a chance to based on Caboose's answer.

The effort and dedication to the craft gives me some hope that it is all done as ethically as possible. It would be even more pleasant if this stayed in line with art being a reflection of the current times. Bringing awareness to the unaware. The donations, also contribute to the ethics of the organization.

Still not sure about the iconfidant service though, couldn't find anything relevant.

[Brianamatopoeia]

Eryn I love this post.
Incredibly important topic and well articulated.

For good or for ill, like prettiest Tim, I read this as a darkness inside. But I’m coming with baggage…

Without wanting to stray away from Exiled, and definitely not saying ‘the creators’ are entirely ‘good’…
As a precious participant of iconfidant and prior experiences I’ve seen first hand how they value and respect this topic.
For iconfidant there was no fee, instead the creators and collaborators took the incredibly generous step of donating the entire fee to important causes, including BLM.

I’m trying to attach the Reddit link here but can’t…but search iConfidant Charity Donations.

Super important topic. Thank you for raising it.

Thank you for the enthusiasm it's always comforting

I don't subscribe to "black" being synonymous with darkness more than people with African decent. Especially given Caboose's recalled experience, with Dorthea highlighting his curly hair specifically.

I think it's more believable they'd turn the "racists hillbilly" troupe on its head, but just didn't get a chance to based on Caboose's answer.

The effort and dedication to the craft gives me some hope that it is all done as ethically as possible. It would be even more pleasant if this stayed in line with art being a reflection of the current times. Bringing awareness to the unaware. The donations, also contribute to the ethics of the organization.

Still not sure about the iconfidant service though, couldn't find anything relevant.

Thanks for being an advocate and addressing this so that there are no more questions.

It's a good group we've got here and truth be told, you will not find any disagreement among these folks that racism has NO place here. I think we've established that neither the creators, nor the experience are incorporating it into the story, and if there was any perceived racism, it was a misunderstanding or miscommunication. If anything, you're preaching to the choir here. I think the best way to approach these concerns in the future, should they arise, would be to reach out to the creators directly. After all, nobody understands their intentions better then they, and I'm fairly certain they would be more than willing to engage in this conversation with you, just maybe not here on their game board where their voice is generally muffled. But as you can see, anyone who's been around for a minute would vouch for them. We all standing in agreement with you when it comes to racism.

[ToCarp]

It did make me pause, but I honestly just viewed it as a socially awkward question of curiosity.. it would seem the Redcurves may not be in tip top social awareness but I don't think that makes it anymore than that. Almost like an innocent child question or statement, no harm intended but could be uncomfortable