multifangirl69:

Are there really people who believe race was a part of why Gabriel wasn’t considered a good leader and Jack was?
Like, I read about a post where someone really said that their skin color was part of the reason why Jack was the face for Overwatch and not Gabriel?
Are you cereal?
If someone really believes that, please write me. This has to be a joke!

Well, the question isn’t so much about racism IN-GAME (I don’t even know if the UN cares about American style race politics), as whether racism played a role in why BLIZZARD picked the higher-ranked traitor dude to be the Black guy and decided that the True Face of Heroism was a blue-eyed All-American boy from Indiana.

There’s a lot we don’t know, story-wise.  Blizzard’s team can write the characters however they want, so that Jack’s totally justified, or Gabriel’s rightfully angry because he got double-crossed, or anything.  And granted there are multiple dark-skinned POC on the good guys’ side.
But in the absence of those details, all we’ve got so far is that the only Black USA-American man in the game thus far appears to be a murderous traitor.
So you just want to note a setup like that and maintain some healthy skepticism about the artistic choices involved as you go about otherwise enjoying yourself.

Also, cut POC people a break. They get to see (and live) racist career politics that look a lot like this so often that in the absence of details, it’s pretty reasonable of them to fill in the narrative gaps with “Hmmm, how do we think THIS might’ve gone down?”

It doesn’t make their headcanon more right than yours.  But it’s a solid interpretation based on their experience, and they have an equal right to their headcanons.

Instead of focusing on disagreement, here’s what I do: when I see commentary like what prompted this post, I take it as a reminder that we don’t all share the same experiences or needs.  And that when I’m in a position to make decisions regarding people of color, fictional or real, I should analyze my perceptions and reactions and what’s happening with the flow of power in the scenario at hand and what I think it’s being based on.  As a writer and a human being, posts like that are a gift regardless of whether I agree with a given conclusion or not, because it helps me understand the experience of people who didn’t grow up the way I did, and that lets me get better at doing right by them.

I hope that helps!

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2aGpiOT

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