
We love Castle Crashers. That's no secret. It sits at the top of our XBLA wish list, right next to Small Arms. We could think of many words to describe it. Awesome, sweet, phat, dope, cool, all of these words leap to mind. But racist? That was the thought of one concerned mother upon seeing the trailer on GameTrailers.com. First of all, what mom is cruising GameTrailers? That's awesome. Second, racist? Apparently, she thinks the multicolored knights are actually white supremacists. We'll just let you absorb that for a minute ... and there we go. Listen to her bewildered phone call after the break.
[Via Xboxic]
Our apologies to this woman. She is about to become unexpectedly famous.





Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
10-18-2006 @ 4:43PM
J.Goodwin said...
I kinda thought they were all undead, actually. You know, skeletons...
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10-18-2006 @ 4:46PM
Ciaran Gallagher said...
She has a point actually.
They should make the characters different colour.
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10-18-2006 @ 4:53PM
delerious said...
Oh, shit! I'm definately hitting this. I haven't seen footage until you all did this just now. But, what I'm guessing... if the crashers were also black... there wouldn't be a problem? But they're in masks... and this is fictional... and the KKK wear all white......... THIS WOMAN IS OBSURD!!
If none of you ever noticed, in the original Power Rangers all of the rangers were color coordinated. The asian was the yellow ranger, the black was the black ranger, the ditsy gymnist was the pink ranger, the evil(went good after a while, but he turned white afterwards... SEE!!!) guy was green, and the angry/angsty/troubled leader was red.
No one ever complained about them killing neutral grey characters. And they blew up!
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10-18-2006 @ 4:57PM
Johnny said...
listening to the caller she's almost certainly an older woman from an older time. who despite the veiws back then had an interacial relationship.
"you go girl!"
however...
becuase of that relationship, she now has it in her head that she has some kind of complete understanding of the other race, and she's also probably become a little overly protective and gun jumpy.
she probably sees racism where it doesnt exist on a daily basis.
not to say that it doesnt exist.
but she's definatly over examining things...
(probably like I am now.)
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10-18-2006 @ 5:04PM
Scott said...
I have a feeling that she also thought that the LOTR movies were racist.
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10-18-2006 @ 5:07PM
AoE said...
Hahaha! She's so off base! Everyone knows the game is actually about the crusades and you play a christian slaughtering muslims!
^--- for the record, that's a joke.
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10-18-2006 @ 5:19PM
Mal F4cti0n said...
She focused on the brown and black enemies. The players are not white. They are red, blue, green and yellow.
But I see where she may have a gripe as all the enemies shown were, as what she perceived, of the black or brown color; representing Africans and African Americans to her.
With that said, I would imagine all of the enemies are not brown or black in color.
Typically racists are the first to see racism where it is not. And yes, minorities can be racists and bigots too.
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10-18-2006 @ 5:42PM
Darko said...
This just means that people cant do anything without having a problem with something. Get the hell over it. Its not racist. If it was WHO CARES!
I am not racisit, But if people called me Ni*** or Cracka i wouldnt care. Because there are far worse things to care about.
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10-18-2006 @ 6:05PM
Dirk Dorkelson said...
"Typically racists are the first to see racism where it is not"
This is vapid. You wanna provide some examples of this? This is spouted, without evidence, any time a discussion arises on racism. Who is the arbiter on what is racist and what is not? Who gets to decide when complaints are reasonable and out of line?
This kind of logic reinforces the idea that if you have a problem with something, it's better to keep your mouth shut, for fear of some dude on the Internet labeling you as racist or homophobic because you perceive bias where he does not. There was a time when the majority of Americans didn't have a problem with Little Black Sambo dolls or actors in blackface. Did that make the people who complained about 'em at the time racist? Fool.
That said, I'm not taking a position on Castle Crashers, based on one short clip at low resolution. But it is kind of weird having a bunch of white dudes in hoods running around slaughtering a bunch of brown dudes. I doubt it's racist, but it's probably not the best decision from a game design standpoint.
But give this poor woman a break. She sounds older and she says she is black. She may have once feared for her life because of the KKK. To brand her as racist because she may be sensitive to imagery that for her evokes the KKK displays a stunning lack of cultural sensitivity. Whether she's right in her criticism or not, saying, "She's the racist because she perceives bias where I don't" adds nothing to the dialogue. In fact, it impedes it.
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10-18-2006 @ 6:27PM
Player1 said...
Dirk Dorkelson,
You are crazy. The characters are WEARING white. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen a single bit of skin in that game. That's like saying a racing game is racist because someone driving a white car won, and someone driving a black car lost.
Here are some examples of people seeing racism where it isn't for you:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006480068,00.html
http://www.harpers.org/ABananaInTheSun.html
The point is, crying racism when it's not the case does not help get rid of it, it just makes it worse. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
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10-18-2006 @ 6:37PM
Dirk Dorkelson said...
I never said the game was racist. I just said it might be a poor design decision. That's it. I'm just jumping on this guy for saying this woman might be racist because she sees racism where many do not. That's just plain silly.
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10-18-2006 @ 6:39PM
Kurt said...
I dunno, those characters near the end looked a lot like they were wearing blackface...
seriously though, I don't think this game was created with the intent of being racist or promoting white supremacist ideals. There is a trend in popular culture, however, of portraying protagonists as white and enemies as black or brown. This game is partially a byproduct of this trend.
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10-18-2006 @ 6:42PM
Dirk Dorkelson said...
Player1,
Also, I'm not saying that people don't sometimes see racism where there is none. Hell, that may very well be the case here. But to suggest that someone else may be racist because they find racism in something that you don't, as Mal F4cti0n did, is fascist. Our perceptions of the world are shaped by experience. So to suggest that we should all perceive something the same way regardless of our experiences is messed up.
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10-18-2006 @ 6:42PM
Player1 said...
Perhaps racist isn't the term, but they are perpetuating racism as an element of our society by calling things racist when they aren't. Perhaps hypocrite is the term?
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10-18-2006 @ 6:45PM
Player1 said...
I think what Mal F4cti0n was saying is that this woman sees things in racial terms when they have absolutely nothing to do with race. She's essentially making it a race thing.
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10-18-2006 @ 6:53PM
sracer said...
Player1, claiming that it is okay because they are "wearing" white actually gives a greater support to an impression of a racist tone.
Given the graphic elements involved, comparing them to KKK symobolism... such as...
http://www.pointsouth.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/book_invisible-empire.jpg
The KKK cross has certain similarities to the white cross formed on the protagonist's helmets.
I can understand why the woman felt the way she did. I'm not saying that I necessarily agree with her, but I can understand.
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10-18-2006 @ 7:03PM
3dc said...
First and foremost I must say that to present this blog as an opportunity to ridicule this woman's belief that Castle Crashers is Racist is in itself questionable intent. - "We'll just let you absorb that for a minute ... and there we go." I know an apology quickly followed but still?
As for the woman’s concerns I can justify what she is "seeing" the representation of four white clad knights eliminating their oppositions which mainly comprised of dark brown clothed goblins, and if struck by electrical force are thus completely black and continue attacking our White clad heroes. I can see how this could alarm some people who feel passionate regarding the white gown symbol of KKK racism. Unfortunately there are still some practicing KKK groups and I wish our society were well past this disgusting way of life.
I decided to look at this from the woman’s perspective. It was then I did notice something that on a subconscious level may have really disturbed her more than the two differentiating colors. On each of our knightly hero is their helmet. This helmet could be perceived as painted white to match the (At the time) chain mail garb to protect themselves. Or maybe the knights are really some undead souls; I could leave the open for discussion. But the most alarming aspect I could see was the shape that the white area of the helmets made. Take a second look; they resemble upside down white crosses. While the whole upside down cross may not have anything to do with the KKK the cross in itself does. I could image how her subconscious picked up this image and re-lived some night where she may have been subjected to the agonizing fear of some group burning a cross in her front yard. Do I think all this is a far fetched reach and Behemoth did not intend for any of this, yes I do think that. I also do not think she is crazy and she does have the right to her beliefs and fears.
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10-18-2006 @ 7:12PM
Kyle said...
OMG She said crucified... Did anyone tell her what that word means? Anyone? She is obviously blind too. I'm not gonna give her a break because it's stuff like this that we need to be avoiding. Get Jack Thompson out here, he's got another thing to gripe about. Did anyone see them nail someone to a cross? I didn't get to see that. The enemy are wearing brown hoods. Not brown skin, unless she wants to say blue is a skin color too. I guess next we'll hear Microsoft is racist because they changed the xBox color from black to white when they made the 360...
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10-18-2006 @ 7:16PM
Platinum Skeet said...
This won't go far. We kill Nazi's all the time in WWII games and no one says "you guys are racist to Germans"...
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10-18-2006 @ 7:16PM
Andrew said...
I thought this game WAS about playing as the kkk, am I wrong?
Either way people need to chill out and stop overeacting to things that just arent there. It's a game, the end.
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