I don't begrudge Microsoft for ignoring a virtually non-existent minority in another country. I do think PC gets out of hand sometimes, and you obviously can't have perfect racial balance in every advertisement or story (And even if you could it would be just as unrealistic).
BUT
(WARNING: INCOMING RANT)
A lot of the attitudes in this thread are the reason why racism is still a big deal. I realize a lot of them were jokes, but even a lot of the jokes clearly stem from an attitude that is contributing to the problem.
1. "It was a marketing decision, not racially motivated"
Um, totally missing the point. If I refuse to hire a black man because he will be "bad for business" (say I'm a shop owner in the 1960s), the fact that my decision is completely financially motivated does not stop it from being a racist act. The vast majority of American films, tv, games and books are starring white people, with nonwhites generally getting good sidekick rolls at best, rolls that emphasize their ethnicity and making it out to be a big deal that causes problems at second best, and often just being caricatures. This is not meaningless. As recently as 2006 there have been experiments that show that young black children often have a negative self image. 1/3 of black males go to jail at some time in their life. You either have to believe that black people are inherently more likely to be bad (which is pretty blatantly racist) or you have to admit that there still some serious inequalities in American society that cause this.
(I'm focusing specifically on America because discrimination is going to depend entirely on the country in question - which is part of why yes, the Polish Advertisement Uproar was stupid. Poland is a different place with different issues)
2. "OMG REVERSE DISCRIMINATION."
Dude, you're white. You barely know what discrimination means. (With the possible exception of the guy who went to China and had people badmouthing him in Mandarin all over the place, which still isn't "reverse" discrimination because it happened in a country where whites weren't in power). Yes, reverse discrimination happens sometime. No, we have not remotely reached the point where it comes close to balancing anything out, let alone cause any meaningful hardships for whites in America).
3. While I believe in being courteous and honest, one should not have to constantly monitor everything they say or do just because they might accidentally offend somebody.
I do agree with this. BUT a lot of people haven't the slightest clue that they are being genuinely offensive, and until you have made an effort to examine your behaviors and think about what you might be doing that is contributing to institutional racism, you should not be complaining when people call you out for being offensive. There's a guy (call him Mike) in my class who made a "get to the back of the bus" joke to a black kid when the kid wanted to sit down. If Mike had intentionally been ironic, that actually may have been funny (even to the black kid). But Mike didn't even realize it was a remark steeped in racist understones. Where he grew up, (I believe somewhere in Texas) it apparently was a phrase used common enough that he assumed it was just a generic insult. (A few months ago he similarly didn't know that "There goes the neighborhood" was originally a racist remark).
Mike is not a bad guy - I don't think he's "truly" racist at all, but you don't need to be "truly" racist to say or do things that are offensive, or to contribute to the problem.
---------- Post added at 09:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:03 AM ----------
I'd like to amend that by reminding everyone I'm not specifically targeting anyone here with the rant - all I know about your actual opinions on the matter are a few snarky comments that were mostly just joking.
Also:
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