Over the June 27th weekend, Netflix and Hulu removed the “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” episode from their streaming services for its use of Blackface. This move is understandably controversial, as some would say it allows these companies to paint themselves as advocates to the Black community without devoting any actual resources to combat racism.
This may be true. Pulling this episode out costs them nothing. They didn’t devote any of their time or their money or effort to show support for Black lives. At best this is a misguided attempt to do the right thing, and at worst this is a publicity stunt with no real impact. Either way, this is censorship and erasure – one of the worst forms of content control. But let’s focus on what Community actually did. I love this episode. It’s one of the best in television, let alone the series. And the episode in question is ultimately not about race. It is about bullying, depression, suicide, and mental health. It’s about a group of people who see someone in need and their efforts to support him. The argument for why this is “acceptable” Blackface is that it is actually drow-face – that it’s not a portrayal of Black people but of a fictional race of elves from a game. Whether or not you agree with this argument for its acceptability – and, spoiler alert, I don’t – this gives us an opportunity to talk about dark elves in fantasy games. Dark elves were originally created with the Dungeons & Dragons by TSR in the 1970s. They were created as a separate type of elf with dark skin and silver hair, just as Chang portrays them in the episode of Community. In their descriptions within the game of D&D, this is an entire race of people with dark skin who are evil and meant to be feared. The original artwork of dark elves shows them with short, curly hair, further separating them from “normal,” and “good” light-skinned elves who have long, straight hair. Later depictions of the dark elves, which focused more heavily on their women, show them with longer, more voluminous curly hair that evokes the kind of hairstyles Black women wore in the 70s and 80s. In addition, their more revealing outfits and hypersexualized bodies and poses are in line with the racist fetishization of Black women (otherwise known as “jungle fever”) prevalent in that era, certainly indicating the influence of racist stereotypes on dark elf design. We need to acknowledge that racial biases have informed the creation of the drow in fantasy games, that there are problematic racial overtones in portraying an entire community of dark-skinned people as being evil while light-skinned people are not. To say otherwise is to be willfully ignorant. And this is a problem that permeates through so much of fantasy role-playing since its beginnings. The literature that inspired Dungeons & Dragons was deeply rooted in racism, from the works of Robert E. Howard and his Conan The Barbarian series to those of H.P. Lovecraft. These sci-fi and fantasy and horror serials often drew from their contemporary mainstream concepts of eugenics and white supremacy. There was a certain fascination with “otherness” as this looming threat. This kind of ideology was imparted to the fantasy role-playing game. Fantasy races in games are designed with inherent moral alignments and race-based advantages and disadvantages. A fantasy race is, arguably, a racist fantasy – where the circumstances of your birth determine your ability, personality, intelligence, and whether you are good or evil. I understand that, in fantasy, this is more than a division of skin color between races and more closely resembles a difference in species; a hobbit or dwarf would be differently abled than taller characters. But where fantasy races become problematic is the suggestion that these different races could be monolithically good or evil, intelligent or primitive, cultured or animalistic, based purely on their genetic background. No, these fantasy races are not meant to represent real-life minorities, but their descriptions were influenced by the historic denigration of other cultures. I’m not saying that D&D creators Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson were hateful racists, but they had racist and sexist values taught to them through the media and entertainment they consumed – pulp fiction magazines and literature made by white men for white men rife with racist and sexist ideologies. It’s an example of what people can call “white allergies.” White allergies are the ways white people are unaware of their racist words or actions because their upbringing or their environment makes that kind of racism invisible to them. People with white allergies are the kind you would describe as a “product of their time” or that they “just grew up differently.” It’s not an excuse for them, but it helps us understand why they have difficulty acknowledging their wrongdoings. D&D is a product of white allergies – it’s a product of invisible systemic racism. That doesn’t mean that it’s a racist product, but by taking inspiration from racist work, it has a hand in perpetuating a culture of anti-Blackness and cultural exploitation. Which brings us back to Community and its use of Blackface. Some fans of the show have argued that it isn’t a joke on Blackface, but a joke on cosplay and the accepted silliness of fantasy role-playing. Chang wasn’t pretending to be Black! He was pretending to be a drow! It’s not offensive! It’s silly! Even if Chang was not portraying Black people but a fictional race of elves, this is still a portrayal of something with connotations to anti-Black sentiments. And the fact of the matter is that the writers of Community chose Blackface for a reason. This joke would not have had the same impact if Chang was in whiteface. And he’s pretended to be white before, acting as Jeff’s understudy for a Greendale commercial. This isn’t addressed with any sort of disgust or discomfort. Incredulousness, maybe? But it’s never shown to be offensive – just silly and weird. Blackface was picked because it’s offensive. Because it has shock value. Community took something ugly and demeaning and exploited it for a cheap gag. And then it tries to justify the joke by painting it as satire by demonstrating the discomfort of other characters around this portrayal and then by removing Chang from the game first by “killing” him. He’s being punished and ousted for wearing Blackface. Yes, this is deserved. This is the appropriate response to those who think it’s okay to wear Blackface – to humiliate and exclude them. But we wouldn’t even be seeing this, we wouldn’t be discomforted by this, if the writers had elected to not use Blackface in the first place. We cannot condone the exploitation of Blackface, however satirical the intent. We can’t make the people who wear Blackface look like harmless idiots like this. We need to acknowledge that Blackface is unacceptable and then just not do Blackface. Leave it buried in the past where it belongs so that we can see that it’s wrong and then never have to see it again. But I also think that erasing this content, censoring it, is not the same as taking responsibility for it. Community producer and distributor Sony Pictures Television only had this to say, “We support the decision to remove the episode," which is devoid of any admissions of the potential harm perpetuated by Blackface, or any support for the Black community. It makes me think that this censorship was an attempt on their part to stay ahead of what we call “cancel culture,” or “call-out culture.” And I think that this kind of pre-emptive action removes the responsibility from the creators to acknowledge their wrong-doings and demonstrate their growth from it. And I think that the removal of this episode harms the audience members that need support for their mental health, that are dealing with bullying and depression, that need to hear what this episode had to say. This is a good episode with a positive message about surviving depression that attempted satire and fumbled. And, yes, the show writers need to take responsibility for that. The closest official response from people directly involved in the show came from Ken Jeong, who plays Chang, making this apology on his Darkest Timeline Podcast, “I’m truly sorry if this portrayal caused anyone harm as that was not intended.” Rather than fearing being “called-out,” we need to be brave enough to call ourselves in. We need to make ourselves aware of our past mistakes and acknowledge them and take ownership of them. We need to be able to have a conversation about it, make a teachable moment about why this was wrong and unacceptable, and bring closure to the affected parties. This is not a new concept in media – Warner Bros. wrote a content warning for their racist Tom & Jerry cartoons. Hangar 13 wrote a content warning for Mafia 3 and its attempt to portray the racism that affected Black people in the 1960s. They admitted that the content they created could be harmful, and leave the decision to experience that, to have a dialogue about that, up to the audience. Dan Harmon, creator of Community, has done this in the past on a different issue by making a public and specific apology for sexually harassing and invalidating a female writer on the show. Not by being called out by his victim but being called in by her. She pushed him to do the right thing instead of letting him make himself a coward. She later wrote regarding his apology and her forgiveness, “People should see the good that can happen when you aren’t afraid to accept responsibility for your mistakes. He gave me relief, and I hope I was able to give him some in return.” Bringing it back to D&D, in the past few weeks owner company Wizards of the Coast made a commitment to update the racially connotative descriptions and moral alignments of orcs, drows, and other fantasy races in order to better reflect the inclusive space that role-playing is meant to be. “Throughout the 50-year history of D&D, some of the peoples in the game — orcs and drow (dark elves) being two of the prime examples — have been characterized as monstrous and evil, using descriptions that are painfully reminiscent of how real-world ethnic groups have been and continue to be denigrated,” Wizards said in a statement. “That’s just not right, and it’s not something we believe in.” This is the kind of action that I think responsible content providers should be taking. To make a statement of ownership for the harm that they’ve caused – to preface their content with the acknowledgement that what they once thought was right, they now realize is wrong. They need to promise to do better moving forward, and then actually do better. And, you know, if they refuse to do that, then fucking cancel them. Do you want to support racial justice but don’t know how? The first step is always to be educated! Take the time to understand the issues at hand and figure out what is in your capacity to help. Read up on articles on the Black Lives Matter movement, have difficult conversations, and, of course, donate. Sources: "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux" | Community © Sony Pictures Television "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man - Episode 2 with Matthew McConaughey" | Emmanuel Acho | https://youtu.be/CwiY4i8xWIc "Tom and Jerry - Bonus - Introduction by Whoopi Goldberg" | benjamin cotan | https://youtu.be/k_oEOdIBOpU "Dan's Admission" | Super Junker | https://youtu.be/WfqoLeDsET0 "Episode 19 - Virtual Reality" | The Darkest Timeline with Ken Jeong & Joel McHale | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsk8... | https://open.spotify.com/episode/55s7... "'The Office' Blackface Scene Edited Out, Netflix Pulls 'Community' Blackface Episode" | Variety | https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/the-... "Megan Ganz on Dan Harmon's Apology: 'I Felt Vindicated'" | The New York Times | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/ar... "Diversity and Dungeons & Dragons" | Wizards of the Coast | https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/feat...
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AuthorGreg Anthony is a game designer and writer who turns his long essays into videos for YouTube. ArchivesCategories |