Whee! Two posts about race/ism in one day.
So I was reading on CNET's "Blogma" feature, which I guess is a pun on the word "dogma" but kind of hope it isn't, insofar as it's not entirely clever and puns should be retired, and I ran across a section dedicated to the XBox 360's lackluster reviews. Not delving into the truth of the matter, there is something interesting to be found in the comments section (and by "interesting" I mean "infuriating and stupid").
One poster makes a fairly blanket statement that the 360 will be the greatest thing ever. The next poster argues that the incremental improvement strategy usually favored by Microsoft in their OS development will bite them in the ass, because if you drop four hundred dollars you want a hell of a lot more improvement than another notch on the belt. The remark is also made that "The controller is huge, and I'm not a nine-year-old Asian kid."
This isn't, actually, what I take exception to. More on why I don't in a minute.
What I take exception to is the next post, cleverly titled "What are you talking about" but with no question mark, says, "Why does the kid have to be Asian to have small hands? Racist."
I swear to God, that's what this person wrote. Here's why he bugs me more than the poster initially discussing the trend toward delicate digits in those of an Oriental geographic persuasion: The original XBox was a god-awful disaster in Japan. It bombed. All over the place. Didn't make a dent in the PS2's sales, and hell, even the Gamecube sold better than the Xbox. The reason for that is twofold: first-generation games were horrible, and second, the original controller was a giant piece of plastic that even I, with my Nosferatu-like fingers, found difficult to get used to.
Penny Arcade! famously had a comic where Tycho replaced Gabe's controller with an adult grizzly bear. Gabriel says, "Did you get a new controller? This one feels smaller."
Anyway, the allegation of racism is 1) baiting the initial poster to discredit the allegation that Microsoft and the Xbox might not be the Second Coming of Jesus and 2) utterly missing the point. You're right, the child doesn't have to be Asian to have small hands. That's also not the assertion. One reason for the Xbox's failure in Japan was its lack of consideration for the specifics of Japanese society, namely, the extraordinary limitations on living space. Building a gargantuan console with a gargantuan controller reeks of American imperialistic arrogance (plus you can't handle the damn thing).
That's what the poster meant. Christ, I'm all for calling people out on their stupid biases and assumptions, but make sure you're right before you start throwing invectives and loaded signifiers. This is why you keep the Irish off computers.
One poster makes a fairly blanket statement that the 360 will be the greatest thing ever. The next poster argues that the incremental improvement strategy usually favored by Microsoft in their OS development will bite them in the ass, because if you drop four hundred dollars you want a hell of a lot more improvement than another notch on the belt. The remark is also made that "The controller is huge, and I'm not a nine-year-old Asian kid."
This isn't, actually, what I take exception to. More on why I don't in a minute.
What I take exception to is the next post, cleverly titled "What are you talking about" but with no question mark, says, "Why does the kid have to be Asian to have small hands? Racist."
I swear to God, that's what this person wrote. Here's why he bugs me more than the poster initially discussing the trend toward delicate digits in those of an Oriental geographic persuasion: The original XBox was a god-awful disaster in Japan. It bombed. All over the place. Didn't make a dent in the PS2's sales, and hell, even the Gamecube sold better than the Xbox. The reason for that is twofold: first-generation games were horrible, and second, the original controller was a giant piece of plastic that even I, with my Nosferatu-like fingers, found difficult to get used to.
Penny Arcade! famously had a comic where Tycho replaced Gabe's controller with an adult grizzly bear. Gabriel says, "Did you get a new controller? This one feels smaller."
Anyway, the allegation of racism is 1) baiting the initial poster to discredit the allegation that Microsoft and the Xbox might not be the Second Coming of Jesus and 2) utterly missing the point. You're right, the child doesn't have to be Asian to have small hands. That's also not the assertion. One reason for the Xbox's failure in Japan was its lack of consideration for the specifics of Japanese society, namely, the extraordinary limitations on living space. Building a gargantuan console with a gargantuan controller reeks of American imperialistic arrogance (plus you can't handle the damn thing).
That's what the poster meant. Christ, I'm all for calling people out on their stupid biases and assumptions, but make sure you're right before you start throwing invectives and loaded signifiers. This is why you keep the Irish off computers.
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