Have you ever heard of the video game Never Alone? I hadn’t until recently, but then by chance it came across my path. I haven’t played it, but from what I can tell it seems fairly interesting—a puzzle-platformer in the Cave Story or Klonoa mold with the unique gimmick of being set in the world of Inuit mythology, the script is written entirely in the Inupiaq language, and was programmed, storyboarded, and otherwise made in close cooperation with the tribe involved.
Even without playing the game itself, I must say that I love the concept from what I hear—not so much of the game itself, but the making of the game. The process that went into making this game illustrates what I have been talking about for years now:
Rather than whining about stereotyping or cultural appropriation or whatever, nut up and make your own parallel institutions and media!
This game right here is a perfect example of what I’m talking about—these people saw that their tribe (or perhaps Native Americans in general) were not represented in gaming. They were then faced with two options: They could either…
- Whine about a lack of representation and scream “WHITE PEOPLE DO SOMETHING!” (er, “JAPANESE PEOPLE DO SOMETHING, rather). Or:
- Make their own goddamn video game so that their people could get the full, accurate, and respectful representation that they crave.
They chose 2, the right decision. And as such, they made a critically acclaimed game that educates outsiders about their people and culture while still being fun to play.
This is exactly what I have advocated for any demographic that whines about not getting represented, or getting represented in “the wrong way”: stop demanding that some programmer/director/writer/artist, who’s likely not of your ingroup and thus cannot be reasonably assumed to have any idea of what you want, give you what you want. Take what you want for yourself! That’s the only way you’ll earn anyone’s respect.
To cite an example, look at the blaxploitation genre. Despite the “offensiveness” that SJWs attribute to the genre, those movies (made by and starring black people) are still renowned within that community, forming the basis for a separate ethnic film market that still exists to this day. You know what would have happened if the directors and actors in those movies had just stomped their feet and begged white people for help? Absolutely dick would have happened is what.
Or to put it another way, spending all day whining about how racist white people portray people like you negatively and this is ruining your sex life (that is of course 90% of what ethnic hatred is about), and then turning around and asking those same white people to help you, is both incredibly naïve and incredibly cowardly
In fact, I contrasted the video game mentioned in the first paragraph with an art exhibit on a similar subject I saw long ago. It was an arcade cabinet showing a series of clips from video games and how natives are negatively portrayed in them. At no point did the “Artist” ever try to make his own video game or do anything constructive, just whine about how other people portray his people poorly.
The contrasting dynamic between Native Americans who bother to learn how to code, and Native American whiners, echoes in all things—intelligent and capable people will make their own creative output to truly be the change they wish to be in the world. Uncreative and unintelligent people protest and make “I hate white people” diatribes.
To any “POC”s reading this…which do you want to be?