Everything is political. It is literally impossible, in a global economy, to take an action that isn’t political on some level.

People who say “just stick to X” are either disingenuous or ignorant. Often even not making a statement is still making a statement. That’s how this works.

The American brand of capitalism is…

As Blizzard continues to attempt to pivot away from their decision, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the nature of suppressing political speech for athletes. Blizzard’s case is new, but recent precedents for punishing players who practice self-expression go back to Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem in…

All the publicity at the very least maybe helps at least ONE company stopping always caving in to China’s demands (which now encroach into international space too where they try to ban and censor anything they don’t like) - just look at how China in recent years tried to bully companies such as Marriott, Svarovski,…

Actually it does help. With all the bullying China does concerning Hong Kong and Taiwan (and also Tibet and Xinjiang), all publicity helps, because to us here in Asia it seems people in the West have forgotten about how awful the Chinese regime is. I guess the money is good. Appeasement politics with a regime like…

if anything this is better for nintendo’s image. even though it would be blizzard that would be being protested, its still a nintendo event at one of their stores. im sure they are more than happy to distance themselves from this mess an since blizzard was probably the one to cancel, they probably had to foot the…

I can’t imagine Nintendo is too happy with Blizzard right now. I’m sure canceling this event is better for them than potentially getting dragged into the mess or having a newsworthy moment at their store, but the wasted logistics, and having the launching of a Blizzard game on the Switch go from being potentially a…

While I understand where you are coming from, people can still do things that are offensive or wrong, even if they might have the best of intentions. We’ve seen this countless of times in the past. A good historical example was how for years (even up to the early 70's) Native American children were forcibly taken from…

This IS fantastic. And should be the end of discussion for anyone with a modicum of good faith in this discussion. Literally all she had to do was not darken the skin of the suit. Accuracy of depiction is not worth playing around in this gray area. 

If the intent matters than the fact that Livanart heard criticisms from ‘some black people’ and did it anyway matters more.

Honestly, one of my favorite YouTubers was a white dude who dressed up as Black Panther for a drunk stream, and it was great! He didn’t need to darken his skin to be the character because we the fans knew what his intent was. The suit was enough. He wasn’t intending to mock deconstruct in a malicious way. But cosplays…

An example of how to do an amazing Pyke without race facing:

This really isnt a hard discussion.. It starts and ends right here.

“Livanart herself says in this Facebook video that she spoke with “some black people” while making the suit, heard their concerns then went and did it anyway”

This means she knew it was problematic and did it anyway. Any convo after that is irrelevant.…

Trying having the same skin tone as a Roma in Europe, or having a darker skin complexion in places like Cambodia. It isn’t just an American thing.

Yep, because Europeans have never ever done anything bad to people of color ever

She’s still using race as a costume. There are plenty of ways she could’ve done Pyke that didn’t involve race facing.

Already knew this was going to be here:

The core problem is this: It doesn’t matter how detailed, how much care she took, or anything else: Livanart is still treating race as a costume. Race is not an accessory or costume that can simply be taken off at the end of the day.

“We want to ensure it’s on point and polite”

That “polite” part makes me feel like it’s not going to achieve much. You don’t gotta riot and be violent, but if the people in power don’t feel threatened by your actions, they won’t incentivized to change anything.

I guess they should’ve immediately called the authorities and arranged for Blitzchung to be sent to a re-education camp.

Say whatever you want about the player, but penalizing the commentators is nothing short of collective/kin punishment. What in the actual fuck were they supposed to do?