It is when every Saudi character is a terrorist.

It’s easy to be snarky here but I agree with the larger point. Arab people are seldom treated with empathy in AAA shooters. That’s the point the interviewee was trying to get across. Indie games are taking huge strides in that direction, though, and I hope that this trend reaches the mainstream at some point.

“The fact that a ‘shitty Arab country’ visual shorthand already exists says enough,” Nadia Shammas told me during a video call. “A shorthand, that, by the way, did not exist—it had to be punched into culture over and over and over again for it to stick in the subconscious to such an extent that you don’t even question…

There is an actual definition of genocide and what Israel is currently doing absolutely meets that definition. It does not require the complete elimination of an ethnic group. The hallmark of genocide is the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a ethnic, religious or other group. Israeli leaders at all levels have…