the following video features clips taken
from television that use Blackface as a
satirical gag I included these clips not
to perpetuate racist depictions of the
Black image but to provide context for
viewers to better understand my stance
on this issue Over the June 27th weekend
Netflix and Hulu removed the Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons episode of Community
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
cost them nothing They didn't devote any
of their time 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 erasure and
censorship 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 not about race
It's about bullying it's about
depression suicide mental health It's
about a group of people who see someone
in need and their efforts to support him
and the reason this episode was pulled
from streaming services was for this
This is gonna be awesome yo So we're
just gonna ignore that hate crime huh No
Shirley we are not going to ignore this
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 I'm a dark elf or a drow
shouldn't you be wearing armor or
something hah I'm an elf not a nerd 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 or drow were originally created
with Dungeons & Dragons back in the
1970s They were created as a separate
type of elf with dark skin and white
hair just as Chang portrays them in the
episode of  community
I am Brutalitops! The Magician! Magic-user baby!
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 show them
with short curly hair further separating
them from the normal and good
light-skinned elves who have long
straight hair later depictions of the
drow 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 1970s and 80s
in addition they're 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
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 is Conan the
Barbarian series to those of HP
Lovecraft who need I remind people is a
notorious racist These sci-fi 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
Hello my friend and brother How can I help you dear madam
Oh please no need for such deference I am no better than a
gnome Yes you are madam you are a human
warrior which is five species classes
greater than I That's disgusting don't
talk like that
I am so sorry madam Please don't report me for execution
Oh no no I didn't mean that Guys we've got to do something about
these gnomes fantasy races and 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 whether you're
good or evil I understand that in
fantasy this is more than a division of
skin color between races and more
closely resembles
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 of 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 or 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 of
argued that it isn't a joke on Blackface
but a joke on cosplay and the accepted
silliness of fantasy role-playing if
that's sarcasm
I can't tell because everything this
game is silly
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
would not have had the same impact if
Chang was in white face 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 by killing him He's
being punished and ousted for wearing
Blackface 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 not
to use Blackface in the first place We
cannot condone the exploitation of
Blackface however satirical the intent We
can't make people who wear Blackface
look like harmless idiots we need to
acknowledge that Blackface is
unacceptable and then just not do
Blackface Leave it buried in the
past where it belong so that we can see that it's wrong and never have to see it
again but I also think that erasing this
content that 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 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
canceled culture or call out culture and
I think this kind of pre-emptive action
removes the responsibility from the
creators to acknowledge their
wrongdoings and demonstrate their growth
from it and I think 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 has 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 In 2011 my
character señor Chang on Community
depicted a drow elf from Dungeons &
Dragons I'm truly sorry if this
portrayal caused anyone harm as that was
not the intent 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 and make a teachable moment about why this
was wrong and unacceptable and bring
closure to the affected parties This is
not a new concept for media Warner
Bros. wrote a content warning for
their racist Tom and Jerry cartoons
Hangar13 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
Now while humor may have been the intent
of such caricatures they also have the
effect of revealing society's unfair and
hurtful representations of people of
color women and ethnic groups Now some
of the cartoons here reflect prejudices
that were common in American society
especially when it came to racial and
ethnic groups
now these prejudices were wrong then and
they are certainly wrong today
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 by being
called in by her I betrayed the audience
I destroyed everything and I damaged her
internal compass I did it all by not
thinking about it so I just want to say
in addition to obviously being sorry but
that's really not the important thing I
want to say I did it by not thinking
about it and I got away with it by not
thinking about it
and if she hadn't mentioned something on
Twitter I would have continued to not
have to think about it 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 a 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 drow 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 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 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 need to be taking to make a
statement of ownership for the harm that
they've caused to preface their content
with acknowledgment 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 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 to those in need
Thanks for watching if you made it this
far then please leave a comment below
that says "For my turn I feel sorry for
Pierce Hawthorne" and I'll reply with a
virtual high five
and if you liked this video you can show
it by giving it a thumbs up and
subscribing to my channel for more
content You might be wondering is this
guy gonna be using more
Community clips in his future videos and
the answer is yes Anything to keep the
show relevant until we finally get that movie
I can't get erections!
What?
