Sense, Sensibility and Nonsense: A Sensitive Inquiry About Race and E:D Idea of the Future

[YinYin]

Does this mean we'll all be women in 2050?

Yes!

given natural selection, white skin would be more common.

Hm, I don't see how natural selection would factor in better sun protection.
Also blocking radiation is a real tough job - don't think even in ED that'll be a common thing to do when you are on a planet. At least not when you've got natural protection or skin altering technology to protect you (would effectively also just result in unnaturally dark skinned people).

 

[Kolato]

Yes!Hm, I don't see how natural selection would factor in better sun protection.
Also blocking radiation is a real tough job - don't think even in ED that'll be a common thing to do when you are on a planet. At least not when you've got natural protection or skin altering technology to protect you (would effectively also just result in unnaturally dark skinned people).

Well i don't know, i thought developing additional defenses did cost more resources, but maybe I'm wrong on that.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

I do expect the elite galaxy to be very white, and here's why.
Black skin is a self-defense mechanism associated with long, and much exposure to sunlight. However, as a thousand years have passed, sunlight protection has become a thing about everyone have, and therefore, given natural selection, white skin would be more common. Only on very poor planets, where people cannot afford this, there would be black-skinned people.

That's a misunderstanding of how natural selection works. Things that are no longer biologically useful don't just magically disappear, they have to be actively selected against. The body isn't aware of evolution and traits do not come into or out of play based on need, new traits come in via random mutation, and are either selected for or against based simply on who survives to breeding age, who is able to breed, and who breeds the most.

 

[AdriánGuth]

Hello Colleagues and Commanders,

I would like to have a conversation. It begins, I think, with recognizing that I play all kinds of games - and have done so since the TI-994A - but tend to prefer experiences where I can "be me": where I can craft a character that looks either like me - a dark-skinned black man - or however I want that character to look. Experiences such as the Uncharted experiences are also fun and compelling games, and I like playing as Nate and others, but really feel the immersion when I can place myself as myself in the game (Mass Effect is a good example for me). I'm excited that E: D's anticipated character creator appears to be a step in the direction of allowing all of us to do that.

However (and this is where I'm looking, really, for the community to give me a sense of itself on this) I also like to see dark-skinned persons like myself in substantive NPC, leadership or "boss" roles in-game. From the Flintstones to the Jetsons to, unfortunately, E: D, I've grown up with and now persist as an adult with an absence of black women and men in key roles in my gaming worlds. Mass Effect's Captain Anderson is an interesting exception to a general rule, in my experience.

The Powers in E: D's Powerplay reflect this sensibility; where are the - where are any - dark-skinned leaders in our future? I leveled the same concern, to be clear, at RSI and their Cast Announcement for SC - totally absent any dark-skinned folks in their future as well. RSI shared with me a submission to have patience, and that I would see future announcements that would reflect diversity in the direction of black persons in their vision of the future.

Its not that I expect everyone to be black; far from it. But I do feel a trend and sense that dark-skinned people are sometimes just forgotten when crafting alternative or future gaming spaces. I'd like to both know that Frontier hasn't forgotten dark-skinned black people in their conception of a 32nd Century future, as well as the degree to which anyone else thinks at all about this type of thing (that is, sort of wanting to see yourself in a participatory gaming setting reflecting a future).

I guess I'm not looking for knee-jerk (or just jerk) responses. I'm looking for the best of what I've seen plenty of times across this forum.

Is it weird, or rude, or right, or paranoid, or healthy to want to see yourself, and people who look like yourself, in the games (particularly those you play that reflect a vision of a galactic or universal future) you play?

Thanks for your considered thoughts on the matter, and thanks to Frontier for creating a space for real dialogue alongside a great sim/game space experience; I appreciate it.


CMDR Mel Brennan

Well u know mos of people here are not from usa and even frontier are a british develompent. so u can imagine that american culture issues with race have not place here.

greetings.

 

[Faybs]

If the story didn't evolved that way we probably would have seen a few stations and planets with distinctively African names and so far I haven't run across any.

There's a cluster of systems with names that sound very southern-African. Ngaliba, Mbugurabi and Swaza could be the names of South African or Namibian towns.

 

[YinYin]

Well u know mos of people here are not from usa and even frontier are a british develompent. so u can imagine that american culture issues with race have not place here.

greetings.

I think you are underestimating the player base over there.

And while not as prominent even in the UK these issues have a place.

More so even in general europe if you look over to france and others.

 

[CaptainSeriousFun]

Well u know mos of people here are not from usa and even frontier are a british develompent. so u can imagine that american culture issues with race have not place here.

greetings.

I appreciate that; however, this topic, as posted here, is the result of an ongoing examination of these issues that started between myself and a young lady in the UK who identifies as "Black British." And, of course, dark-skinned individuals are found all over the world. Finally, I wouldn't necessarily locate issues around race, even as a social construction, as minimized only to US society. Would you?

 

[Faybs]

That's a misunderstanding of how natural selection works. Things that are no longer biologically useful don't just magically disappear, they have to be actively selected against. The body isn't aware of evolution and traits do not come into or out of play based on need, new traits come in via random mutation, and are either selected for or against based simply on who survives to breeding age, who is able to breed, and who breeds the most.

Exactly. If being black doesn't decrease your chances of procreating in space, there's no reason why your progeny would "revert back" to being white after a few generations just because they're no longer exposed to unfiltered UV.

 

[AdriánGuth]

I appreciate that; however, this topic, as posted here, is the result of an ongoing examination of these issues that started between myself and a young lady in the UK who identifies as "Black British." And, of course, dark-skinned individuals are found all over the world. Finally, I wouldn't necessarily locate issues around race, even as a social construction, as minimized only to US society. Would you?

well the kkk was only on us, and in my country argentina u will dont find this issue. u will fing a lot of others but not thar one xD
and indeed im fat. for all my life. and the truth dont makes me angry i assume what i am and in peace with that.

 

[ShimEnki]

I think CMDR that it would be a great asset to the game.

The more fine tuned the capacity to create the better. When one climbs into the cockpit and sees a like version of ourselves in the mirror etc, we might
feel a little different when taking that BB mission to kill citizens for simply being very good workers in a neighboring system ye?
But it would feel with the same magnitude in a positive manner when a more bolstered BB mission selection arrives when you can select a mission that you..that you right here and now that is inhabiting your current fleshy vehicle get behind and enjoy completing...

 

[Ziljan]

Exactly. If being black doesn't decrease your chances of procreating in space, there's no reason why your progeny would "revert back" to being white after a few generations just because they're no longer exposed to unfiltered UV.

The first people were thought to be black once we lost our body fur on the African Savannah. So there is no "reverting back" to lighter skin. Light skin is an adaptation to low UV light environments in order to process vitamin D. Since we are no longer evolving in that sense and can just eat or drink our vitamin D, there is no need for an evolution based changed to skin color. If anything, our exposure to much higher levels of radiation in space would cause a general darkening of skin to be preferable.

 

[Iskariot]

(...)

However (and this is where I'm looking, really, for the community to give me a sense of itself on this) I also like to see dark-skinned persons like myself in substantive NPC, leadership or "boss" roles in-game. From the Flintstones to the Jetsons to, unfortunately, E: D, I've grown up with and now persist as an adult with an absence of black women and men in key roles in my gaming worlds. Mass Effect's Captain Anderson is an interesting exception to a general rule, in my experience.
(...)

I agree it would be great to see some cool black character(s) in PP too for example.
One of my favorite black game characters is Adewale (not that there is a lot of choice).
I thought that was a wonderful looking strong, powerful character.

I hope FD will add a black PP leader eventually. If he looked like Adewale I would be very happy.

 

[Faybs]

The first people were thought to be black once we lost our body fur on the African Savannah. So there is no "reverting back" to lighter skin. Light skin is an adaptation to low UV light environments in order to process vitamin D. Since we are no longer evolving in that sense and can just eat or drink our vitamin D, there is no need for an evolution based changed to skin color. If anything, our exposure to much higher levels of radiation in space would cause a general darkening of skin to be preferable.

Yep, we're all originally from Jo'burg. Probably explains why bbq is universally loved

 

[EAGLE 5]

Personally I'm all for black characters in the ED universe... All I gotta say is, Capt. Benjamin Sisko, Lando Calrissian and Mace Windu... may be cliché but damn those guys were awesome!

 

[insanephoton]

I would say that it's too small a sample size to judge anything much. Out of a population of countless billions we've seen 10 people. For all we know the late President Halsey might have been black or maybe the VP that was with her on Starship One was black or perhaps the earlier 'died in suspicious circumstances' VP or maybe the current Federation VP. We've got no idea what any characters other the 10 powerplay leaders look like.

As for the nuclear war theories, both have counter arguments. At the current time, pretty much all of the world's nuclear weapons are based in, and aimed at targets in the northern hemisphere. It could be argued that South America, Southern Africa and Oceania would be least affected. As for the protective qualities of melanin, if the ozone layer is damaged then yes it would be beneficial. But if the bulk of humanity is forced to live in underground shelters or a nuclear winter mitigated any ozone loss effects, then paler skintones would be an advantage for vitamin D. As far as I know melanin has no protective effect against alpha, beta or gamma radiation.

As for redheads or 'gingers ' as some of you mentioned I have one name for you to think about. Boudicca

 

[Faybs]

Agh, managed to scramble my post. Ah well...

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

After 1300 years of interbreeding and extra-solar settlement I'm not convinced anyone would be black or white anyway.

My thoughts too.

However being a video game people like to create themselves in some way or another to further enhance the experience.

Being given complete control over how you look, skin colour, eyes, and even gender is one way to help with this.

(As a side note 99% of the time I play female characters even though I am male - wife plays male .. go figure )

 

[Vasious]

I think that ten people are hardly enough to show any diversity for planet earth let alone the 200,000 settled systems in Humans space.
I think any attempt to make each power show off a particular culture would have ended poorly as;
1) would have looks like an obvious attempt to be diverse and thus seem artificial for forced
2) make the above seem stereotypes based on the nature of their Power, as if that culture/ethnos is only represented by that powers ethos as we have seen with Archon=Dark skinned = Pirate=Bad

I assume once we get to tier two NPCs, there will be all sorts of Ethnic, genders, cultural origin of names and such, presented in all echelons of society


There is room in the lore that Genetic modification and Progenitor cells are about so through in fashions with accelerated adaption to new worlds, and the spectrum of humanity could increase

For a in fiction example, with the lack of Redheads
Aisling's Blue Hair; Dye? Genetic Modification for fashion? Inherited from her Mother or father?

 

[Roybe]

I think I would echo a few other folks out there...the idea of 'race' would probably have changed significantly after meeting the Thargoids.

Once the races are determined by species -human -thargoid -cephalopodic the coloration of the species, unless a necessary part of their communication form (looking at you Cthulu!), would become lessened over time...look at the US today compared with just 25 years ago....or 50 years ago....now think about that type of change over thousands of years.

Now, there definitely could be planets/systems where folks sequestered themselves by race/xenophobia/religion (looking at you Lugh!), however, those would be far from the average and likely very rare.

 

[Kristov]

I think I would echo a few other folks out there...the idea of 'race' would probably have changed significantly after meeting the Thargoids.

Once the races are determined by species -human -thargoid -cephalopodic the coloration of the species, unless a necessary part of their communication form (looking at you Cthulu!), would become lessened over time...look at the US today compared with just 25 years ago....or 50 years ago....now think about that type of change over thousands of years.

Now, there definitely could be planets/systems where folks sequestered themselves by race/xenophobia/religion (looking at you Lugh!), however, those would be far from the average and likely very rare.

This has already been made clear, GalNet stories of Hudson I believe, or was it his predecessor, who was from one of the outer worlds in the Federation, making a show of being FROM one of those outer worlds. It isn't the color of one's skin that matters in 3301, it is where one comes from, what one does, because your skin color means nothing anymore. We're all humans, as race has become about what SPECIES you are, not what your skin color or facial features might be. GalNet articles never mention racial anything, notice that? Locations, where people were born, raised, live, work, but not what race they are because there is only one race for any human being, and that is, Human.

You want equality, Elite has it, it doesn't matter where your character was born, what color their skin, what shape their facial features have, you are HUMAN and that's all that matters about your racial heritage. You are a member of the Pilots Federation, which doesn't care what color your skin or what shape your facial features are, you have the ability to excel or fail entirely based on YOUR abilities and that's it, nothing else will be blamed or praised for your future, just YOUR abilities.

Bringing up this racial thing is totally unrequired, the game is already well past that sort of thing, so why would the OP bring this up at all?