The other day, I went to the Avalon with a friend so he could sate his craving for Skee-Ball. After about 15 consecutive rounds, our arms grew tired. We moved on to games that involved gunning down marine life, zombies, terrorists, and other scoundrels. Then we made our way to Let’s Go Jungle Lost Island of Spice, a game in which a couple of Western sight seers venture on a tour in what, I believe, is supposed to be Thailand and get attacked by gigantic spiders, frogs, dragonflies, et cetera.
What made the experience memorable was how much it offended my culturally sensitive liberal sensibilities. The goofy intro starts out with Ben, the pasty male tourist with the badly thought out earring, visibly cowering in fear just from the looks of their Southeast Asian tour guides, who by the way, are portrayed like this:
Ummm…yeah. The Asian guys spoke broken English and were generally depicted as being inept, cowardly, and expendable. They were killed off by a elephantine tarantula or something pretty early on, leaving the white people, who were of course spared, to defend themselves (and other Western tourists) from the savage horrors of the Orient. What would Edward Said (bless his soul) say if he were around to witness this? It doesn’t even make sense. Wouldn’t some bad-ass Thai dudes in camouflage be the best suited to shoot down swarms of the enormous rabid frogs? After all, it’s their own country and you’d think they’d be used to them by now.
Also, what the hell is up with this thing?
It was on the side of this of a machine that dispenses gum balls big enough to dislodge your jaw. They look like they are up to no good. Why do some have teeth, but not others? Why are their eye brows the same color as the rest of their faces?
The Portland Mercury: What would Edward Said say?
(For the record, some of my favorite sensitive and appropriate video-game portrayals of foreign cultures can be found in the Metal Slug games. There’s nothing that symbolizes imperialism quite like a buff white guy with a machine gun mowing down his ‘Oriental’ enemies. Also, Mr. Said is certainly missed.)
I was really overwhelmed by the casual racism of the most recent film I’ve watched – Zombie Strippers. Not only does a day laborer named Paco have to clean up after the zombies eat male patrons post-poledance but all of the hot zombies are white.
since when is “jungle” a verb?
Plus 10 points for Mercury for arts intern having read “Orientalism!”
I love that game. And the Ocean Hunter one they have where you kill the rare marine life and then, finally, the sea god.
I love that game. And the Ocean Hunter one they have where you kill the rare marine life and then, finally, the sea god.
Oh, gee, you can find racism everywhere. Like when black people seem to think I bear some responsibility for the American slave system. Actually, my German forebears moved here well after slavery had been ended. Also, there’s the little matter of the fact that even most of the white people here were oppressed by slavery as well, by having to compete against slave labor for jobs. Get over it: that was then, this is now!
I’m overwhelmed by the casual racism exibited by culturally sensitive guilty white liberals.
that yellow ball needs to see an orthodontist.