The Borderlands 2 Tiny Tina Racism Incident of 2013 And Why It’s A Problem

[image error]

(Foreword: This post is mirrored from my video game site, Attack Initiative. It has been unedited so that you can consume it in the same fashion.

Sadly, I have also broken my number one rule about NOT posting video game things on this blog. However, I feel that it is justified in that this is specifically referencing BAD WRITING. As this is an opportunity for my readers to learn, I’d ask that you take it. I will make sure this isn’t a habit! ~Oliver)

So, it looks like it’s about that time again to talk about dealing with speech when it comes to video games and writing. As you know by now, when I’m not working on and running Attack Initiative, I’m also a fiction writer. It goes without saying that, especially in this case (I’m a black guy, duh), I’m uniquely qualified to speak on this subject.

It appears that Anthony Burch, the writer of Borderlands 2 has been met with a bit of a firestorm this weekend concerning the character of Tiny Tina.[image error]

In game, Tiny Tina speaks in what some might call “African-American vernacular.” Or ebonics. Ah, fuck it. She talks like she’s a black girl from the hood.

Because of this, people took to twitter (strangely, instead of WAY BACK WHEN Borderlands 2 launched) to tell Anthony Burch what was up. Initially, he really didn’t see the problem. But as others began to chime in, I think he slowly started to understand that there was SOMETHING to be concerned about, although it’s still very vague. I’m writing this post to illustrate WHY Tina’s dialogue is a problem.

Allow me to give you another visual aid to help demonstrate this point. The clip below is taken from a film frequently categorized as being racist, Disney’s Dumbo from 1941.

Did you notice that the use of speech was surprisingly similar? It shouldn’t be a surprise, considering that they’re both…. African-American vernacular. In fact, the head crow (as listed in the credits for the film) is named “Jim Crow.” I shouldn’t have to tell you that Jim Crow also has to do with racism. Specifically, they were the laws that made segregation a thing.  In Dumbo’s defense, however, I WILL say that the voices of the crows WERE done by black people. But that’s not the point; The point is that the characters themselves do not represent black people in a good light, and many black people take a great deal of offense to this.

So why, exactly, is Tiny Tina’s dialogue racist? It’s very simple. There is no logical, rationalized NARRATIVE reason for her to speak in that way. My wife (and writing partner) also chimed-in on this subject:

If they had just mentioned or explained that she was a nutcase obsessed with an alien planet (as she was born on and has always lived on Pandora, and has never experienced Earth) and a culture how many hundreds of years old, I’d have let them have it. If they said she found a crate of blaxploitation films and a VHS player and managed to get it running, then Tiny Tina makes sense.

Really, that hits the nail right on the head. There is no reason for it to occur. The explanation that my wife provided above would frankly be an EXCELLENT and HILARIOUS reason to attribute to her manner of speak. But they didn’t.

There are other instances of media where “white people talking like black people” has occurred, but it was deemed “okay.” Take for example, the 1980 movie Airplane! and its HILARIOUS “Jive Talk” sequence:

The difference between the Tiny Tina, and this sequence is one KEY thing: SOCIAL. COMMENTARY. In this film, they very quickly point out to THE VIEWER the absurd nature of the subject matter. It’s no secret that even after the great civil rights movement, there was (and still is) a schism between what might be viewed as traditionally “black” and “white” culture. It is also fairly well known that people tend to use humor to bridge cultural gaps in this way, to point out how irrational and unjustifiable our actions towards each other are.

The same social commentary clause is what allows the 2008 film Tropic Thunder to get away with Robert Downey Jr. being in black-face for the majority of the film. In the film, Robert Downey Jr. is playing Kirk Lazarus, an Australian method actor that decides to undergo a “controversial” skin darkening procedure to play the part of Lincoln Osiris in the film. Immediately, the story has already told you that “this is weird and not right.” Throughout the entire film, the very ODDBALL nature of what he is doing is constantly brought to light.

Again, simply put, a legitimate story clause has made this acceptable BECAUSE without it, most of the story would fall apart. Ask yourself this:

Would any of Tiny Tina’s purpose be diminished if she DIDN’T talk like that? The answer is no. It wouldn’t. She would still fulfill her purpose within the plot and structure of the game. 

Frankly, all of this reminds me of the same stuff that went down with Resident Evil 5 a few years back. A bunch of people got into an uproar and decided to call Resident Evil 5 racist because the protagonist, white-guy Chris Redfield is shooting black people. Sorry, but I have to blow the whistle here.

[image error]
Uh oh, white guy shooting black people! Better pull the race card, quick!

In fact, Resident Evil 5 is NOT racist for the following major reasons:

There are two additional playable protagonists in the game who are, in fact, black.
It is established within the story that the original T-Virus was reverse engineered from a flower that grows in a cave there in AFRICA.
OTHER white people get shot up, thoroughly.

If one were to do their worldly research, you would know that Africa is LITERALLY considered the cradle of civilization, and that all human life began there. It is stated in the story that the flower that they find is the purest, most original form of the virus that would go on to become the T-Virus after being worked with in a lab. Simply put, the entire plot of the game was to trace the T-Virus back to the oldest source and eliminate it.

So,  in short… the writers of the plot of Resident Evil 5 used REAL LIFE FACTS to justify their environment and the hazards of “compromised” black zombies in the story. They get a total and complete pass, because the logic and rationale is sound.

When one sits down to write fiction, you can’t just write WHATEVER YOU FEEL LIKE. There is a reason, there is structure, and there are things that you MUST take into account when you do so. It can really come back and bite you right in the ass, if you’re not careful. In fact, I’ll tell you about a problem that I encountered with “speech” in our book, Rabbit in the Road.

Late in the book, the main character Bevie refers to a character as a “retard.” Yes, the character is mentally handicapped. The reason that I allowed it to stay in the book, is because Rabbit in the Road is a period piece; It takes place through the years of 1966 to 1983.  Anyone who was reasonably alive during that time period could tell you that the word “retard” was still in the common speech lexicon. Because we were shooting for authenticity in describing the world, we felt that it was appropriate for the CHARACTER to use the word, because that is the time she lives in. The word comes from an ignorant, closed-minded and over-all shitty human being. For that character, it was appropriate for her to use that word.

Let me say this, in case you decided to skim through: USING THE WORD RETARD IN COMMON SPEECH IS NOT COOL, AND IS HURTFUL. 

However, the art of writing and creating representations of people from all walks of life is a tricky, TRICKY game and special care should always be taken to ensure that the MEANING of what you’re doing is clear and evident to the consumer of it.

Do I bear any ill-will towards Anthony Burch? Absolutely not. I don’t think that he INTENDED to make his character come off as offensive; In fact, a lot of the dialogue in Borderlands 2 is fucking HILARIOUS. I do think that they should go back and make changes (surprise surprise, we DO live in a time where that kind of stuff can be fixed; Hello BIG PATCH). I certainly do not think that Gearbox Software set out to HURT anyone at all; but then, they certainly wouldn’t know that they are hurting people unless we point it out to them, no?

Knowing is half the battle. The other half is red and blue lasers.

So yeah. Change the dialogue, Gearbox. You don’t have any justifiable reason for it to be there. And if it cannot be reasonably justified, then it has to go.