It had to happen, really. With over 22,000 words in its vocabulary, it was only a matter of time before someone managed to find a racist angle with Scribblenauts, and that racism came in the form of the word "sambo." The word, commonly regarded as a derogatory term for black people, is in the game. Even worse, it conjures up a watermelon when used -- a fruit classically portrayed as the favorite food of a stereotypical black man.
According to 5th Cell, this racially charged imagery occurred totally by accident. Creative director Jeremiah Slaczka told Joystiq that "sambo" is an Ecuadorian name for "fig leaf gourd." The gourd looks like a watermelon because 5th Cell reuses art for a number of in-game items.
"Fig leaf gourd looks a lot like a watermelon," he said. "It's just an alternative name in a giant list of tens of thousands of names."
Slaczka then pulled the classic, "we're not racist, look at all our not-racist stuff" card, detailing a number of black characters in the game, and going so far as to talk about 5th Cell's previous title, Lock's Quest, and pointing out that one of the characters in it was black. In addition, Slaczka also claims he had no idea that "sambo" was a racist term.
Did 5th Cell do this on purpose? I sincerely doubt it, since everybody's so terrified of looking like a racist that I can't imagine this was intentional, even as a joke. Nevertheless, I am amazed that nobody within 5th Cell knew any better and figured that using the word "sambo" was perhaps a bad idea. Anybody with a shred of social intuition should have seen this mini-controversy coming a mile away, no matter how silly it is.
Contest:
8:00 AM on 09.17.2009
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That said, Are the developers of Scribblenauts so racist that they couldn't contain themselves but to sneak in an obscure racist joke? *puts on tin foil hat*
NSFW
That sucks. But I'm sure it will blow over soon.
For some reason, this doesn't surprise me. Next controversy please!
Kind regards
Mr B Whale
Racist and the ones being called the name know these racist term well.
Same here. Before this whole thing, I had never even heard of that term before, and I'm kind of glad that all these year of my life I never knew about it. I wish that I still didn't know about it though!
You people are sheltered as fuck.
*thinks about it for a moment*
...forget it.
Also my thoughts on this as a black guy...meh.
–noun, plural -bos. Disparaging and Offensive.
1. a black person.
2. a Latin American of black and Indian or mulatto ancestry.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sambo
With that said, I don't think it was intentional by the developer nor most of the programmers...but it seems like whomever that one or two people were that put the word in there might be? I don't know...I speculating. But either there's 1-2 guys that are racist or someone really didn't do there homework at all. I mean, if I can find out the racist definition in 2 seconds by going to dictionary.com then they should have been able to do the same.
Either way, I'm buying this game.
Has anyone tried writing "HEIL HITLER!!!"?
As a black dude, as long is the game isn't called Kill All the Ni**ers in the World, I'm okay with a little racism.
This incident is just something that should be blown over. Do we make this big of a deal when a fucked up racist movie comes out? I don't think so. I can't wait until we get to that point with video games.
Never heard Sambo.
but then again, i never heard the term "porch monkey" until the movie "clerks 2" came out.
what was funny was i was as confused as the character in the movie(randal i believe) was about the term, and the whole point of the set up to the joke was that everyone but him clearly knew what i meant. meanwhile i was like "wha?"
Always watching.
...always...watching...
Sorry. Back to the hot spicy racism.
As far as I can tell nobody has said the term doesn't exist, they've just suggested perhaps it's not as well known today as was implied. You said it yourself, it's an old term.
Explain to me again why it's bad that I'm not aware of archaic American racist terminology?
I've never heard of "sambo" as a racial slur in my life. I guess not everyone is as familiar with racist lingo as you, Jim.
Just saying.
Go ahead, try to type in any other race. It doesn't work.
Back to the story, this is the most unnecessary piece of racial controversy I have ever seen. If an Ecuadorian was playing the English language version of Scribblenauts and wanted a fig leaf gourd and couldn't conjure one up, I can imagine it would be less controversial than this, so why does the word "sambo" even map to anything?
People need to stop taking offense too so many things.
Now if you could type in Nigger and a fat lipped gollywog appeard in the game, that might be a different matter.
It doesn't surprise me that alot of people haven't heard about sambo having racial connotations. I'm assuming most people are young and Caucasian on this site (I don't mean that in any offensive way, just in a statistical way). Us black folk are basically sat down on day when we're of age and are given the "racist" talk, which is kinda like the sex talk, and are told various terms to watch out for.
It's usually given after watching The Color Purple, the black person's coming of age movie.
I don't think I'm sheltered, just for not knowing every racist term on the planet. In fact I think I'm fortunate for not know it.
LET US TRY THIS AGAIN:
I've never heard the word "sambo" before in my life, and I'm probably older that most people on this site.
People need to stop taking offense to so many things.
try fireman, ballerina and rapper (i know. but she's a woman though...)
1) The suggestion that anyone who hasn't heard "Sambo" used in a racist context has lived a sheltered life
2) The authors of this game "don't have a shred of social intuition" for not having a complete list of every word that's ever been used as a racist insult in any part of the world.
3) Seriously, when was the last time you saw a watermelon "portrayed as the favorite food of a stereotypical black man", if ever?
Is someone running a competition for who can find the most rediculous thing to be offended by using the most tenious link? RE5 = racist, comparethemeerkat.com = racist, Scribblenauts = racist.
I can't wait to see what you loons come up with next.