Sure I did...read between the lines.

born-again-vampire Wrote: You still didn't answer the question.

i always thought of sambo of just being another martial art that could easily roll off moves from ninjitsu into pulse blade as if you noticed, style branch combos usually have to have tthe other martial arts having moves to have easy access into other styles, and i have heard the word sambo being used as a racial slur against blacks, well, in books of olden times, or something, i dont know, but i dont think it was meant as a inside joke as if they wanted it to be like that, then they would of never unmasked cyrax in the first place, as then the "inside" joke would be revealed too quickly, but since it isnt a inside joke, i would think it is just a martial art that rolls moves from ninjitsu and sometimes into pulse blade, i dont think it of racial slurring

Aye,

According to me Cyrax looks more Arabic than black... Also, in case of a cyborg, can we speak of "race"? His skin may also have been blackened because he has oil rather than blood running through his veins.

Well, there are hidden puns in the game though... Cyrax has a combo called "full gore" and Reptile has one called "rip tore" which are definitely puns on Killer Instinct characters (Fulgore and Riptor). Some have also believed Sub-Zero's cold shoulder to be a parody on Glacius's shoulder ram.

Like Marquiz, I also don't *exclude* it but I do think it's highly unlikely. Midway are a large company that needs commercial success; they simply can't afford themselves any racial comments. And given that among fighting gamers, "sambo" is more known as a fighting style than a racial term. Like many people here, I had also never heard of that word in that way before (and I'm 20, for the record).

Cheers!
VQ

Did not; think outside the box.
Nikodemus said
Sure I did...read between the lines.

Nickodemus. I remember watching a surprising movie last christmas. It was a christmas story where a man found out he was santa claus, and eventually accepted this role and along with it a beautiful mrs. claus. What was surprising about this movie was that the Santa character was black. What was even more surprising was that mrs. claus was not. I began to think that racial barriers in this country were really beginning to break down until the end of the movie came and the credits revealed it to be Canadian.

Although I am by no means an expert on race relations in your country, I would suggest that perhaps you would have a better of understanding of the racial tensions in America, if you were American. You were so quick to say that no one at Midway was racist. How do you know? Do you know the people at Midway? That seems like quite the assumption.

The truth of the matter is, I don't go around looking for racism everywhere, but when I hear a word like "Sambo" being used it gets my attention. If it had been given to another character, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it. As difficult as it may be for you to believe, there is still a tremendous amount of racism and racial tensions in the United States, and these type of things are not unheard of.

Once again, I want to say that I am not suggesting that the Midway folk are flagrant racists. Instead I offer these scenarios and there respective likelihood of possibility according to me:

1. The Midway folks are extremely racist and felt this was the only way they could express themselves without getting in trouble. (Unlikely, but not impossible)

2. The Midway folks are your regular garden variety, racially insensitive, slightly bigoted americans who thought it would be funny to slip in a racist pun that they thought no one would catch. (Highly likely)

3. Cyrax was originally given Sambo as an accident, but someone at Midway realized the way this could be construed and decided it wasnt a big enough deal to change the game. (extremely likely)

4. None of the many, many adult midway employees had ever heard of Sambo as a racial slur and had no idea this could ever come up. (EXTREMELY unlikely, but not impossible)

SAMBO? I am sure Sambo can be used as a racial slur. If you look at a list of books banned in High School literature classes, you will find the title of Little Black Sambo. This book depicts a young African boy and his family, Black Mumbo and Black Jumbo. . .

I'm not good at putting the links on, but here is a link to the book, you can see art and words for the whole book:

http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/sambo.htm

and an essay about the unintentional racism in the book:

http://www.fairrosa.info/disc/lbs.html

I know the first time I saw the Sambo style for Cyrax my jaw dropped; thinking what the hell is Midway doing? Then I chalked it up to probably one pissed off employee - kind of like when the Glade Air Freshener cans had penises hidden in among the flowers.

born-again-vampire Wrote: I do have to say all the MK games unfortunatly have sterotypes- racial and otherwise.

What other stereotypes are there in the MK games?

Marquius, let me tell you something.
Have you ever heard of the game Grand theft Auto Vice City?
In the game, its said kill the haitians.
Now you have to agree with me that the producers of the game werent racists, they just thought it was a necessary part of the game, and it would be cool.
Now the game is being edited.
Im sure MK fans dont want the same thing to happen to this video game.
Whether or not sambo might have may have, or accidentally or whatever, is small potatoes. Just enjoy the game.

No let me tell you something. Your example has nothing to do with what I am talking about.

In GTA there is the backdrop of a story which the lines "kill all haitians" falls into. The depiction of racism is not necessarily racist. You could say it may be in poor taste in GTA although, I happen to think that example is not a big deal (and I am Haitian by the way).

This however, is a totally different story. This involves the potential use of a racial slur as an underhanded joke. And I'm sorry it bothers you that I bring this up, but if people don't use their rights (like the right to free speech) those rights tend to be taken for granted. Remember that many people thought that sitting in the back of the bus was no big deal until one woman decided it was unacceptable.

I think some people took the Hatian state ment in GTA:VC wrong there is a Mafia called The Hatian's in real life.Besides it dosent make since to ban the game off of shelves since everyone who wanted it has it now.

Jerrod Wrote: What other stereotypes are there in the MK games?

Lots and lots.

For example, how many characters are not white in DA?

* Shang Tsung and Li Mei are clearly of an Asian type although their background is Outworld. Hsu Hao is Chinese.
* Jax and Cyrax are black, but Jax is a completely over-the-top-stereotype (however, I have always seen this as an ironic twist and I love it!)
* Drahmin and Blaze are something unidentifyable
* All the others (16 characters!!), are white, although Kung Lao is supposedly Chinese, Scorpion and Kenshi are Japanese although they do not look Japanese, Sub-Zero used to be Chinese (check out his ending pic in MK2) and Bo' Rai Cho seems like an odd mixture of sorts.

Did you ever notice that up until today, there has been no European character in Mortal Kombat? No South American or African character either (granted, African characters never appear in fighting games so that's not typically MK). All characters are either Americans, Chinese, Japanese, fictional or unidentified.

Did you ever notice that all members of the Lin Kuei clan whose face we've seen are not Chinese although it's a Chinese clan? Sub-Zero, Frost and Smoke are white and Cyrax is black/Arabic.

Everyone in the game speaks English.

There are really a lot of stereotypes and oddities in the world of MK.

Cheers,
VQ

Look ok it fit with the story. He's a cybernetic ninja created for the purpose of assasination. Thus Ninjitsu but if you want to get into his story he came in for MK3 and who was he facing then other than sub zero. Hordes of Shao Kahns armies in other words crowds. Crowd control would be needed and SAMBO is a crowd control martial art so there you go.

If you think I am reading too much into it then that is coming from people who think a group who created a game for consumers a number of which would be black to entertain and tried not to repeat martial arts too much are racists who are laughing at your expense. Whats the bet some of the team are black did you think of that?

Continuing on what drfatality said, yes my friend said the same thing you did, but remember this, If I read the story correctly on yahoo it sais that if this thing goes to the supreme court, or if a lower court sais so, future sequals are gonna get banned. No more GTA.

Now I know mortal kombat is not in that level of trouble, so lets keep it that way. It would be better if a small community of warriors (mk5.org people) keept on continuing the legacy in this game.

Just a sidenote mk had a close call in 93, was investigated by CONGRESS and eventually forgotten.
Incidently the person who ran this inquiry is now running for president, joseph lieberman.

It really sickens me that this topic was even brought up.

I hope the moderators close this thread.

Whoever started this thread...

It's a game...it's meant to be fun.

Bringing topics like this up is completely unnecessary.

Cyrax is an MK character with the fighting style sambo.

period.

nightwolf (or his MKT alias indian) to name one of many.

And now that I remember, I've heard from MANY people that Jax is one of Ed Boon's favorite characters. Ed Boon runs shit when it comes to MK, would he really make a racial slur if he likes Jax. Doesn't make sense

I have to agree with versitle, Jax is one of the best made characters, and you ahve to respect him. At 6 8 god knows how many pounds, that cant be racist.

Thank you!

rayrokka Wrote: It really sickens me that this topic was even brought up. I hope the moderators close this thread. Whoever started this thread... It's a game...it's meant to be fun. Bringing topics like this up is completely unnecessary. Cyrax is an MK character with the fighting style sambo. period.

outworld222 Wrote: I have to agree with versitle, Jax is one of the best made characters, and you ahve to respect him. At 6 8 god knows how many pounds, that cant be racist.

LOL, that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life.

I am not going to waste any more of my time trying to educate and enlighten you pathetic ignorant peons. I simply do not have the patience to continue responding logically to the inane comments you people are putting forward.

Listen kiddies. Take a little advice from someone who is probably older than all of you, and quite obviously more intelligent. Open your eyes. There's a lot more going on in the world than you're seeing. Don't just swallow whatever information comes your way. Have a mind of your own and question everything.

I apologize to those of you who have been able to discuss this intelligently. The previous comments were not meant for you.

By the way, you can count on me taking this further.

"I am not going to waste any more of my time trying to educate and enlighten you pathetic ignorant peons. I simply do not have the patience to continue responding logically to the inane comments you people are putting forward."

I'd like to know you are calling pathetic and ignorant. We're not the ones making topics about shit absolutely nobody gives a shit about. It was fine in the beginning, but then you took it a bit too far. If Midway is scheming they will get what's coming to them without you trying to start some foolish revolution against them.





"Open your eyes. There's a lot more going on in the world than you're seeing. Don't just swallow whatever information comes your way. Have a mind of your own and question everything."

Has it ever occured to you that some people don't give a shit? We don't need your advice, and it's a shame that you make some disagreement judge people's character and their values. That's just plain stupid. You're basically contradicting yourself, smart guy. We have a mind of our own, which is why some of us don't agree with what you are saying!

"I apologize to those of you who have been able to discuss this intelligently. The previous comments were not meant for you."

Well, I don't know who you were talking to, but even if this wasn't directed at me I think what you are saying is wrong and extremely hypocritical.

"By the way, you can count on me taking this further."

Well, I look forward to seeing you on court TV with Ed Boon. If you ruin Mortal Kombat we'll all hate you.

This thread is crazy. I'm gonna sue EA for putting the 'Chiefs' and 'Indians' in thier games. Matter of fact, on behalf of all zombies, I'm going to sue the creators of Resident Evil.

hell yea!

zombie power!!!

dont forget the black robots association.
ps
rediculously funny mistar saten.

I hope MArquis doesn't take this further.

Not because I am afraid the MK team ar racist but because they might think that the majority of the community feel the same way he does.

The stupidity of most of his statments outwieghs any possibility what he is saying might be true.

You Marquis need to open your eyes and realise not every single white man in this world is looking to take down a black man. Of all white people in this world it's less than one one hundreth of a percent who are racist.

If monkey style Kung Fu was given to one of the Japanese fighters would it be construde as racist just because monkey was a racist term for the japanese.

Does not nessicarily mean they (midway, developers, etc) are racist but violent games where half nude fighters beat each other to bloody pulps and then kill each other should be more sensative! LOL.