Pokémon Black and White Versions Revealed: Gen V names announced early

[V Faction]

This is going to cause a racial dispute.

Yes, between Crayola and RoseArt.

 

[TTEchidna]

This is going to cause a racial dispute.

Only if Carole Boston Weatherford sees it and decides "OMGZ RACISTSES" again. There's not even a version mascot yet; if the White Version mascot is a KKK member and the Black Version mascot is eating Blaziken and Watmel Berries, yeah, it's racist. But why the hell would they do that?

 

[Garren]

Whoa, Carol actually had a good point with Jynx. Don't compare her to the people screaming racist at these titles, because it's completely different.

 

[VeggiePopper]

Whoa, Carol actually had a good point with Jynx. Don't compare her to the people screaming racist at these titles, because it's completely different.

No she didn't. She mistook a homage to Japanese culture as a racist stereotype.

 

[Garren]

I still don't get how people can honestly say Jynx is meant to be a ganguro girl.

Look at a ganguro girl: http://i40.tinypic.com/jhtsw9.jpg. It looks nothing like Jynx.

 

[Lysandre]

The Ganguro thing really is a bad attempt to cover up something that was a huge mistake. I don't really think that GameFreak was TRYING to make a racist stereotype, more that giving it such exaggerated features and an unnatural skin tone (no, nobody out there has pure ink-black skin) would make it look just non-human enough to pass as a human-like POKEMON... but, you know, in Japan, as there aren't many black people there, or Americans who remember the ridiculous black stereotypes that used to fly around America that used similar features to attempt to make black people look nonhuman... it was a pretty big goof on their part to leave it in its current form in America.

Jynx = legitimate concern. I don't think it was on purpose, but if they made a Digimon that looked like a giant penis by accident, I wouldn't blame the parents pointing it out, either.

Pokemon Black and White- not a legitimate concern. Chess could be considered a more racist concept, because you can buy both Pokemon games, but in Chess... at the beginning, you have to choose either black or white, and the other color becomes the bad guys. And yet, you don't hear complaining about that, now, do you?

Black and White are colors. Big deal. Pokemon Red wasn't a Russian stereotype, neither are B & W. Call me if they rename it Pokemon: Rap in Da Hood Version and Pokemon: Aryan Superiority version, because until that happens... it's just a ridiculous argument to make.

 

[Berlin]

There's nothing more frustrating and pathethic in the world of Pokemon, be it the real or the virtual one than adults who completely misunderstood the idea. I've seen the episode with Jynx and if I haven't known that it was considered racist in America, I wouldn't even try to interpret it that way.
The whole point was that Jynx is black + that it is portrayed as thief. Additionaly, it has big mouth and.. anything more? Damn, if somebody actually feel this is RACIST, than he has problems.

It wouldn't even hit my mind, if it wasn't for this thread, to think that Pokemon Black/White can be interpreted in a 'racial' way as well. I guess that nobody except Americans is able to come up with such ridicullous concepts, but well - it's Americans who get the most press in our world.

JeanLuc has a point though -

Black and White are colors. Big deal. Pokemon Red wasn't a Russian stereotype, neither are B & W. Call me if they rename it Pokemon: Rap in Da Hood Version and Pokemon: Aryan Superiority version, because until that happens... it's just a ridiculous argument to make.

And it's all that should ever be said.


But, I personally can't wait for these versions. I just started to play heart-gold and platinum, but it would be a perfect thing to finally start playing one of the new games when it is released. I'm about 5 years backwards with Pokemon.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

Pokemon Red being offensive to Russions? LOL, the Iron Curtain is gone . I'd have thought, if anything, that one would've been more offensive to Native Americans than anyone else?

But still, any racial interpretation of simple names for a videogame is pretty silly.

 

[TTEchidna]

The whole point was that Jynx is black + that it is portrayed as thief. Additionaly, it has big mouth and.. anything more? Damn, if somebody actually feel this is RACIST, than he has problems.

...a thief? What games have you been playing? Jynx only learns that by TM. Jynx was black-faced and was portrayed as Santa's elves in that episode. I don't see what the issue was with that. Weatherford likely saw Jynx for two seconds while flipping channels, shit a brick, and wrote an article saying "LOOK AT THIS ITS SO RACIST! I DIDN'T WATCH THE EPISODE OR PLAY THE GAMES AT ALL BUT IT TOTALLY IS!".

 

[VanFanel]

I remember one particular IRC channel, there was this time when someone used the word "black" on a sentence, he got kicked by the channel's bot with the following message: "UserX don't use the word nigger in this channel", unless that was a joke, there are people THAT stupid when it comes to the word "black"...

 

[bluestarfish]

...I don't know what you're sayin'. The concept is delevoped ever since Black and White exsisted in time, so naturally the human mind assumed the concept whenever black and white were paired up.

Um, actually no.

White is traditionally the color of DEATH in Asian Culture.

 

[Umeko]

...a thief? What games have you been playing? Jynx only learns that by TM. Jynx was black-faced and was portrayed as Santa's elves in that episode. I don't see what the issue was with that. Weatherford likely saw Jynx for two seconds while flipping channels, shit a brick, and wrote an article saying "LOOK AT THIS ITS SO RACIST! I DIDN'T WATCH THE EPISODE OR PLAY THE GAMES AT ALL BUT IT TOTALLY IS!".

Having seen the episode in question just the other day, Jynx had supposedly stolen Jessie's doll - thus the whole thief thing.

not that it matters, but just thought I'd clear that up. 8(

 

[Zenoah]

With Pokemon's popularity not as hypped as it was back then, I can see the titles getting by on keeping the names.
But, with the Jynx issue, I would'nt be suprised if they got changed to Morning White and Mightnight Black...something like that to cover their asses.
On this note, should we consider it racist that there are NO african american trainers in the game?

I, for one, am fine with the names. It's a hommage to the old games that started it all.
What Im hoping for is a pre-evo of Meowth. I mean...if Pikachu has one, should'nt Meowth?
I dunno...it's been nagging at me since baby evo's came out.

I also hope they leave Pokemon that dont need evolutions alone!
There was a lot in D/P that did'nt need evolutions IMO...give us some fresh faces to work with please!

 

[Falconwing]

1. THESE ARE COLORS! LEGITIMATE COLORS! NEXT WE'LL BE CENSORING EVERY USAGE IF THE WORDS BLACK AND WHITE!
2: These games are based in, around, and on Japan. If they want everyone to look Japanese, then they can.

 

[Mostly Harmless]

...
Why is this discussion still going on?
I haven't checked this thread for about 4 days, and you're all still bitching about people theoretically bitching.

Stop worrying about it. You've probably jinxed it (Get it?!) at this point, but nobody is going to assume that these names have any racial significance.
You are allowed to use the names of the two shade extremes as much as you want. Nobody would be stupid enough to censor this.
Honestly... The entire idea of it being censored was so fucking stupid to begin with...

Stop thinking about race feuds as soon as you hear black and white, and maybe the people that you're whining about will to.

 

[Zenoah]

I was'nt starting it up again. I was just stateing that the American Company MAY cover it up to avoid shit like this comming up. Cuz this world is full of people who will see this and think racial thoughts.
I accually did'nt think of racial thoughts until I was reading in here...That aside...

I know the games are made in Japan. Just, all this talk about people worried about the racial issues this may cause made me realize that there are no african american trainers and I brought it up since we were on the subject.

So...these games will (in my opinion) will not stir up trouble.
The colors are fine and a good hommage to the first, original games.
We should be rejoiceing that a new generation is in the works with new possibilities...

One of which, I hope they make it so you can customize your trainer instead of having the default boy or girl player.

 

[MasterKenobi]

Weatherford likely saw Jynx for two seconds while flipping channels, shit a brick, and wrote an article saying "LOOK AT THIS ITS SO RACIST! I DIDN'T WATCH THE EPISODE OR PLAY THE GAMES AT ALL BUT IT TOTALLY IS!".

That's more than likely what happened someone just wanted to start some big headlined article over a currently popular theme at the time. It is just their way of getting attention brought to themselves until someone comes and cleans up their mess. There are so many more things out there to complain about and Pokemon really shouldn't be at the top of that list.

A prevolution of Meowth would be pretty neat, I agree. Maybe some sort of baby kitten evolution.

For the English Versions of the new Generation V games they don't necessarily need to keep the direct translations and they are pretty much free to do whatever they would like with it. Looking at previous titles though, they will more than likely just stick with Pokemon Black Version and Pokemon White Version. There is a possibility of them doing a variation on the title like Zenoah said, and I think that something like ShadowBlack Version which would be cool. Maybe we will see it for the remakes who knows?

 

[V Faction]

Breaking News:

Nintendo faces a lawsuit for their newest iterations of the Pokemon Franchise, titled Pokemon: Black version and Pokemon: White version. 254 other colors have come forward and accused them of racist hiring policies, denoting that Nintendo's refusal to consider them suitable for the job is an act of bias and an afront to all Colorian-Americans. Nintendo has denied to comment on the matter. Meanwhile, Crayola has opened its doors to these neglected citizens in hopes of lending a shoulder in times of need.

The outcome looks gray.

 

[Faye Scarlet]

Ohh gosh, that is so silly. D8 Colors are colors! Only idiots will make a huge fuss about them.

 

[VeggiePopper]

Breaking News:

Nintendo faces a lawsuit for their newest iterations of the Pokemon Franchise, titled Pokemon: Black version and Pokemon: White version. 254 other colors have come forward and accused them of racist hiring policies, denoting that Nintendo's refusal to consider them suitable for the job is an act of bias and an afront to all Colorian-Americans. Nintendo has denied to comment on the matter. Meanwhile, Crayola has opened its doors to these neglected citizens in hopes of lending a shoulder in times of need.

The outcome looks gray.

You win this thread. This must be the post of the week.