Response to "The American Public Needs to Grow Up"

by Martin Haller 

There is nothing like being quoted out of context to get the blood boiling. While Aaron Traas went on his anti-US diatribe, he felt it neccessary to make me into a Christian-hating, isolationist Jew. Let me offer the quote he provided:

"Religion is where you get into the most touchy aspect of American culture. I was mildly offended by the presence of crosses and the like in Hexen. I am Jewish."

Let me now give you the completion of the quote:

"But I was not alone in this matter. Numerous Christians were offended by the desecration of what is to them an important religious symbol."

In fact, what offended me was not the presence of the cross in the game, but the fact that a religious symbol was being used in a manner that would be potentially offensive to Christian gamers. The same way I was offended when the Catholic church was made out to be devil-worshipping despots in Final Fantasy Tactics.

I found the most interesting aspect of Traas's argument his attitude on racism. "First why is it a racist portrayal for Barret to act stereotypically 'black' and speak 'ebonics', while it is perfectly fine for actors such as Will Smith and martin (sic) Lawrence to portray such characters so in their respective television shows and movies?" Let me explain something, Mr. Traas. If I were to say, "The Pope is a money grubbing pedophile," that would be a hateful thing to say. If you were to say the same thing, in jest, it would not be wrong.

For the same reason, when a number of Japanese game designers create a racist portrayal of a black man, as the epitome of a black hero, it is far worse than Martin Lawrence cracking jokes at his own background.

Strangely, Traas then justifies racism by saying, "Why should we take offense from those who are different?" This strange non-sequitur seems to illustrate his own confusion. Gamers weren't taking offense at black people, they were taking offense at a racist portrayal of a black man. In fact, Traas's entire last paragraph seems completely unrelated to his argument as a whole, it instead seems to be a simple statement as to racism.

The interesting thing is that Aaron groups "religion, violence, and sex" in the same catagory as "racism." If we are to accept violence in movies, we should accept smiling sambos and greedy kykes, drunken micks and mafioso wops, right? I mean, they're all "important aspects of life", right? Come on, Aaron.