Chucklefish's stance on racist game modifications

So I have to wonder about something, given what I saw in this thread about a mod created to whitewash the only black characters in Stardew Valley. Now, racists are going to find a way to do their own thing and I'm not here to criticize CF for failing to stop them.

What I am here to criticize is the fact that the hosting of a racist mod on a CF webpage has the defense of CF hired forum moderators, and by extension tacit approval of Chucklefish itself. And this is concerning because it's one thing for racist trash to make a mod, but for CF employees to defend the *hosting* of that racist mod on Chucklefish webspace is something entirely different.

What I want to know is if this is the official stance of Chucklefish, that of allowing racist material to be hosted and shared on its servers and in its community. Furthermore I want to know if it's going to take a stand and refuse to allow for the hosting of racist material on its website. I refuse to tolerate and patronize a firm who enables racist members of its consumer base by giving them the opportunity for a presence on company ground.

 

First off as mods we are NOT paid, we aren't official Chucklefish employees, just volunteers. Second of all: We're working on ways to address the issue without making anyone more upset than they are now. If it's juts a reskin of a character I don't think its too terrible, but if stated certain ways or wanted for a certain purpose I can understand how it'd be identified as racist.

 

My apologies for the misunderstanding. But regardless, the way to address it, honestly, is let the people know that they're welcome to mod however they want (since it's kind of unenforceable) but make sure they know that certain mods aren't welcome here. They still get to suck, Chucklefish forums stay nice and chucklefishy. And fans of the game don't have to deal with white supremacist fantasy mods. And yes, I say that because taking the two people in a town of thirty or so who aren't white and making them white is whitewashing, and "preferences" invariably stem from stereotypes and bigotry. "I don't want to see black people in my mystical farm town because" cannot end in anything but a racist excuse. And that's the long and short of it.

And to be quite frank, I think I'm less here for a civil discussion and more here for asking "What is Chucklefish going to do to make sure that their customers don't have to to see white supremacist nonsense in the forums?" Bottom line, for me, is that it's got no business here. Now, I'm not anyone of importance, so I can be easily told to kick rocks, and that's fine. Annoying and disappointing, but fine. It's not my company. But it is my time and money I spend in patronage of Chucklefish and I'm very, very willing to vote with my dollar. It's disappointing because I actually really like Chucklefish, but we all have our lines in the sand.

 

This isn't a lack of bias, it's deference, via ignorance, towards a very blatantly white supremacist mod. Which has, again in my view, no place here. And honestly I don't care about people's real views so long as I don't have to put up with the garbage in an official forum. I mean, this isn't Reddit.

Turning a barely multicultural town pure white isn't devoid of context, and it's concerning that whitewashing isn't "racist enough" to be considered a problem. And again, I can't force y'all do to anything. I can just go elsewhere.

 

So this comment, from another mod, on a racebending mod, highlights, what I've come to the conclusion is a serious, critical, and fundamental level of ignorance on the topic of racism. And while I can't exactly expect Chucklefish to make sure their volunteers are actually educated before they moderate (but what a suggestion), it's still reaaaaaally telling.

See, we have a major issue where "aesthetic preference" allows people to engage in uncritical dogwhistle racism. "I don't hate black people, I would just prefer not see them at all in this semi-realistic life simulator." So, tell me, where exactly that preference comes from and why do you have it. How does someone prefer that an entire population be homogeneous without it coming from somewhere? Because, hint, it absolutely does, and it's beyond disheartening to see this level of color-blind ignorance being fielded by people in positions of, albeit voluntary, power in this community.

And before we chalk this all up to "SJWs" please remember that there's an entire field of academia, sociology, which has had an eye on this since long before ignorant people on the internet decided that a rudimentary dictionary definition was grounds enough to dismiss completely valid concerns about white supremacist erasure. And yeah yeah, it's just a gaaaame. Great. I mean, this is just outside logic manifesting in yet another game world, and that's an actual problem, and by enabling it here, the Chucklefish forums (and I'm tempted to say Chucklefish itself by association and its lack of action) are just another link in the chain. Because seriously, it's rather worthless to have a community where being blatantly racist is banned but engaging in racist behavior isn't because "we simply don't see it that way." Congratulations.

I recommend highly that staff read Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's Racism Without Racists. Or like... a lot of things. There's no shortage of information.

 

Firstly, as previously mentioned -- moderators aren't CF employees. We do not represent their beliefs and do not claim to.

That said, and hopefully understood, we can not quickly take action against something unless it it blatantly racist. More subtle, or toeing the line type things usually have to be discussed with either each other, Ordona (our forum Admin), or Molly (CF Community Manager). So things can take time.

Condescension will get you nowhere. Unless you are trying for a ban because you don't rightly care whether this discussion remains civil or not. So I suggest dropping that before you give me, or the rest of moderation, the wrong impression.

This is not preference to race. But to color. In gaming and games (among other things), there is a difference.

For example. In The Sims 4; sometimes I change the skin tone of my Sims because I don't think it goes well with a dress color. It has nothing to do with the perceived race of the Sim. Call it a flaw of additionally being an artist, but color theory and color harmonies exist -- and a lot of people fall into it without realizing it. (see color wheels for details)

Now let's talk about other ways you can prefer a "race" mod without being racist.

1. Association through projection. Some people find attachments easier to make with characters when they can project their own experiences on to that character or other characters. You might not know what it's like to be a black girl, but maybe you know what it's like to be a native american girl. So if you wanted to project from IRL experience, you might want to change that character's "race". It has more to do with story telling and drawing from life experience than it does with race.

2. Now reverse #1. Maybe you have no idea what it's like to interact with native americans, so you want to change everyone to that "race" to make a unique story for yourself that you have no experience with. In XCOM 2, for example, I make some of my soldiers black (and other races). Not because I prefer or dislike their race, but because I like the idea of "all nations coming together to defeat aliens" in my game's "story", and I flesh out the characters as they rank up and earn scars. (even though that kinda already is the basic story)

3. Representation. Maybe you want EVERYONE to be a different race simply to represent diversity. So if you change some of the white characters to asian, native american, or any other race -- this doesn't mean you prefer or disapprove or any race.

Unfortunately; none of that matters.

By simple skin-color changing mods, you can not automatically assume the mod author or those who download the mod are racist.

More importantly, we (moderation) can not assume that. We have to act on objective evidence. So unfortunately, that means we have to stick to the definition of racism -- and how it applies to the content. So unless a mod makes everyone white, gives characters white hoods, and makes claims about white supremacy (or makes any blatantly obvious racist content/statements) -- we can not assume that a (any color)-skin color change mod is racist.

Again. We can not assume anything. Because of this, yes, blatantly obvious racist content and remarks WILL be dealt with (and harshly mind you). This extends to racist behavior; because if you can actually identify it as racism, then we can take action. But again, and I can't stress this enough, we can not make assumptions.

So please refrain from making assumptions about us and our beliefs. They don't come into play here.

If you want us to make assumptions, we could start with you:
Line of thought based on assumptions: You brought up white supremacy. Why do you think/assume all whites conform to this behavior? What do you have against people of white skin? Why is your example an extension of your racist beliefs in the disinterest of whites? That's racism. We should ban you.

Thanks for the recommendation -- but we're just fine.

We'll be addressing the Stardew Community soon™ regarding skin color mods and how we will deal with racist comments and content, and accusations of racism. You can consider this a sneak peek at some context.

If you have any more to add, you can wait for an official statement, or privately message moderation.