'Harassed by Assasin's Creed Gamers, A Professor Fought Back With Kindness' (apnews.com) 173
A Dartmouth College associate professor of Japanese literature and culture became a narrative consultant for Ubisoft's game Assassin's Creed Shadow (which launched in March). Sachi Schmidt-Hori's job "involved researching historical customs and reviewing scripts, not creating characters," writes the Associated Press.
But when a trailer was released in May of 2024, some reacted to a game character named Yasuke who was a Black African samurai, according to the article, "with gamers criticizing his inclusion as 'wokeness' run amok". And they directed the blame at Schmidt-Hori: Gamers quickly zeroed in Schmidt-Hori, attacking her in online forums, posting bogus reviews of her scholarly work and flooding her inbox with profanity. Many drew attention to her academic research into gender and sexuality. Some tracked down her husband's name and ridiculed him, too. [One Reddit user described Schmidt-Hori as a "sexual degenerate who hate humanity because no man want her," while another called her a "professional woke social-justice warrior" who confirmed "fake history for Ubisoft."] Learning Yasuke was based on a real person did little to assuage critics. Asian men in particular argued Schmidt-Hori was trying to erase them, even though her role involved researching historical customs and reviewing scripts, not creating characters.
Ubisoft told her to ignore the harassment, as did her friends. Instead, she drew inspiration from the late civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis. "I decided to cause 'good trouble,'" she said. "I refused to ignore." Schmidt-Hori began replying to some of the angry emails, asking the senders why they were mad at her and inviting them to speak face-to-face via Zoom. She wrote to an influencer who opposes diversity, equity and inclusion principles and had written about her, asking him if he intended to inspire the death threats she was getting. "If somebody said to your wife what people are saying to me, you wouldn't like it, would you?" she asked. The writer didn't reply, but he did take down the negative article about Schmidt-Hori.
Others apologized. "It truly destroyed me knowing that you had to suffer and cancel your class and received hate from horrible people," one man wrote. "I feel somehow that you are part of my family, and I regret it. I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart." Anik Talukder, a 28-year-old south Asian man living in the United Kingdom, said he apologized at least 10 times to Schmidt-Hori after accepting her Zoom invitation to discuss his Reddit post about her... He was shocked the professor reached out to him and hesitant to speak to her at first. But they ended up having a thoughtful conversation about the lack of Asian representation in Western media and have stayed in touch ever since. "I learned a massive lesson," he said. "I shouldn't have made this person a target for no reason whatsoever."
But when a trailer was released in May of 2024, some reacted to a game character named Yasuke who was a Black African samurai, according to the article, "with gamers criticizing his inclusion as 'wokeness' run amok". And they directed the blame at Schmidt-Hori: Gamers quickly zeroed in Schmidt-Hori, attacking her in online forums, posting bogus reviews of her scholarly work and flooding her inbox with profanity. Many drew attention to her academic research into gender and sexuality. Some tracked down her husband's name and ridiculed him, too. [One Reddit user described Schmidt-Hori as a "sexual degenerate who hate humanity because no man want her," while another called her a "professional woke social-justice warrior" who confirmed "fake history for Ubisoft."] Learning Yasuke was based on a real person did little to assuage critics. Asian men in particular argued Schmidt-Hori was trying to erase them, even though her role involved researching historical customs and reviewing scripts, not creating characters.
Ubisoft told her to ignore the harassment, as did her friends. Instead, she drew inspiration from the late civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis. "I decided to cause 'good trouble,'" she said. "I refused to ignore." Schmidt-Hori began replying to some of the angry emails, asking the senders why they were mad at her and inviting them to speak face-to-face via Zoom. She wrote to an influencer who opposes diversity, equity and inclusion principles and had written about her, asking him if he intended to inspire the death threats she was getting. "If somebody said to your wife what people are saying to me, you wouldn't like it, would you?" she asked. The writer didn't reply, but he did take down the negative article about Schmidt-Hori.
Others apologized. "It truly destroyed me knowing that you had to suffer and cancel your class and received hate from horrible people," one man wrote. "I feel somehow that you are part of my family, and I regret it. I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart." Anik Talukder, a 28-year-old south Asian man living in the United Kingdom, said he apologized at least 10 times to Schmidt-Hori after accepting her Zoom invitation to discuss his Reddit post about her... He was shocked the professor reached out to him and hesitant to speak to her at first. But they ended up having a thoughtful conversation about the lack of Asian representation in Western media and have stayed in touch ever since. "I learned a massive lesson," he said. "I shouldn't have made this person a target for no reason whatsoever."
The Hard Road (Score:5, Informative)
It would have been much easier for the professor to bite back and belittle those attacking her, or to just switch off and ignore it all, as she was advised.
For her to find the energy and courage to reach out to individuals is admirable. She would have been quite justified in deciding not to do that. She went over and above.
Re: (Score:2)
Her response reminds me a lot of Daryl Davis [wikipedia.org], a black musician who engages KKK members with kindness and has convinced many of them to leave and denounce the organization.
Racism (Score:5, Insightful)
It's amazing to me to see repeated examples of the latent racism in the US.
Trump successfully mobilized it to squeak to an election victory and we see examples like the game every day.
Really folks. It's time to get over it. The US (and the world) is multicultural. White folks are a minority and nobody gains when people whip up racism.
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White people are terrified of becoming a minority. Wonder why that could be?
Re: (Score:2)
Trump
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It's not just the US, the UK is the same. Many people have no idea, they don't see it, and even get upset when someone says it exists - mostly because they are not subject to it themselves. People with darker skin, a "non-native" sounding name... This is no surprise to them.
Re: (Score:2)
Its not about numerical superiority. Its about power, it was always about power.
The problem is, white folks might be a minority (Everyones a minority in the big picture), but have overwhelmingly had the bulk of power and have often used it in ways destructive to everyone else. Egrariously so in the case of black folks who where enslaved, denied the vote, and turned away from employment and denied the ability to build a middle class, with the end result being black folks living the life of a developing count
Wikipedia on the story (Score:4, Informative)
Wikipedia has a page about Yasuke [wikipedia.org], a 16th century black person who was the first recorded foreigner to receive the rank of samurai
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
That wiki page's primary, secondary, and tertiary cites all circle back to the two-faced bastard Lockley. As such, it is completely worthless.
Here is his scholarship presented to the media in english.
Yasuke was in the temple with Nobunaga when he performed seppuku. “There’s no record, but tradition holds it that [Yasuke] was the one who took Nobunaga’s head to save it from the enemy,” Lockley said. “If Akechi, the enemy, had gotten the head and he’d been able to hold up the head, he would have had a powerful symbol of legitimacy.” Lockley explained that an act like that would have given Akechi credibility as a ruler. After the attack on Nobunaga, Akechi did not get much support and was soon defeated in battle. “Yasuke, therefore, by escaping with the head, could have been seen and has been seen as changing Japanese history,” Lockley said.
Here is a translation of his scholarship as presented to the japanese media
(1)
————
Translation:
According to the family claiming to be the descendants of the Oda family, Yasuke took Nobunaga’s head and sword out of Honno-ji to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. The anecdote about Nobunaga’s is based on the claim that a death mask, which is not a Japanese tradition, was made with Yasuke’s help(1).
There are several issues with this claim. First, no documents mention what happened to Nobunaga’s head (whether Yasuke was involved or not). The only document mentioning Yasuke’s participation in the battle is Frois’ letters, which do not mention Nobunaga’s head. If Yasuke had taken the head to the Nanban-ji, Frois would have mentioned it. Secondly, escaping from a burning temple surrounded by many enemy soldiers, —even without the additional task of carrying their own weapons along with something as astonishingly large and cumbersome as a human head—, would have been extremely difficult.
Notice how it goes from the generalized 'tradition holds' to 'this one family claims to be descendants of Nobunaga and has a mask which they say totes shows that Yasuke came back with the head and used it to make the mask but this is bot
Re: (Score:3)
Awwwwwww, does someone have a case of the sads because they cited wikipedia as an authority in an earlier post and expected it to hold up?
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You’re really hot on disproving a guy who died centuries ago.
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Awwwwwww, does someone have a case of the sads
Why would anyone have a cast of the sads? It seems throughout this entire discussion you're the only one with any emotional connection to anything being discussed.
Re: Wikipedia on the story (Score:4, Informative)
Yes there's a page. Now look at the history of that page. Look at the talk section, too.
It used to say Yasuke wasn't a samurai. After ubisoft announced it and started catching flak, that page was rewritten to fit the new narrative, based on one controversial guy's book.
This is literally rewriting history to push an agenda, it's eerily reminiscent to 1984.
Noone would have batted an eye if Yasuke was an important NPC, but ubisoft had to make him the main character, and alter history for it, to push their agenda. People are tired of having agendas pushed onto them. Doubly more so when it hijacks a beloved franchise, like AC or dragon age. Triply more so when it happens on the Japan episode fans wanted for years. And even more when said episode is riddled with micro transactions and battle passes despite being single player. Especially in a franchise that used to try to be reasonably historical accurate.
Re: Wikipedia on the story (Score:2)
By the way, that wiki page is locked in edition, but even the talk page is locked to shut down the discussion.
Wikipedia isn't reliable anymore on that kind ouf topics.
Re: Wikipedia on the story (Score:2)
I have a stake in that I don't want to live in a world where history is rewritten to justify something as insignificant as a creative choice in a video game.
In a world where ordinary people are not only the victims of that, but also the perpetrators.
Ubisoft should have said something like "yasuke's history is interesting and a good starting point for our game's story. The game isn't meant to be perfectly historical accurate, we took creative liberties."
But no, they had to go "of course yasuke was a samurai,
i don't understand the death threats (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm surprised by - who is so invested in the Assasins Creed franchise that they would get this worked up about it? I mean, they're fine games and they were super inovative ages ago, but they're nothing to be obsessed about.
One would guess they're Anti-Woke-Warriors who have so much anger they just need to outlet it.
(Also I have played this game and when you get to unlock Yauke and start kicking enemies halfway across the castle... that moment is a chef's kiss)
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I mean, they're fine games
Agree to disagree. They're mediocre to boring games. The only one that almost wasn't completely dull was the pirate-theme nonsense.
and they were super inovative ages ago,
They are effectively Sonic the Hedgehog for *real* gamers.... but still the same silly platforming collectathon gameplay loop.... with murder. "Innovative"... sure.
That being said, getting this worked up about a game is the domain of the developmentally impaired.
Re: (Score:2)
You better hope the righteous cause you're arguing for doesn't have one stupid person uttering threats, because you're going to be painted as just like them.
You'd never want to be treated the way you're now treating others, so why do it?
Trolls and dumbasses just want to see the world burn. For all we know it's lies and false flags, considering how useful it is to cry about their bad behaviour.
Internet Fuckwad (Score:2)
He assumed part of his culture was being monetized for American comfort. Many white people in that position would be more interested in remaining the 'victim'.
The exception, not the rule. Internet Fuckwad Theory exists because because anonymity and abuse are easy on the internet, and there's little incentive to be nice.
Motte and bailey (Score:2)
Allow me to counter the motte. Yes, it's okay to make any kind of game you like with any kind of thing in it you like. But when you do so for a blatantly political reaso
Re: (Score:2)
Is this a joke? Or are you just explaining that you're defending a bailey with no back wall, and don't know that your statements appear to be being made without context for the rest of the AC series?
Nteresting (Score:2)
There were no black samurai in tetris that I can recall...maybe there were but the screen was monochrome so I woldn't know.
why slashdot has gotten so shitty (Score:2, Troll)
This thread.
There's no question that there was a Yasuke. He was kept around by the nobility as either a slave or a trained monkey likely in the same sense the Habsburgs kept around Pedro Gonzales ("the wolf man of the canaries" https://new.artsmia.org/storie... [artsmia.org]), even likewise maybe giving him a noble title like one might name a beloved pet Lord Rover.
Was he actually a samurai? No.
Were the Japanese pretty pissed about an assassins creed game that was supposed to be about THEIR culture being hijacked for so
A shame we can't have a reckoning... (Score:3)
Sometimes I think that the world would benefit with a true up. When somebody's behavior falls below some level of civility, it would be nice to have a decision point.
"Tell us the things about you and your contribution to the world that balances off your inner prick."
And if they can't do it, we could bring them to the nearest coastline, put them on a raft, and gently but firmly push them out to sea.
Being a parent doesn't qualify on its own. If that's all you've got, your children aren't likely destined for greatness, and they might benefit from your ejection.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Do you need a hug?
ChatGPT suggests (formatted for slashdot): "Do you need a hug? Because wow, thatâ(TM)s a lot of heat for a video game consultant who didn't even create the character. Maybe take a breath and check the actual history before accusing people of inventing it. Yasuke was real. And responding to hate with dialogue? Thatâ(TM)s not playing the victim â" thatâ(TM)s showing backbone. You donâ(TM)t have to agree with her, but maybe try not dehumanizing someone for doing their
Re: They just dont get it (Score:3, Informative)
Re: They just dont get it (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Yasuke
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody is disputing that Yasuke existed and was black. That is well-documented. The question is whether he was a samurai. The article you cite says:
"In an unpublished but extant document from about this time, ÅOEta states that Nobunaga made Yasuke a vassal, giving him a house, servants, a sword, and a stipend. During this period, the definition of samurai was ambiguous, but historians think that this would contemporaneously have been seen as the bestowing of warrior or âoesamuraiâ rank. Thi
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody is disputing that Yasuke existed and was black. That is well-documented. The question is whether he was a samurai.
While the evidence of his status as a samurai may be ambiguous, there's no evidence whatsoever that he was a member of an ancient and shadowy cult of assassins. If you're going to complain, shouldn't you complain more about that part?
Obviously, people don't complain about that because it would ruin the game. But somehow stretching history from "might have been a black samurai" to "was a black samurai" is a problem?
Equally obviously, that's not the case either. What's really going on is that people who
Re: (Score:2)
Why does the term 'samurai' even matter here?
This reminds me of people arguing about whether something is x or y post-created term that didn't exist at the time of sampling, simply because the spreadsheet schema is already set up.
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Next thing you're going to tell me is they had women before 1950. And that's just crazy talk.
Re:They just dont get it (Score:4, Informative)
The fact is there was no black samurai's in the past in Japan.
Wrong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Here are more foreign-born samurai: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
"Did you share the same outrage at the movie "The Last Samurai"?"
I'm not outraged about either of them, but I will admit I am pretty unhappy about the considerable liberties "The Last Samurai" took while still representing itself as history.
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False advertising.
The more a company highlights the lengths they go to in order to make things historically accurate, the less forgivable their failures are.
Nobody complained when "Afro Samurai" came out because it never advertised itself to be realistic.
When they advertise a thing they ought to deliver said thing. Instead they jumped on the band wagon of injecting black people in impossible places and then claimed "racism" because that gets them clicks on social media. When the algorithm rewards rage cli
Re: (Score:2)
Just looking to confirm that you think a game where a modern person experiences their ancestor's life because of 'genetic memory', in previous titles the character is revealed to be a reincarnation of a god, and actually all the pantheonic gods are real endlessly reincarnating extra-terrestrials... is advertising itself as historically accurate.
Re: (Score:2)
That part is storytelling magic. It's acceptable. The casting of a black person as a Samurai isn't. It was claimed by the company to be the historically accurate part, and people saw through the BS.
Re: (Score:2)
From the comments here, it looks like "people" consists of 4 of you, and everyone else is trying to explain that it's absolutely not the transgression you want to think it is.
Re: (Score:2)
The company issued an apology. You're arguing against something the company admits to doing. I can say factual things here and get modded down because they're uncomfortable to a certain tribe.
That it's 4 people here is merely an indication of the sad state of Slashdot, both in relevance and as a left wing bubble.
Re: (Score:2)
What was their apology for? Was it for hurting the feelings of vocal social media users?
Did they acknowledge that they'd created some great harm by using some fictional and some non-fictional components? Are they... somehow the first developer to do this, and this is somehow their first title to have made this design choice? If the answer to any of these questions is no... then what the fuck are you talking about...? And if you don't know that the answer to all of them is no... why would you call yourself a
Re: (Score:2)
Ok so you don't know? You've admitted ignorance. Now go away. There's nothing valuable you can say on this topic.
Re: What if the Dems had tried this? (Score:3)
Re:In other news...?? (Score:5, Informative)
I think you're just too chicken to say "I don't like it when my videogames have black characters." (And so being an associate history professor consulting on Ubisoft's game becomes "lying down with dogs"/getting fleas.) You're wrong on the history of this one -- but that's always just been an excuse to express discomfort at the appearance of non-white characters... You might think everyone agrees with you... but they don't. And honestly, it seems like you're coming from a place of fear and weakness.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
https://fandomwire.com/we-are-... [fandomwire.com]
Might be a good place to start.
Re:In other news...?? (Score:5, Insightful)
So the game company apologized to some snowflakes who got their panties in a bunch because a real person was black?
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Re: (Score:2)
That would first require him to accept that Jesus even existed.
Controversy just for marketing? (Score:3)
Speculation: The whole disregard for Japanese history in the game may eventually come out as an orchestrated marketing plan for free advertising.
Q: Is there anyone who has looked at the credits for the game to see if it's been through a "sensitivity reader" treatment?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
If, by snowflakes, you mean this guy, and many like him:
https://boundingintocomics.com... [boundingintocomics.com]
Word on the street is that Ubisoft's writers wanted a Japanese protagonist (probably Naoe), but the project director wanted to do something . . . different. So they dug up Yasuke, someone about whom very little is known other than he only fought in one battle and seemed to have been kept around by Oda Nobunaga as a curiosity (Yasuke was actually given back to the Jesuit who released him into Nobunaga's care later after
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a fictional game. They try to be exciting. If it had a black Jewish ninja who traveled to Germany in 1852 to kill Hitler's grandmother as a child, it'd be fine.
The incels are just a bunch of cunts and snowflakes.
Re: (Score:2)
Fine for who?
Re: (Score:3)
People who aren’t snowflakes.
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It's a fictional game. They try to be exciting. If it had a black Jewish ninja who traveled to Germany in 1852 to kill Hitler's grandmother as a child, it'd be fine.
The incels are just a bunch of cunts and snowflakes.
While I don't know the total demographics, Japan has a racism issue.
And "Incel" is so overused now that it includes race? Yes it is. My point is that here is another extension of "Involuntary Celibate", It's at the point where "Incel" means "I disagree with you"
Anyhow, the people all spun up about this are assholes. That's a good enough descriptive term.
Re: In other news...?? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And? Bad marketing is bad marketing.
Re: (Score:3)
Lots of people in Japan who follow these things got kind of pissed off
Bullshit. Some fucking edge lords and right wing racist fucks did.
The japanese fucking government refers to him as a samurai warrior from Mozambique [mofa.go.jp]
Re: (Score:2)
Lots of people in Japan who follow these things got kind of pissed off
Bullshit. Some fucking edge lords and right wing racist fucks did.
Japan has a problem with racism. That probably flies in the face of the common theme that the only place racism exists is the USA.
https://www.cambridge.org/core... [cambridge.org]
https://simplyputpsych.co.uk/g... [simplyputpsych.co.uk]
BLM has some issues with Japan as well https://www.bbc.com/news/world... [bbc.com]
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4... [jstor.org]
I certainly do not support the so called "Racist fucks" but cannot ascertain that they are right wing.
I certainly do approve of Sachi Schmidt-Hori's novel approach - demonstrating that there is
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Incels gotta burnish their incel credentials, apparently.
Re:In other news...?? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've bumped into some incels, but never in real life - at least not that identified as such or displayed their atypical behaviors.
I really don't get it. It's not hard to get laid. We humans have been getting laid since before we climbed down from the trees. It's not hard to take a shower, put on clean clothing, and hold your vile thoughts to yourself. Even ugly people can get laid. Even ugly men can get laid.
It's not 'involuntary'. It's just shitty behavior that they chose to engage in and shitty beliefs they chose to accept as reality.
Re: (Score:2)
Pray you never get so disabled that you know you'll never again be kissed romantically. It happens a lot. They're everywhere. It's common for people who become disabled to have their spouses leave them. It even happened to Stephen Hawking despite his achievements.
Re: (Score:3)
Or this one:
https://automaton-media.com/en... [automaton-media.com]
Re:In other news...?? (Score:5, Interesting)
Circular references and falsified history (Score:2, Informative)
Check the citations on the Wikipedia article. They go in circles back to one, single source of questionable credibility. Then check the logs, they clearly show that this was a highly controversial article that was eventually locked without any real resolution. The fact that this Wikipedia article is now being cited as fact shows the power of propaganda.
The notion that a black man, or even any non-Japanese man could rise to the rank of Samurai is beyond preposterous to anyone even vaguely acquainted with Jap
Re: (Score:3)
The notion that a black man, or even any non-Japanese man could rise to the rank of Samurai is beyond preposterous to anyone even vaguely acquainted with Japanese history.
Simply untrue.
Many scholarly sources in western and eastern literature refer to several non-Japanese Samurai.
It wouldn't matter if they weren't, it's just that they simply were.
But I'm sure you trying to pull the dude over for Samurai-ing while Black with the laughable supporting evidence of "anyone even vaguely acquainted with Japanese history" isn't at all you trying to veil some deep fucking racism on your part.
Re:Circular references and falsified history (Score:5, Insightful)
Check the citations on the Wikipedia article. They go in circles back to one, single source of questionable credibility. Then check the logs, they clearly show that this was a highly controversial article that was eventually locked without any real resolution. The fact that this Wikipedia article is now being cited as fact shows the power of propaganda.
Is the Yasuke story absolutely true? I don't know. Are the original missionary letters mentioning Yasuke questionable in authenticity? I don't know. However, it is certainly not obvious that this source is "questionable." After all, the historical sources of the existence of Jesus Christ are similarly sparse, and yet many believe in his historical existence, including many who are convinced of Yasuke's non-existence.
That the article was controversial and locked only shows that the ideological/racial wars are heated and lends no hint about what is true.
The notion that a black man, or even any non-Japanese man could rise to the rank of Samurai is beyond preposterous to anyone even vaguely acquainted with Japanese history. The country is well-known for having an almost ridiculously ethno-nationalist culture well into the 20th century, and even today anyone of non-Japanese heritage moving to Japan will forever be regarded as a foreigner by the native population.
Tell Americans that about one in every four cowboys were black, and many Americans would spew back this same incredulity. Sort of makes you think that the "common sense" we take for granted may be false and that we ought to do the historical research to establish truth.
Re: (Score:2)
Tell Americans that about one in every four cowboys were black
And as many or more were Mexican or first generation Mexican Americans.
Re: (Score:2)
This is why I always browse at -1. That's where the best and the worst comments seem to collect.
Re: (Score:2)
Uh. Look.
Maybe if there weren't various examples of... you know... maybe this kind of historical embellishment being used in various video games... This series in particular, as well. Maybe if that were the case he'd have made a valid point.
If they were under the impression that Assassin's Creed is historically accurate then I'm not sure what to say to them. It features a technology that allows people to access their ancestor's experiences directly, because of someone's narrative understanding of the words
historical embellishment (Score:2)
Now, we cannot disrupt all those specialty historians who 'manage to arrange' a bunch of possible 'facts' to push a political agenda for their entire academic career.
They are adjacent to those editorial writers who take one quote from someone and then list 10 different books, movies and works of fiction as 'proving' a grand fact which follows their own dogma.
Oddly, how come the "you become what you consume" moral panic never is applied to those academic fields which are oppressor / oppressed political dogma
Operative terms (Score:2)
The operative terms are "oppressor / oppressed political dogma" and "everything is about power dynamics".
Re: (Score:3)
We're talking about the end of the Sengoku period. Kashin who fought, were granted stipend for a household, and allowed to wield 2 swords were Samurai. It's one of the fucking defining characteristics of the period.
It's therefor perfectly plausible he was Samurai (and would be weird if he wasn't). This isn't the Edo period where that was strictly statutorily controlled.
You are correct that there's no exact proof that he was samu
Re: (Score:2)
This includes but isn't limited to violent video games and sports.
Though, I see what you did with racism there. Great plug. Poorly placed as the post you responded to didn't appear to make any suggestions of that. Maybe you're a little bit racist by suggesting that people making analogies to dogs must be thinking
Re: (Score:2)
Yasuke, also known as Kurusan Yasuke or Kuru-suke was an African slave who lived in the 16th Century and became a samurai in Japan.
By 2013, it said:
Nobunaga treated Yasuke with such great favor that people in Azuchi even said he would probably be made a 'tono' (lord). This did not happen, but he was given the position of samurai (shikan).
In 2024, it said:
Yasuke was a man of African origin who served as a samurai to Oda Nobunaga.
The edits were locked when hordes of racist pieces of shit tried to change it when the game came out.
Unfortunately: there is no proof that Yasuke was a Samurai. And the wikipedia page used to be pretty clear about the fact that there is no such proof.
Now it claims the opposite. And people think/believe paid trolls of UbiSoft rewrote it. Which is pretty likely.
Incorrect on both counts. But hey- a German racist- who would have figured.
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you honestly believe immigration didn't exist 500 years ago? That it is not possible that someone from Africa traveled to Japan and became a Samurai?
That the history of this real person was made up?
Making a historically accurate backstory to a game doesn't mean you need to disregard notable historical figures, because a lot of people who hide behind keyboards are racist cowards.
Re: (Score:2)
Gamers get real weird and possessive about “their” games. Like the games are a private club and any outsiders are treated with hostility.
Re: (Score:3)
Nevermind some of Japan's greatest achievements were inspired by outsiders.
Tempura, for example. Japan didn't have a habit of frying food until the Portuguese brought it over. Japan then refined it into the fine art of fried food it's known for today.
This was shortly before Japan decided to close themselves off to the world.
People moved around for centuries
And hate Ubisoft or not, the one thing they do really well for Assassin's Creed is historical accuracy. They've actually won awards for it recreating his
Re: (Score:2)
The last AC I played was Odyssey and it was really cool when I saw there was something like a "museum mode" where it would bring you to different spots and let you tour the locations with historical facts. Very neat to have all that flavor text and see they put some work into accuracy as you said.
I also fought a minotaur and a cyclops and the story revolved around my character being a demigod so at the end of the day AC is a semi-casual game series and it's first goal is give the people what they want and
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Honestly, it's just like you said. None of these games do more than wave a token gesture towards the real history. They acknowledge that it exists in passing, but they're just about spectacle and telling a Hollywood-esque narrative and employing mythological elements they hope the player has vague awareness of without having too much awareness.
The idea of people getting upset about them misrepresenting history is... well if they're just learning now that these games might not be accurate, they have a large
Re: In other news... (Score:5, Informative)
Dumbass.
Re: In other news... (Score:4, Informative)
No, he was not a samurai. He was a court curiosity with zero evidence of blade training who Nobunaga had playing caddy with his swords because he found him funny. There are no contemporary sources showing otherwise. That you cite a wiki page which still cites that two-faced bastard Lockley is evident of this. When I say two faced, I am not in any way kidding.
Here is his scholarship presented to the media in english.
Yasuke was in the temple with Nobunaga when he performed seppuku. “There’s no record, but tradition holds it that [Yasuke] was the one who took Nobunaga’s head to save it from the enemy,” Lockley said. “If Akechi, the enemy, had gotten the head and he’d been able to hold up the head, he would have had a powerful symbol of legitimacy.” Lockley explained that an act like that would have given Akechi credibility as a ruler. After the attack on Nobunaga, Akechi did not get much support and was soon defeated in battle. “Yasuke, therefore, by escaping with the head, could have been seen and has been seen as changing Japanese history,” Lockley said.
Here is a translation of his scholarship as presented to the japanese media
(1)
————
Translation:
According to the family claiming to be the descendants of the Oda family, Yasuke took Nobunaga’s head and sword out of Honno-ji to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. The anecdote about Nobunaga’s is based on the claim that a death mask, which is not a Japanese tradition, was made with Yasuke’s help(1).
There are several issues with this claim. First, no documents mention what happened to Nobunaga’s head (whether Yasuke was involved or not). The only document mentioning Yasuke’s participation in the battle is Frois’ letters, which do not mention Nobunaga’s head. If Yasuke had taken the head to the Nanban-ji, Frois would have mentioned it. Secondly, escaping from a burning temple surrounded by many enemy soldiers, —even without the additional task of carrying their own weapons along with something as astonishingly large and cumbersome as a human head—, would have been extremely difficult.
Notice how it goes from the generalized 'tradition holds' to 'this one family claims to be descendants of Nobunaga and has a mask which they say totes shows that Yasuke came back with the head and used it to make the mask but this is both highly unlikely given no such japanese tradition and the logistics of him doing so would be a bitch'.
https://japanese-with-naoto.co... [japanese-with-naoto.com]
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Dude was granted a warriors stipend, was granted a sword and a scabbard that only samurai were to wear, and was granted a household.
The existence of Japanese racists shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Actual scholars at actual Japanese universities aren't parroting this horseshit.
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Nope he was not.
Incorrect. The exact word used in contemporary sources was fuchi. This was the sengoku period, and so a retainer granted a weapon and a fuchi would have been Samurai.
And no: everyone could wear a sword in a scabbard. There is nothing particular "Samurai" about that. This is a western myth.
Wrong. [x.com]
Try again.
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A quick search on r/AskHistorians revealed a post in which many sources (none of them this person Lockley you mentioned) speak to Yasuke being indeed a samurai:
r/AskHistorians post [reddit.com]
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I hate to break it to you, but the wikipedia page cites a fraud of a historian who published his work well before AC:Shadows decided to put Yasuke in the game.
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You're taking the word of some racist fucking Japanese nobody to call the dude a fraud, and it's fucking disgusting.
This same dude you're parroting attacks Japanese professors at other Japanese universities for saying the same thing, including a literal fucking Japanese historian with a PhD at the University of Tokyo who specializes [u-tokyo.ac.jp]
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If by every historian, you mean Lockley and one japanese historian who even admits that he was never given a family name, which all individuals raised to samurai status were given but he is suuuper sure that Nobunaga would have gotten around to that any day now, then yes every historian. In reality prior to 2010 the idea that Yasuke was a samurai was entirely apocrypha.
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I suppose next you'll tell me Jan Joosten van Lodensteyn wasn't Samurai.
Re: In other news... (Score:4)
What about the cited sources? What makes them unreliable?
Re: In other news... (Score:3)
What makes them unreliable in this case is the insane cherry picking of sources, and the fact the wiki article even cherry picks sentences from the already cherry picked sources.
They use very few supporting sources, and exclude sources that argue he was not a samurai.
One of their primary sources is encyclopedia Britannica, which states that he was a samurai, but that the claim is disputed.
But the wiki article has no mention of said disputes and presents him being a samurai as certain truth, when it is anyth
Re: In other news... (Score:4, Informative)
Wikipedia is not a source of reliable information.
They did not base the character on Wikipedia, they based it on the account from an actual specialist who teaches the subject at Dartmouth College.
Also you perhaps misunderstand how Wikipedia works. You don't have to believe what is says there, you just have to follow the pointers given as reference. In the Yasuke page, several of those references are paper books written by specialists. Others you can consult by clicking on them yourself.
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Granted right to have weapons in Daimyo's presence- check.
Granted a fuchi- check.
Granted a household- check.
It can never ben known whether or not he was granted the rank of Samurai. It's not like they fucking Knighted them. What is known, is that he was granted the trappings of being a Samurai, and if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, but there's no historical record of it being a duck, it's probably still a duck.
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Foreigners that had been granted status were not included in the Sakoku limitation of immigration. Parent is a racist trying to back up his beliefs with non-rigorous queries.
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You may not know this, but you have the wrong century. Yasuke was in Japan in the 1500's. They closed themselves off in the 1600's
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Insightful)
You suggest she shouldnt have received the threats, but then suggest it was her own fault.
Check yourself.
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It sucks that she got death threats and all manner of illegal things, there's no excuse for that, though the vast majority of it is likely justified anger at the company she chose to publicly represent. She literally signed up to be a PR and public face, and now regrets the harder parts of that position. It's hard to feel too much sympathy for a well paid corporate shill.
That may justify criticism. It does not justify harassment. "Justified anger" must be channeled through reasoned opposition, not character assassination, which is what you're supporting with your stance.
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First, this so-called expert’s scholarship and credentials are lacking
Amazing how every time someone gets caught with their hand in the DEI cookie jar
...
Just ignore her stupidity and move on.
*chefs kiss*
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The current cabinet is mostly DEI hires.
Re: Religious Zealots (Score:2)