ARMS "Racist" Controversy Hair Isn

ARMS newest character might just be it's most popular. Twintelle has stolen most of the internets love, and obsessing over. But, some obsessions aren't the kindest or innocent. Author Tanya DePass, of website MIC.com, states that Twintelle's hair is offensive, racist, and the overall gaming industry doesn't care about making decent hair for black people. Poli Games host, breaks down the technical challenges in making decent hair, and how hair physics still has a ways to go. Lastly, Joseph, tackles how we as gamers need to change how we react to these accusations.

[UCForce]

"Sigh" Again with this ?

[Whirlwind_Fanfare_08]

FFS. -_-

[Ryuujinjakka]

Hair? Really?

[Onness]

The arguement of her being black and having that hairstyle/having it be weaponized is just stupid. Every fighter has a unique set of "arms" they use, wether it'd be ribbons, noodles, springs, or chains. Having the in game superstar use her hair in this way is totally fine in my book. Literally every other character is technically "weaponized", so who cares if it's her hair?

[MorpheusX]

@Onness

I'm Black, Stop pretending like you DONT see when you DO SEE the real issue.

Question: what is the natural hair color of [most] Black Americans? Its Black.

Who is Born with Blonde Hair naturally? White people.

Its not about her hair being f'n weaponized or whatever smh, her color should be her NATURAL COLOR. Its about Identity.

I'm black, I like who God made me to be, I don't want to be anything else, nor do I aspire too or look up to anybody else but other Black People.

I want my daughter to feel good about herself, to be proud of who God says she is, not aspire to be something unnatural, like dye her hair to look more European, to maybe appear more acceptable to the Social Ruling Ethnic Class in modern Society.

I do understand the reason why articles like this are getting pushed, yes it is Race Baiting, no its not because they care about Black People, its about controversy I understand this crystal clear.

But, since it was written, it was a reason to chime in. Don't Hate the playa, Hate the game.

[Ryasha]

I'm also black and I see no issue with anything going on in this game.
First of all, her hair isn't blonde. It's white.
Second, you're talking about it being racist essentially because her hair isn't a black person's natural color....in a game where two other characters have bright blue and bright green hair. At least her hair IS a natural color.
The presumably white and Asian males have hair colors that do not exist in real life naturally yet there is not a single complaint about that. So that throws pretty much your entire argument out of the window.

Third, in the article, the woman is complaining about Twintelle's hair being weaponized. Not anything about her hair color. She says its racist because in real life, black/brown people's hair is weaponized and its racist for the only brown character in the game to have her hair that way as well.
But she doesn't list any example for an actual weaponization of hair. What she means is that brown people's hair has been illegalized by school systems and employers. So her entire argument is thrown out the window as well because she can't even figure out what she's trying to say.

[Ryuujinjakka]

It's a japanese video game, dude. There's characters with colored hair. Is it that surprising? And what if your daughter wants to color her hair just for... fun? Would you punish her?

[ppm1100]

Actually, I think it is pretty racist to assume that only white people can have blonde hair and black women are not allowed to dye their hair to whatever color they want.

[andrewsquall]

@Irre-Izzy No it sounds like he would rather be hateful or resentful or racist towards Europeans instead apparently.

[Majin-vegeta]

Muh feelings!

[MorpheusX]

@Ryasha

Example A : Commenting, forming an opinion w/o actually reading the article & looking like a complete dumbass & novice: MorpheusX

smh.

I agree with you 100%, I didn't know what F__K I was talking about.

[WickedLester]

OR...and maybe I'm just spit-balling here but...maybe artists should be allowed the freedom to create their vision the way they see fit.

[AznGaara]

Being Asian myself I totally disagree with the portrayal of the way we look. Red, blue, green and even the fact that you've become stronger because you've transformed your hair yellow! It's totally disrespectful! Rawr.

[GameBoyColor]

min min is asian and she has blonde hair...

[_-EDMIX-_]

@Morp-

smh.

I don't see any issue with this game.

You are not talking about a text book or a documentary made to try to convey something real or factual.

You are talking about a video game.

The whole thing is fantasy.

Can we seriously ban this dude from this site already? Legit folks, look at his comment history.

[Articuno76]

'Its not about her hair being f'n weaponized or whatever smh'

That's exactly what the source article says though... Which, as you dismissed in your own comment... is kinda stupid.

[EddieNX]

Shes a fictional game character, therefore her hair could be any color....

[MrBrofist]

I'm also black and I'm just glad a sister made the roster

[deafdani]

Holy shit, this is beyond ridiculous.

Spring Man's hair is blue. Ninjara's hair is turquoise. If they can have unrealistic hair colors, why can't Twintelle?

-.-

[Dalailana]

Are you trolling???

There are characters with blue and yellow hair??

[MagicBeanz]

I'll try to remember that next time I see a pictures of Rhianna or Nicki Minaj or any of the other dozens of black celebrities with pink, red, blonde or just about any other color you can think of hair. This isn't about identity, and even if it was who are you to tell anyone what color they should have their hair, its their personal choice not yours. This is nothing more then crying fake racism for attention, and its truly pathetic.

[KaZeDaRKWIND]

There's also a white character with blue hair. I don't know about you, but I think white is a lot more natural than BLUE. ITS A GAME. STOP TAKING IT SO SERIOUSLY.

[fenome]

Yeah, because black people can't dye their hair, right? I guess that's just a "white" thing... Smdh

[RpgSama]

"nor do I aspire too or look up to anybody else but other Black People. "

I aspire and look up to people not based on the color of their skin but on the content of their character.

That attitude of yours is kinda racist, we must look beyond skin color as a defining characteristic of a person.

[Gh05t]

"... nor do I aspire too or look up to anybody else but other Black People."

Interesting, tell us more about how you judge people based on the color of their skin.

[Studio-YaMi]

"Who is Born with Blonde Hair naturally? White people."
Yet there are many white people who are born with many other hair colors,omg the humanity! a White guy with black hair!? black people hair color is being taken away! j/k

"I'm black, I like who God made me to be, I don't want to be anything else, nor do I aspire to or look up to anybody else but other Black People."
Aha, so if there was a white guy who is sane and logical and an insane black guy, you would automatically side with skin color over mindset? nice...

"I want my daughter to feel good about herself, to be proud of who God says she is, not aspire to be something unnatural, like dye her hair to look more European, to maybe appear more acceptable to the Social Ruling Ethnic Class in modern Society."
God forbid if your dear daughter wants to dye her hair blond/purple or turquoise for goodness sake, how DARE she become an independent woman who has her own ideas in life one day and want to follow her own way.

You, sir, should be ashamed of yourself, in this modern age to have such an outrageous way of backward thinking.

[SinkingSage]

1. Black people's hair is actually brown, not black.
2. It's just a game. Get over it.

[KickSpinFilter]

Ya my daughter dyed her hair a different color and I disowned her right on the spot!
Look she looks to be a powerful/independent character in a video game instead of a damsel in distress think that's much more important than dyed hair.

[septemberindecember]

"Question: what is the natural hair color of [most] Black Americans? Its Black"

Spring man is white and his hair is freaking blue. There are no white people with naturally bright blue hair either. I don't see any articles being written about it.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

No, I'd rather hate the player, because the game, which is based in fantasy and has all kinds of funky colors for hair that are anything but natural outside of fantasy settings, isn't saying or doing anything stupid.

This was never a race or identity issue.
People like you MADE IT ONE, because you are easily offended.

And this is coming from a fellow Christian.
Calm down and sit down. You're acting like a race-focused Anita Sarkeesian, which is a very bad thing.

[rainslacker]

It's a Japanese game. It's not racist, it's just an art style that puts all sorts of colors onto a character based on what they think looks good. It's not about trying to represent a race accurately.

If your daughter's self worth is determined based on the hair color of a game character who doesn't, and isn't meant to represent her, then the failings aren't on Nintendo, they're on you as a parent because you can't teach your daughter that her self worth should be based on her own confidence and abilities and own natural beauty. Stop blaming others for your lack of being able to handle the psychological development of your daughter because you choose to let her find herself through other mediums, instead of taking the good things she finds from those media and applying it to her own world and self view.

The bigger racist would be assuming that your daughter should find her self worth in only a black character, as opposed to looking beyond the skin color, and looking at what makes people good that isn't attached to the superficial. It's the same lame argument that many female characters get now where if they look like typical women, they're suddenly great characters who represent women well, even if they're boring characters with no personality, and only represent a different kind of woman that someone else deems is appropriate, so all they're doing is shifting what is acceptable from one side to another.

A little anecdote for you. I asked a russian friend of mine if racism was a problem in Russia(in terms of black people). She said no, because there aren't that many black people in russia, and you don't see them that often outside of the media. Japan is kind of the same way. They're more likely to be racist against white people over there, but there isn't an overwhelming population of black people. But in this vein, look at how the Japanese anime market often represents white americans. It's not exactly flattering, and more often than not it's stereotypical and sometimes not that flattering. No white person I know of has ever complained, nor has their own world view on their self worth as a white person been affected. Maybe it's time you stop being so sensitive about your race, and instead find the good things about yourself that exist to be proud of and teach that to your daughter. You have no control over your race. I don't see why one should use that as a reason to be proud or ashamed.

[zuul9018]

Im white and my hair isnt blonde....
Also lots of white and black people dye their hair...

Learn how to parent and your daughter will feel good about herself. Don't raise some drone that thinks media is real life.

[DragonKnight]

"I'm Black, Stop pretending like you DONT see when you DO SEE the real issue."

I'm white.... and baby I can do whatever I like.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[Hotabang]

its a game, if thats the case, yugioh's hair is racist. Cloud's hair is racist. Sora's hair is racist

[andrewsquall]

She is black? I thought it was a tan lol.

[SR388]

Haha amazing!!! *High five*

[Ryasha]

She's definitely not tan. She is a person of color. It's just not sure which. I figured she was Indian and not black, honestly, because she likes to drink tea and has a floral motif.
Indian, Latin, black....either way she is still Brown and not just a white person with a tan.

[UGXwolf]

I seem to remember (though I may be mistaken) her being French. You may use that to form any beliefs you so choose.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I was under the same impression; stars and tanning beds are like two peas in a pod sometimes, after all.XD

[SR388]

Oh for god sake lol who cares! ... Why should it matter so much about race? It's a game, get over it!

[GrimReaperGamer]

Tanya DePass = SJW Tard

It's a video game people, so grow up and just play the game. If you have no interest in this game like this SJW moron then please fly the F off.

I miss the Sega Genesis/SNES days when people just played games because it was a fun hobby.

[rainslacker]

I didn't mind the political aspects of a lot of these kinds of debates over the years, but since Sarkeesian infected the gaming community making the argument into a thing it wasn't, then Alexander and her media cronies took up the call to generate clicks through controversy, any kind of actual interesting discussion on the topics is all but useless and often far from compelling.

In fact, I think it made the conversation go backwards, because the topics of inclusion were going strong long before Sarkeesian came to the fold, and the discussions were among developers, a lot of times on gamasutra which ruined it's reputation, and at various developer conferences through the years, and it was moving forward with insightful, and mostly non-vitriolic discussion, and some things that people thought should be included were starting to be considered and even implemented within games without the need to make it into some huge issue worthy of Fox news levels of coverage.

I used to be able to discuss inclusion reasonable with a large number of people, but since the SJW came in, all I've seen is almost everyone band against them with no intention of hearing any argument for that side, even if it's from the reasonable people, or polarized a side to constantly treat those who have opposing or less than thrilled view of inclusion into racist misogynists pigs.

Its' really sad, and it's going to take years after these SJW grow bored with trying to get attention and incite the community with their open agenda, before the conversation actually gets back to something more meaningful, where we aren't questioning if a developer added in a woman or character of color because of social pressure or if they did it because they felt it was just the best thing for that character and it was their own unpressured choice.

[Antnee534]

Why are people so butt hurt all the time. My god only a generation or two ago people were stone cold they wouldn't whine and bitch about every little thing like the people of today. This characters hair is not racist and it's a stupid thing to think. Just chill move on to the next game if you don't like the design.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I don't agree with this BS that this is "racist" or a "controversy"

I also don't agree with "a generation or two ago people were stone cold they wouldn't whine and bitch"

Yea no.

Most who say this either are not old enough to remember or don't fully understand the issue regarding such things. This isn't new, it isn't a fad, it isn't based on the "generation" etc.

We didn't have people jumping on GTA?

We didn't have people commenting on Final Fantasy?

Doom?

007?

Mortal Kombat?

Are you sure about that bud? You REALLY want to say such a thing didn't happen?

NEVER jump in the absolute pool bud, ie "they wouldn't whine and bitch". You are saying this wouldn't happen, yeaaaaaaaaa no.

I don't agree with it, but I'm not also going to assume naively that such a thing never happened back in the day. I'd argue it happened more back then and we are slowly getting in the area of games being seen more like other mediums, but we still need to go further.

I want to see the day a game releases with diverse characters, different demographics, economical background etc and we don't get a bunch of articles like this. When a show or film does this, its not this HUGE thing, we need that in gaming for the future. GTA coming out is not longer this big deal with folks trying to ban it, it was in 2001 bud.

[rainslacker]

There were always butthurt people. Just in the past, the press never gave them attention they didn't deserve. Now, anytime someone is upset, it gets way more press than it deserves, as opposed to just being a discussion for forums that may grow into something that is worthy of more media coverage and larger scale discourse among many different aspects of an industry, community, or society in general.

Nothing wrong with the discussions being had IMO, but giving credence to single people, or small groups of people who's only validation of their arguments being relevant, comes from the press attention they get, as opposed to the discussion coming naturally, and being resolved in a more natural manner.

[Realplaya]

I'm black and honestly I thought the character was Latin because of the mask. I honestly thought it was a female luchidore or however you spell it. But let's say she was black do we not seeing African Americans dying their hair?

[MrBrofist]

If anything we should be criticizing Tekken 7's Rayne's design since we're on the topic of black hair.

Who lets their barber push their hairline up that high and female Rayne's needs to pick either dreadlocks or braids. You can have both. Jk

[PlayableGamez-]

Aw hell no. I know we are not claiming a game where you fight with coils as limbs to be racist.

[GameBoyColor]

She is more latina then she is black

[MrBrofist]

Afro Latinas exist you know

[gangsta_red]

Yup

[GameBoyColor]

And there are white africans

[LordStig]

This is a bloody troll isn't it?

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

It's probably a feminist, which is worse in some ways...

[bmanwyne]

k.

[Relientk77]

Literally who cares

[MrBrofist]

I'm black and from what gathered,a lot of black people really likes her.
In fact we all are kinda hoping she's confirmed black.

It's not like us Nintendo fans see a lot of black characters often.

[Heavenly King]

every character in this game has hair weird as hell. So....who gives a FU(K!!

[Mr-Dude]

Pfff, jeez people these past years really lost their spines and love to call everything racist.

[Dixiedevil]

Ahh, more neo-liberals hard at work to not only destroy the liberal ideology for at least a couple generations but also destroying words like "racist" by equating a video game characters hair color with, say, a group of assholes dragging a black kid behind a truck because he's black. Congrats on all your retardation.

[Last_Boss]

Kotex is down isle 3 sir.

[TheRealKingAvery]

Uhhhhhhh she's not Black, she's actually Latina...............

[MagicBeanz]

I know were not supposed to use the F word here cause one or more of the mods is super anal, but its taking all my will power not to use it to tell Tanya DePass what I think of her. I know the race baiters are capable of stooping to new and ever amazing new lows but this right here might take the cake.

[bluefox755]

How did we get here folks?

[Auron]

And this is why nintendo censors the **** out of thier games because if people who get up in ARMS about this crap.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

*high-fives*
I see what you did there.XD

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

Me being black I saw this coming a mile away. I knew someone was going to have something to say about her hair. Smh...

[Scissorman82]

Sindel from Mortal Kombat 3 had "weaponized hair". And she was white. This isn't a race issue - it's just a design choice.

[StormLegend]

And this is why they don't put black characters in video games anymore. People do nothing but complain and bitch about racism.

[Gh05t]

"Whatever the artists wants, to me, that's what the artist gets, and as long as there is no problem with it, I'm fine with it."

This is a completely multi-contradictory statement.

The whole point about freedom and liberty is when your NOT fine with it. That is where the test comes in. This guy doesn't stand for artistic freedom when he finds it to be a problem so his words are HOLLOW!

So now we have one person making BS claims about racism and another saying hey this is not a big deal, ill let you know when its a problem and then we can stop an artist.

[FernDiggidy]

Controversy??? Pussy ass generation I swear. smfh

[DivineAssault]

The chick looks Latina to me.. Theres plenty who are actually darker than some blacks.. Stop with the complaints and let the game be

[kent80082007]

I love our generation, we can make a big deal out of literally nothing. Kudos to all xxoo

[Aura7541]

Notto disu shitto agen

[NecoTehSergal]

Yay! PC Cancer culture, being injected in the gaming industry! Gamers don't give a FUCK AS LONG as the game is GOOD. ffs

[EliteGameKnight]

it's just hair...

[ArnoDorian]

Could people just calm down and enjoy the goddamn game?

if not don't bother!

[PhoenixUp]

You'd think the SJWs would complain about Twintelle's other attributes

[CrimsonWing69]

Racist!? I'm so sick and tired of people throwing out the racism card. What is it too close to reality? If not then shut your f*cking mouth. Racism is only a gross generalization based off observations.

It's racist to link a race to a hair style. I swear it's almost racist that she'd cry racism at this design.

[BlindMango]

C'mon who approves this crap? They don't even care to correct the title of the submission!

[Hotabang]

"HAIR" is racist lmao why are people paying attention to whoever says that XD