Racism vs Racial Insensitivity in Esports

[u/ituralde_]

[EDIT 2] adding more explicit commentary because reading comprehension is hard.

The esports community has failed at this distinction and it has caused a lot of drama and consternation.

Racism is believing awful things about some group. [EDIT] Think of this as a measure of Character.

Racial insensitivity is saying something about a group that is offensive. [EDIT] Think of this as characterizing someones actions. You could also call this "racist actions", describing the actions a person took. I chose the phrasing to make a distinction between actions and character, not to pretend that this made the actions not racist.

[EDIT 2] The phrasing doesn't matter here and it's a shame I can't edit the title because people are caught up on this. The important distinction (again) is character judgement vs actions. Neither racist actions no racist character are something the community should tolerate. The distinction only matters in that someone who does not want to be known as racist will be willing to reform their racist or otherwise offensive behaviors when given the opportunity. That's why it's important to remember that, when it comes to Actions and Character:

These are not the same thing.

Both are incredibly important. Impact is more important than intent; it's important to be cognizant of how your actions are interpreted by the world around you. [EDIT 2] This means that being racially sensitive is a terrible thing and merits the punishments that have been getting given out.

That said, it's similarly inappropriate to always assume racism in the presence of racial insensitivity. [EDIT 2] This means that not everyone who says something awful and punishment-worth is doing so out of outright racism. Young, dumb kids say and do dumb shit for reasons above and beyond being a terrible person.

The important behavior we want to teach to players and fans is that sensitivity matters, and we undermine that by accusing everyone who makes a mistake on the sensitivity front of being immediately racist/homophobic/etc.

Racial and other insensitivity is and should continue to be punished by the Overwatch league and its constituent teams. The important result of this should be that lessons are learned, not that players are crucified.

Take a look at EQO's case - he made a mistake. For a lot of us, it's an obvious mistake but clearly not one he thought of. Both he and the Philadelphia Fusion made sincere responses to the mistake. This is a perfect example of how this shit should be handled. We as a community should also treat it as such, and while we should be harsh on players who do make these mistakes, we should also encourage these young people from various backgrounds to learn from such mistakes. Let them be examples to their fans, don't bury them in negativity.

This is really important.

[EDIT 2] For clarity since this has been all over the comments, EQO not only fucked up bigtime through his actions, he made it worse by trying to play coverup. The good response absolutely was at the behest of some authority figure in the Fusion, and that's exactly what we should expect of organizations in the league. We, as a community, should take a trust-but-verify approach - give the Fusion credit for their swift response and give EQO the benefit of the doubt that this was a lapse of judgement, but also keep an eye out that the final statement was sincere.

Take a look at XQC for another example.

In full disclosure, I don't like XQC. I don't like the majority of his fans. I'm probably naturally biased against him.

However, I don't think he's a racist, and I sympathize with the guy who is broken over being saddled with this label by the powers that be.

He made a mistake. Sure, he hasn't really shown that he understands this but at the same time, how the heck could he? He's being told he's racist which isn't something he's capable of identifying with. He doesn't share the beliefs he's being accused of, so how could he get anything from this?

He's not a racist. He made a huge fuckup and has been hounded by the community as if he's evil. He's not evil, he fucked up. He displayed poor judgement, that doesn't make him a bad person - it makes him human.

[EDIT 2] I thought this was clear from context but the important distinction is that he doesn't see him as a racist and continuing to accuse him of that worldview doesn't help anything. His actions WERE racist. You could say he was "acting racist" or "being racist" in reference to his actions if that terminology fits it better. Does he have a racist worldview? Only insofar as he clearly doesn't understand why it's important to be sensitive about how you show up publicly.

XQC isn't the first and EQO won't be the last to make these mistakes. So let's learn a lesson as a community and give these players the window to improve themselves and how they show up in public. Condemn the action, not the person - give them the window to reform. Let them acknowledge the difference between intent vs impact and use these examples to teach the community about why this matters.

Demonizing the people only undermines the opportunity for a lesson to be learned by the players and the community as a whole.

Let's maintain our standards, but enable our players to rise above careless behavior to those standards. Let's not saddle them eternally with the baggage of a mistake made of youth, ignorance, community-driven habit, and/or carelessness. Let's not make accusations of a person's character when they yet have the opportunity to grow from a poor choice.

[EDIT] This has gotten way more traction than I ever thought it would, so I'd like to clarify a few things in simple terms.

1. The punishments were good and appropriate. I think the first reaction to negative behavior would be to stop it and punish. Only after should we look at how to rehabilitate bad behavior.

2. The distinction I'm trying to draw here is the difference between Actions and Character. I think a redeemable Character can perform reprehensible actions. In the case someone does something reprehensible, we shouldn't shut the door on them redeeming themselves if they choose to accept responsibility and reform. That's really all I'm trying to say.

[u/Lipat97]

These people weren't closed minded, they legitimately had no experience that corrected their mistaken perspectives and often had authorities that they should have been able to trust tangentially encouraging their fucked up understanding of the world.

In law, a bad upbringing is not an excuse for being a pedophile, or a murderer. And its the information age, am I really supposed to pity the ignorant?

And yes, there's a difference between being a racist and being racist. Both Xqc and EQO were being racist. They deserve shit for that. They should be old enough to not get caught up in the semantics.

[u/ituralde_ → u/Lipat97]

For what it's worth, I never (meant to) imply that punishments weren't appropriate. They were spot on and necessary.

The thing is, the punishment is only the first part of the solution.

The reason I'm trying to highlight the distinction I'm making is that, if you tell a person that they are racist, they won't accept that.

Racism is pretty obviously and transparently evil and pretty much nobody sits back and thinks of themselves that way. Certainly I don't think that's what we see in this case.

When you characterize a person (instead of their actions) as racist, it doesn't jive with what they know about their own intentions. They get defensive and don't take responsibility because they know their own thoughts.

When you confront them with the nature of their actions, it takes intentions out of the picture. They can still take responsibility for their actions and learn from their mistakes without having to swallow something they know isn't true about their character.

If you want someone to reform, you have to get them to buy in or they (like XQC did) won't get past the hurdle of differentiating racist actions vs racist character.

[u/Lipat97 → u/ituralde_]

if you tell a person that they are racist, they won't accept that.

I get what you're saying, but that doesn't make them not racist. By that logic, I shouldn't call KKK members racist either, because they don't like being called racist either.

They get defensive and don't take responsibility because they know their own thoughts.

That's for XQC's friends to convert him. The community and especially Blizzard have no obligation to be his babysitter. If he can't shape up, then this simply isn't the place for him. If XQC's excuse for not reforming is "But they called me racist and that made me defensive!" that makes him a dumbass.

If you want someone to reform

This is my problem with your whole thing. Why is his reformation anyone else's responsibility? HE should want to reform, whether we want him to reform or not should be completely irrelevant. He needs to get his shit together, you can't blame Blizzard when he doesn't. Yes, there's a way they could have handled the situation, but honestly this isn't really something they should be taking into consideration. Your making him out to have some super fragile ego in which he loses control over some silly shit; Blizzard shouldn't have tiptoe around a fragile ego to write their punishments.

And this applies to EQO as well.