Square Enix responds to Deus Ex racial controversy

by David Hinkle on Sep 1st 2011 2:15PM

If you've yet to meet Letitia in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, then go ahead and watch the above clip. Discussed by Time's Evan Narcisse in this article, Letitia has come across as a racist character to some (including Evan). According to a statement from Square Enix, that was never the intention.

"Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a fictional story which reflects the diversity of the world's future population by featuring characters of various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds," the statement reads. "While these characters are meant to portray people living in the year 2027, it has never been our intention to represent any particular ethnic group in a negative light."

Whether or not Letitia was created to paint "any particular ethnic group in a negative light," many feel she does.

Source: Tech Land, YouTube

Tags: deus-ex-human-revolution, eidos-montreal, microsoft, pc, playstation, ps3, square-enix, xbox

Reader Comments (343)

@Once known as Shadsy
You made my day. :)

And? It's a game. Movies have this kind of thing and nobody get's their panties in a bunch.

@Gemini Ace

See: Transformers 2

@Gemini Ace

ACK! Sorry, don't see it, just look it up.

@Assmar Ha! Yea, I forgot about that.

@Assmar
She's much less racist than the negrobots in TF2. But when I ran across her I figured someone was going to get annoyed, The problem is just because it's irritating doesnt change that there are people out there that match, maybe the thing that really makes it an issue is the whole digging through trash, but on the other hand My very first thought was "why is a woman dressed like that diggin' in the trash", and then I spoke to her and went "oh, that's why".

On a lighter note; I wonder if anyone else has noticed the black janitor with Caucasian hands. So yeah, maybe he got augmented but what, did they run out of black guy hands?

@PN04 And yet when I watched TF2 I thought of them more as hicks than any kind of racial stereotyping. Or more white trash than anything. But perhaps that's just me.

@PN04
At first I thought "What negro bots in Team Fortress 2?"

@The Aquacharger You and me both.

@PN04

The fun thing is that there are people that ACTUALLY TALK LIKE THIS. I'm sorry that every black person in a medium has to be a positive role model that makes your whitey hero look like Lex Luthor, but let's face it: She's a helpful NPC, even if she's a transvestite.

@The Aquacharger

My thoughts exactly. The only black guy in TF2 speaks with a Scottish accent, which is very anti-cliche. A black Scottish cyclops? Come on. Sure he gets that 70's-style afro as a hat, but that just makes him look even cooler. So I ask with the rest of you, "what TF2 negro bots?".

@Gemini Ace Y Hallo dere Cap'n!

@Assmar

One of those robots from Transformers 2 was actually voiced by the same guy that does SpongeBob Squarepants...which always struck me as hilarious for some reason.

@Assmar Those robots were not black, they were yellow and red... why does everyone think they are black racial stereotypes by hearing their voices?? Letitia in Deus Ex on the other hand? Well she's funny as hell. The bigger problem to me is the crap ass voice job for Adam, why is every white dude gravely and brooding?

@Gemini Ace

I didn't bother with Transformers 2 after seeing Transformers, but I did notice that they made the Pontiac black, had a voice actor that sounded like a black stereotype and it was the only one to die.

@RogueJedi86

He meant Transformers 2, just unfortunately used an abbreviation that more commonly applies to Team Fortress 2 in the gaming community.

@Gemini Ace

One important lesson I learned from Deus Ex Human Revolution:

In 15ish years, all crime in Detroit will be committed by white people.

Thanks for the realism, Squeenix.

@Gemini Ace
"Movies have this kind of thing and nobody get's their panties in a bunch."
Unless it's Disney.

Don't want to watch incase of spoilers but cmon people, if it was a white character would we care?

@den69

If it was a white character, would she speak like that?

@Assmar

Some of the homeless (white) characters in deus ex in Detroit speak funny as well. This is a non-issue.

@den69

If she were a white character, would she be digging in the trash AND speaking like that?

@Assmar I don't understand, she has an accent. It's not like they made every black person in the game talk like this.

@Assmar No, she would probably speak like a redneck or some other form of white trash, and it would be completely okay just like she is in her current form.

@CaptainProtonX
There are homeless white folks in the game as well, and yeah, they do talk funny at times.

There are also black people who talk without any accent, and are portrayed as quite well off.

This is a none story.

@mrantimatter Yeah how about how most white folk and Mexicans are displayed in Red Dead Redemption?? Nobody has an issue with that. Or Spanish in RE4, it's only when it's black people that it's not okay. Equality, right?

@I am a machineee You're treading on some dangerous grounds. People get very upset when they are brought face to face with the truth.

@den69

That's clearly a different kind of slang other than the black vernacular heard or spoken by any of us. Do you not hear the difference because you don't want to hear it? That clip someone else posted of Bamboozled was spot on.

@den69
As a black person, that lives in USA, in Detroit, MI I can say that this is an actual person somewhere in this city as of right now, September 1, 2011 (and will most likely survive into the future).

I would only care if this is the ONLY depiction of blacks in the entire game. Otherwise, I would not care. There are blacks that still talk that way, but there are also blacks that have adapted to speaking regular English. If they don't have it both ways in the game then it is no longer fair.

@Lerkero

I should also add that I have seen worse names. So that's not a big deal either.

@Lerkero

But as people have already said that isn't the only example of black people in the game, but even if it was the only example of black people in the game would it really matter? I really don't like how society thinks these days.
I don't see people by the colour of their skin first, I see them as people, individual characters. Saddens me that that isn't the case for the majority.

@austin43
The homeless in Detroit spoke like transiants. She speaks like a stereotypical slave from Roots. There is a difference. Speaking like she was homeless wouldn't be a problem. Speaking like you're just waiting to hear her say "yes massa" is a problem.

@den69

To answer your question, no, no we wouldn't.

This is the first time I've seen this character, and seriously, WTF is the problem? She reminds me of The Oracle from The Matrix, except she kinda lost it and became homeless. I seriously don't understand the controversy. Jar Jar seems more racist than this character, and he was a m-f-ing alien!

@Jennacide

She's just ONE character. Seriously. Even if this was somehow racist, it's one character in a game world, and she's not even a very prominent one from my understanding.

Calling things like this racist is like the boy who cried wolf. When something genuinely racist happens, people are just going to say "oh here we go again with the race card."

@den69 "I don't see people by the colour of their skin first, I see them as people, individual characters. Saddens me that that isn't the case for the majority. "

If you don't see people by color, then.... why would you even have a problem with the way this character was talking?

on top of which everyone saying "who even talks like that? thats racist"
well, this fictional character talks like this.

I don't even see a problem with this. At all.

Is it more racist to just make an issue out of this character and NO OTHER character in the game? problaby, you hypocrites.

That's weird, I found Deus Ex to be one of the best examples of using diverse races in games. Tons of races represented at EVERY level of the economic food chain and each has wildly varying opinions on the "ethics" of the world... no one race seems to fall into any "niche" of who they are "supposed" to be.

Maybe this one character acts like something out of Huckleberry Finn, but there's many many more that act completely differently. Isn't that what being "diverse" is about?

@Xoonaka

But news media does not want to be diverse. They want to sensationalize and pick out the tiny little bits that can prove their point and rattle some cages.

@Laivindil

Kinda like the whole "Mass Effect is nothing but a sex simulator!" argument from Fox News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKzF173GqTU

Yeah, that one. Morons that haven't the slightest clue about things they don't try to understand yet want to act like they know every bit of subject matter.

@Laivindil

Evan Narcisse is not the random ignorant "media," he's a fairly well known video game writer.

As "well known" as this author may be, its just too bad that this article happens to be a non-issue, then. Although, I'm sure if Evan Narcisse were Mexican, he'd find Zeke Sanders, a member of an extremist, labeled terrorist, organization who takes hostages early in the game, to be a racist connotation, as well. *sigh*

Glad to see Tracy Morgan is still getting some work.

@LOKIOLR

He's just trying to suppliment his EGOT with a VGA, which I guess would make it a...VEGOT?

@baby sea tuna

WHO YOU CALLING A VEGOT???

RACIST!

i was gonna say something about political correctness but then i saw the video lol.

@PR0F3TA

It's not like she has a fried chicken leg in one hand & a 40 oz in the other. Yeah the voice work makes her sound dumb and uneducated but she's a vagrant living on the street ... what do you expect? Ya know ...

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell Well she does give you a hint if you bring her enough beers. Thank god they didn't program 40's in this one (they were everywhere in the first game) otherwise, you might have had to bring her those instead.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

She has standards. She'd only accept a 40 of Hot Devil.

@Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell

This makes me question the general perception of blacks because, literally, NO ONE talks like this. This is literally Jim Crow-era minstrel/blackface-type stereotyping. It's so exaggerated it's past the point of being racially insensitive and is just flat out absurdly hilarious and bad game design. To me, I'm less bothered by the racial insensitivity and more amazed that they thought such an over-acted performance was acceptable in such a cinematic character-driven AAA game.

We've seen plenty of stereotypes performed with class and tact (GTA series, to name one) that don't borderline break the suspension of disbelief of the (otherwise) thoughtfully-crafted game world.

Regardless, It's funny that anyone thinks people (regardless of culture) actually act like that.

@embassy

To add to that, this is also a problem for other VO performances in general in the game.

Oh, and...

"Letitia". Really? lol c'mon.

@embassy

i have absolutely heard people talk like that. being near a city with a good amount of vagrants, i hear that kind of speech quite frequently.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Square Enix responds to Deus Ex racial controversy

Reader Comments (343)

Posted: Sep 1st 2011 2:47PM (Unverified) said

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