Chris Taylor
Contributor
Hahaha, gotcha! This is actually about racism and sensibilities (Mostly), but I do hope a few people get fooled by that title.
So for quite a while now, this has been a card in my cube:
It plays well, it fits well into the environment, it’s not overpowered, and (I think) the flavor works well. Were it not for the mechanical binding of direct damage to red and sometimes black, I think it could be a real magic card.
However recently when Safra was over (A++, would cube with again. Lovely woman), she mentioned that perhaps the name should be changed. She has many friends who are actual victims of police brutality, and that it might do better for me to call it something else. Maybe have it be all coy and have it named “Protect and Serve” instead (and swap the flavor text).
I’m not actually sure if the suggestion was serious or not, but even if it wasn’t it brings up a valid point: What’s my responsibility here?
One thing I’ve been thinking of is that if anything, a name change is probably is the way to go. Slaughter and Murder are magic cards, but the distance created by them depicting ancient kings being assassinated and elves being slaughtered seems to make a world of difference to magic players whose families may be victims of such, since WotC hasn’t (at least publicly) come under fire for printing these cards. Hell, they got more flack for the alpha unholy strength
Oooo scary.
It’s clearly possible to do this without sacrificing gameplay, which I’m sad to say I hold in higher regard than my player’s sensibilities. In fact, my initial laziness has actually helped this a lot. Take for example this card that hypothetically is actually in Shadows over Innistrad: (Though less likely given Declaration in Stone)
A Murder Most Foul
Instant
Destroy target creature. If a nonblack creature is destroyed this way, its controller investigates (Put a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with "2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.")
Nobody will miss you anyways
So if that card was actually spoiled tomorrow, I think it would be a pretty safe bet its playtest name would have been “Hate Crime”, and that WotC (Rightly) changed it to LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE before releasing it.
But, the point I want to bring up here is that the card is significantly less of an issue in this way if the art depicts a vampire or a zombie being beaten down rather than a black man in rags. (Though is it a murder if the target is undead?)
A lot of people have suggested that Police Brutality should only target nonwhite creatures, arguments being that “White people aren’t victims of police brutality” and “Sunlance++ is a much more likely card to see print than white searing spear” in equal number. While both of those camps are wrong (The former because police brutality is hardly a North American concept, and certainly happens in regions of Africa where being white is maligned, plus if I’m going to be flippant, white gay people certainly exist, and the latter because this doesn’t hit players), I don’t think either of those arguments are pushing me either way here.
But perhaps pointing at the art of Knight Watch and saying that the closest thing to a minority in that picture is a goblin in the background reminds you more of an “I’m not racist, I have tons of black friends” more than any convincing argument. Let’s go down another hypothetical:
As above, this card is called extinction, but given the flavor text is more closely related to Genocide. I don’t think Volrath is talking about the buffalo-like creatures in the art when he mentions he had an entire race wiped out on a whim.
But hey, that card is fine. It’s about elves if you look closely and buffalo if you don’t look too hard, and for all we know it’s just Volrath blustering as emptily as people on Xbox live. This card and Volrath generally being a bastard are all the evidence we have that it isn't.
However, what if someone has it altered to show the entrance to Auschwitz? That’s a moving piece of art, and it probably makes you feel something. Or maybe whenever a player casts it they start paraphrasing Hitler’s speeches about whatever creature type they’re naming. That may be less so.
I’m not sure yet. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I’m wondering what you guys think. At least as opposed to most discussions of race on the internet, I’ve got a discernable, answerable question and goal
What’s the play?
So for quite a while now, this has been a card in my cube:
It plays well, it fits well into the environment, it’s not overpowered, and (I think) the flavor works well. Were it not for the mechanical binding of direct damage to red and sometimes black, I think it could be a real magic card.
However recently when Safra was over (A++, would cube with again. Lovely woman), she mentioned that perhaps the name should be changed. She has many friends who are actual victims of police brutality, and that it might do better for me to call it something else. Maybe have it be all coy and have it named “Protect and Serve” instead (and swap the flavor text).
I’m not actually sure if the suggestion was serious or not, but even if it wasn’t it brings up a valid point: What’s my responsibility here?
One thing I’ve been thinking of is that if anything, a name change is probably is the way to go. Slaughter and Murder are magic cards, but the distance created by them depicting ancient kings being assassinated and elves being slaughtered seems to make a world of difference to magic players whose families may be victims of such, since WotC hasn’t (at least publicly) come under fire for printing these cards. Hell, they got more flack for the alpha unholy strength
Oooo scary.
It’s clearly possible to do this without sacrificing gameplay, which I’m sad to say I hold in higher regard than my player’s sensibilities. In fact, my initial laziness has actually helped this a lot. Take for example this card that hypothetically is actually in Shadows over Innistrad: (Though less likely given Declaration in Stone)
A Murder Most Foul
Instant
Destroy target creature. If a nonblack creature is destroyed this way, its controller investigates (Put a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with "2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.")
Nobody will miss you anyways
So if that card was actually spoiled tomorrow, I think it would be a pretty safe bet its playtest name would have been “Hate Crime”, and that WotC (Rightly) changed it to LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE before releasing it.
But, the point I want to bring up here is that the card is significantly less of an issue in this way if the art depicts a vampire or a zombie being beaten down rather than a black man in rags. (Though is it a murder if the target is undead?)
A lot of people have suggested that Police Brutality should only target nonwhite creatures, arguments being that “White people aren’t victims of police brutality” and “Sunlance++ is a much more likely card to see print than white searing spear” in equal number. While both of those camps are wrong (The former because police brutality is hardly a North American concept, and certainly happens in regions of Africa where being white is maligned, plus if I’m going to be flippant, white gay people certainly exist, and the latter because this doesn’t hit players
), I don’t think either of those arguments are pushing me either way here.But perhaps pointing at the art of Knight Watch and saying that the closest thing to a minority in that picture is a goblin in the background reminds you more of an “I’m not racist, I have tons of black friends” more than any convincing argument. Let’s go down another hypothetical:
As above, this card is called extinction, but given the flavor text is more closely related to Genocide. I don’t think Volrath is talking about the buffalo-like creatures in the art when he mentions he had an entire race wiped out on a whim.
But hey, that card is fine. It’s about elves if you look closely and buffalo if you don’t look too hard, and for all we know it’s just Volrath blustering as emptily as people on Xbox live. This card and Volrath generally being a bastard are all the evidence we have that it isn't.
However, what if someone has it altered to show the entrance to Auschwitz? That’s a moving piece of art, and it probably makes you feel something. Or maybe whenever a player casts it they start paraphrasing Hitler’s speeches about whatever creature type they’re naming. That may be less so.
I’m not sure yet. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I’m wondering what you guys think. At least as opposed to most discussions of race on the internet, I’ve got a discernable, answerable question and goal
What’s the play?
