If you’re a gamer and a Star Wars fan like myself, you probably played one of the few decent stories to come out of the Star Wars universe since the reign of Kathleen Kennedy began called “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.”
The 2019 game revolves around Jedi padawan Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) who survived Emperor Palpatine’s “Order 66” which killed most of the Jedi and destroyed the order. Kestis was hiding in plain sight until, one day, his luck ran out and he was discovered by the Empire. He was saved by Jedi-in-hiding Cere Junda (Debra Wilson), kicking off a journey to rebuild the Jedi’s fallen order.
The game had its issues but it wasn’t horrible. I personally played it till the end and stayed engaged, just like many others. Lately, that’s about as much as we can ask for from a Star Wars property. Regardless, people were willing to accept it as canon and move on.
As it turns out, new information from one of its devs had caused the social justice community to get into an uproar about it.
You see, the issue here is that Cal Kestis is a white, ginger man. The fact that a red-haired character slipped through the social justice gatekeepers is bad enough, but it gets even worse when they learned from a former Respawn developer on the game that it was suggested that Cal be a black woman and that idea was rejected.
Those are two things that aren’t allowed according to the social justice community. No red-haired white people and if someone suggests a character be something other than a white man, you say “yes.”
Nora Shramek took to Twitter to divulge that during her time working on the game, “a LOT” of devs advocated that Kestis be black and/or a woman. These “a LOT” of devs were told no since Junda was already a black female character and Rey, the lead character in the current crop of Star Wars sequels, was a woman as well.
“Guess what the demographic of the people making those decisions looked like,” said Shramek.
When I worked on SW:JFO a LOT of devs wanted & advocated 4 the main character 2b black &/or a woman. 'Reasons' 4 NO: We already have 2 black people in the game. Rey is a woman & we can't do that to' guess what the demographic of the people making those decisions looked like?
— NoraNevaBoreYa 🏳️🌈 (@NoraShramek) May 10, 2022
She created a thread that claimed one person suggested the skin on black people in the game be more “glossy” because “black people have more oily skin than other people.” She then made the claim that the gaming industry is racist, misogynistic, and homophobic which is pretty standard fare for a social justice advocate who wants to be accepted by other advocates in her space.
She also waxed tragic about the primary villain of the game being a “POC” while the protagonist was a white man.
“Heros need to be woman, queer, and non white people. Especially in culture defining media,” she tweeted among the thread.
Naturally, this is being eaten up. IGN can’t stop retweeting their own story about it and the replies are nothing short of nauseating with many indulging openly in the racist theme Shramek laid down.
Hilariously, she would later be shocked by the backlash to this tweet…which came from the left. She was accused of hating other races for not advocating for theirs, in particular, leading her to lament that the left’s infighting is why they lose and why the right can “literally kill black people without consequence” and “put women in cages.”
It's why they can coordinate to systematically oppress others, strip people of thier rights, litterally kill black people without consequence, remove woman's bodily autonomy, appropriate culture, put women in cages, inser your particular demographic and grievance here.
— NoraNevaBoreYa 🏳️🌈 (@NoraShramek) May 12, 2022
The left must think that the tastiest thing on the planet is other leftists because they sure do love eating their own.
That said, I have questions.
For one, Shramek says that there were “a LOT” of people advocating for Kestis to be a black woman. Okay, then why isn’t she naming these heroes?
If the developers who thought just like her were so many, how come more of the devs aren’t coming to her side and confirming her story? I can’t help but think that this is another attempt to make the hard-left’s numbers seem bigger than they actually are. Moreover, Shramek makes claims about some of the racist moments that she said she experienced, but again, no one is coming forward to confirm this happened. If there were “a LOT” of people who were just as shocked as she was, then where are they?
Secondly, I find it very interesting that she’s locked the thread and will only allow people she approves to comment on it, especially since she made these uncorroborated claims and called them “my experiences.” Why not allow people to ask questions and offer criticisms? Surely someone with all the facts and a die-hard belief in her cause won’t have trouble defending her positions and claims?
Thirdly, the game was released in 2019. Why is she only coming out and talking about it now?
Fourthly, why can’t a white ginger character be a lead? It seems awfully racist to suggest one can’t. They claim that racism is driving fewer characters to check social justice boxes yet I’m looking at mainstream culture and seeing many red-haired, white characters being eliminated quite a bit. Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Triss Merrigold from The Witcher, Mary Jane Watson in the recent Spider-Man movies, Jimmy Olsen in Supergirl, Starfire in Titans, and even April O’Neil of Ninja Turtles. It’s almost like the social justice left is on a quest to rid the industry of them, yet Kestis seemed to slip through.
If the left really cares about representation on screen, then why can’t gingers have their characters? Is the social justice community just lumping them in with all the other white people? That seems awfully racist too. That’d be like calling every person from central America and calling them all “Mexican.”
I have a hard time trying to understand Shramek’s very narrow and racist worldview, and what’s more, I don’t actually believe half the story she’s trying to feed the public. There might be some elements of truth in there, but consider me unconvinced. Game devs have been attacked as of late by the left in order to get them to pressure and I can’t help but see this as an attempt that, frankly, backfired.
My advice to studios? Don’t hire people like Shramek to work on your games. It’ll only result in trouble.
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