Red Dead Redemption 2's Black Cowboys Are Important

Red Dead Redemption 2 has an opportunity to turn “the forgotten man of the West” into a compelling part of its upcoming Western epic.

[GrubsterBeater]

Man, you Liberals are obsessed with making everything about race...

[Sm00thNinja]

And you conservative bunch are quick to make everything about politics.

Scratch that because I don't identify with either idiotic side.

[bluefox755]

I mean, there's the side that wants to box everyone in different identity groups based on their skin color, and the side that doesn't.

[Godmars290]

@bluefox755:
More like one side wants people divided by race, the other by economic conditions. Both claiming the higher moral ground while many have skewed moral values.

[Sm00thNinja]

Both sides like to poke fingers. Both sides are f**** retarded. The fact that you associate your beliefs into a single category of conservative or liberal is simple minded on its own. Incredible how divided both sides have caused this country to become. And it's even more incredible THIS is what we're talking about when Red Dead Redemption 2 is bound to be so amazing

[psuedo]

Its idiotic to think sides are idiotics because sides and things are only a means to seperate us and find scapegoats. Modern day witch hunts without the killing. Everyone needs to get their **** out of their hand and say ya know what. Its neither us or them but the establishment. Not a certain side, but the entirety.

[starchild]

Identity politics sucks. It's end result is to make people hyper aware of and focused on race. As someone who genuinely does not believe an individual should be judged by what group they are perceived to belong to but rather by their qualities as an individual I think identity politics is extremely harmful.

[Sm00thNinja]

@psuedo. It's idiotic to think that there needs to be two sides and we should remain divided as a people. Idealism like that is why were in this mess as a country to begin with. Two not acknowledge we've gone backwards as a people is plain ignorance

[CaptainObvious878]

Ummm, excuse me. "black cowboys" is a highly offensive term. Us regressives prefer "cowboys of colour". Thank you very much. /s

[Cobra951]

Not precise enough. It needs to be Subsaharanafricanamerican cowboys.

[XabiDaChosenOne]

What did IGN state in the article that was incorrect?

[b163o1]

IKR, it is at its core history, and as a black man I appreciate R*'s authenticity, and implementing our culture in a era that has been white washed (NoDisrespect) thru out history...

[Cueil]

The article was good the title was not

[zypher]

It's always been about race. Why else do you think pop culture rarely ever portrayed black cowboys at all, let alone to the tune of 1 in every 4?

[bluefox755]

Ugh, why are some people utterly obsessed with skin color?

[Araragifeels]

Because they want to be a sheep and follow the current trend who want to make color or race a big deal for any source of entertainment. I don't mind color or different race character since I like MC from game like GTA: S, Sleeping Dogs, Assassin's Creed 1-3, and more but trying to force color or race for everything is a turn off.

[RememberThe357]

Because the entirety of American history has had black people under it's boot. So you can sit around whistling Dixie or you can see that white Americans have been oppressing black Americans from the beginning. We have pivital black figures in our histroy that we know nothing about because white writers didn't think those men are worth our time. That's not victimization, that's reality, and it's good to point out how we're rectify our past idiocy.

The US census still uses the arcane "one drop" rule to define ethnic heritage, conservatives routinely called an American President an ape and a monkey because of his skin color, American police officers are still more likely to shoot an unarmed black man than any other race. These are facts, and they have their contexts. They don't prove that all white people are racist, I'm not, but they do inicate that the ways of thinking and the systems that come from those ways of thinking are not representative of the people they're supposed to be regulating.

I understand that America actually has economic class systems masquerading as racail systems and that Democrats are idiotic in trying to play up that blatant lie. But I also know that as a nation, as a culture, we have hurt entire groups of people based on their skin color or ethnic heritage. To me doing a little house keeping, showing that we see where the lies were told, is a good thing and something we need a lot more of.

To me most of our political upheaval over the last two decade has been the lies we've told each other coming to light and our inability to see and accept our reality.

I don't think pretending racism doesn't exist because you don't happen to be racist is useful at all. And to then make fun of a point of view that takes into account more history than your willing to acknowledge is adolescent at best.

But hey, who the f*** am I?

[The_Sage]

Wow! Your view of today's society is so negative that it must be hard to get through the day. While still far from perfect massive strides have been made in this country. I mean... We did elect a black man President for heavens sake. Twice.

I do agree that people need to educate themselves in the true history of this country and see where the issues that we have been dealing with actually came from. A non-biased real look back will open a lot of eyes.

[staticall]

Hmm, so asian cowboys are not important, right, IGN? /s

P. S.: Why race, gender and sexual preferences are always so important to them?

[pyroxxx]

Because 'liberals' (they really aren't) are retarded and they have nothing to talk about besides race,sexual identity, identity politics in general,..),.. All they can talk about is praise of their moral relativism and globalism. It is really sad.

[XabiDaChosenOne]

Asian cowboys barely existed, as opposed to black cowboys that were 1 out of every 4.

[XabiDaChosenOne]

NewUser101, try not to confuse yourself into an brain aneurysm. Here it is again, the black cowboy population is significant enough to deserve representation/acknowlegement, the Asian cowboy population is not.
Fin

[ShadowWolf712]

@NewUser101 How is accurately portraying the Old West somehow pandering?

You guys were all about the authenticity until this dropped.

[RememberThe357]

Authentic means "only whites," didn't you know?

[InKnight7s]

Why everybody forgot about Camelboys?

This is so pathetic and stupid.

[Cobra951]

Many Asians were indentured servants building railroads. Blacks were mostly slaves or their direct descendants. Neither race figured prominently in the power struggles of the time. But that reality doesn't matter in any fiction created today, does it? There's a rabid totalitarian movement to appease.

[ShadowWolf712]

Wow, that's an incredibly ignorant statement.
"They existed but because they were once slaves or their descendants they don't matter so they shouldn't be there" is perhaps the dumbest take on this on the site.

[Atticus_finch]

People for some reason will be really bothered by this article. I'm actually glad to know Gta will have a diverse and fledged out world.

[Atticus_finch]

Rdr*

[RememberThe357]

N4G is a hotbed for the GamerGate types. I only come here still because I like to argue and this really is the best place to go for gaming news.

[DirtyBollix]

Such a bullshit article. I'm guessing the author states how they like to be identified on twitter.

[Futureshark]

I'll be so angry if the lighter skinned 'people of color' are more successful then the darker skinned 'people of color', in this game!! Outrage!!!

[RememberThe357]

Haha like the fake difficulty meter for the South Park game? That was classic.

[Inzo]

Are the white cowboys important too... oh look no one cares. F#*^! these gaming sites have gone off the rails. If I was a developer I would bite my lip every time a gaming site tries to bring that identity politics BS into my game. The of course there is EA who dont need journalists help to get derailed.

[ShadowWolf712]

Did you maybe look to see why they said this is an important thing to portray?

[Inzo]

Yes I did, the "why" is not the problem, its the insistence of the article that I have an issue with.

[NickAwesome]

Instead of caring for gameplay and stories game journalist only care only about pushing their political agenda lately, i miss the times when things like this didn't matter and all gamers where united, there was a time when a game was judged by how fun it was. how silly is that?

[milohighclub]

All ya'll complaining about these guys going on about race... Don't click the link, don't give them the hits.
Also, funny how you only ever see conservatives complaining about liberals. Not the other way around.
Grow up?!

[Aries83]

I don't understand how so many people get upset when a black person, etc. is included in a game. In regards to this article, people act like black people are being added in for the sake of inclusion. If black people made up 1/4 of the cowboy population, why shouldn't they be added in the Wild West? An all white Wild West is historically inaccurate, and if it bothers you that this game doesn't have an all white cast of characters, you're the poison that perpetuates racism...

[raWfodog]

I don't think the people are getting upset over the fact that there are black cowboys in the game (that would be beyond stupid) but rather the media's obsession with pointing out every time women or minorities are depicted in video games. I can honestly say that as a black man I never focused on the number of minorities or women there were in the game. I just had fun with the game no matter who my main character was and that ranged from man, woman, black, white, hispanic, etc. I don't need articles pointing out the importance of 'x number of y in this game'.

[Hungryalpaca]

People aren’t mad there’s black cowboys. They’re mad the media is focusing on skin colour rather than the character as a character.

It’s racist to do that. MLK is rolling in his grave.

They’re important because they’re black. Not because they’re people. Thats how he media portrays it. That’s why people are upset.

[Scar-]

MLK is rolling in his grave but not because of this silly BS. MLK talked about race that was always his key speaking point his dream was for EQUALITY among all races something we still don't have. Seriously how is anything going to change unless its discussed.

[ShadowWolf712]

They're important because they're finally being included in a setting in which they're traditionally ignored in pop culture despite having a very high historical presence.

THAT is what makes this an important inclusion, just like finally depicting Native Americans as something other than cruel/evil "savages" was an important change in this genre as well.

[rainslacker]

I haven't seen anyone fussed over it either way until this article came along.

Seems that the issues surrounding race in this regard are over the political aspects which are being added to the topic at hand.

This kind of is in line with people's desire to see less politics injected into our hobby.

[AK91]

So what the native Americans and Mexicans RDR 1 didn't matter at all?

[ShadowWolf712]

The Native Americans and Mexicans had been included in depictions of the Old West for a long time. Black people, despite having a VERY high historical presence in the Old West, are still often not depicted in popular culture, and if/when they are it's treated as some sort of historical novelty or exception when in reality it was very common. Mel Brooks, for example, joked about this in Blazing Saddles.

[sampsonon]

i think they are brain dead.

[sampsonon]

yes they do, that's why almost every movie or show always have them in it.

just not black cowboys.

simple, i know right?

[2pacalypsenow]

They're are as important as any other character in that game.

[toneblanco925]

White people and their small petite dicks are always hating when black people are included in REAL HISTORIC EVENTS. Just say you don't like us but sorry we're here and we are pop culture whether you like it or not. White people have no culture other than stealing land, crusading and killing innocent men, women and children, hotdogs and processed food, doing the backpack boy dance, shooting up schools, and high fives.

[Noskypeno]

Black peoplw buy male enhancements all the time. I know because i worked in a ghetto apartments.

[Noskypeno]

And if the egyptians were black, they were the ones that made slavery popular.

[XabiDaChosenOne]

That first sentence was unnecessary.

[Scar-]

I actually read the article and it was a decent read. Gamers are some of the most transparent racist you will ever meet, notice that predominantly white games are perfect but the second there is a inclusion of Minorities its zomg "why are some people utterly obsessed with skin color" "Liberals are obsessed". The only time these people are happy is when its all white go look up EVERY article that introduced a person of color to a game series and read the comments y'all hate any and ever character that isn't white.

[ghostrider32]

Half of these people whining are probably from Boston.

[sampsonon]

now they say historical accuracy isn't important lol
what a funny community

[CarlDechance]

" Historians agree that black people made up around ¼ of all cowboys"

Cool. But I'm confused about when we, as gamers, are supposed to care about historical accuracy and when we are not.

[sampsonon]

and you, the gamer seem to always care when it's a female soldier in BF5, or a black soldier in BF1.
funny how people can change their tune just like that.

now all of a sudden historical accuracy isn't important.

[rainslacker]

But is anyone upset, or put off by the inclusion of black cowboys in RDR2?

Female soldiers and war paint in WWII is in no way historically accurate in the way it was being presented.

If RDR2 was doing this in a way that wasn't believable, then there probably would be people complaining.

Most of the complaining I see now isn't over the inclusion of black cowboys, it's over the disposition of the article, which is making it into something a lot more than it really is, and making it about it's importance to the black community, instead of focusing on if the character will be good or not.

For the most part, I think people expected R* to deliver on a quality game, with quality characters, and since I haven't seen most people be upset over any gender or race as a character in a game where it makes sense, or isn't an issue at all, I fail to see how this is any kind of indication that people are racists or sexists when the topic arises.

[ShadowWolf712]

When it's a historically accurate comment and inclusion, I'm cool with it.

When it's not, I'm kinda not.

Consistent. Simple. Does not make one look racist.

Folks should try it sometime.

[sampsonon]

enough said, move along.

https://www.smithsonianmag....

[toneblanco925]

95% of super heroes and videogame protagonists are white. Representation matters.

[PurpHerbison]

My only issue is I know this inclusion isn't done out of the goodness of the companies heart. They don't give a shit. They are just saving face from the media outlash that would have been if they didn't include black cowboys. Ridiculous times we live in.