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Sacred Symbols+, Episode XLVI: The Black Gaming Experience (Patreon)

Published:
2020-06-16 16:00:08
Edited:
2020-06-27 16:59:41
Imported:
2022-01

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In America as of late, racial tensions have been running high, and while there's plenty of room for the political and social discourse surrounding recent events, it makes a lot of sense to explore the question of race from other perspectives, too. So, since this is a video game podcast, why not discuss these issues in relation to our fandom? To do so, I (Colin) invited YouTuber Mama Micah onto the show. Micah is a black woman in her mid-20s, and she actually reached out to me to chat about some of my own opinions in regard to our current period of civil unrest. What unfolded behind-the-scenes, however -- not to mention on this very episode of + -- proves that we're all far more alike than we are different.

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Comments

Connor Staley

Here from the newest Constellation... amazing how things turn out. Congratulations!

Jose Horrach

Very excited to listen. Getting a Fireside chats vibe from it!

Andrew Christensen

This is gonna be awesome, I miss conversations with Colin from other people

Will Hahn

Fireside chat for the win!

Anonymous

Thanks for putting this together Colin! Great to see so many outlets giving lesser heard voices a chance to shine!

Jorge Aponte

Oh I miss Fireside Chats

Michael Ferrari

Colin, you say there is not the right words to properly have the conversation. I understand 100% what you are saying. If I can roughly quote the late, great, Patrice O'Neal, "I'm not talking in terms of RACIST, I'm talking about RACIAL." I feel like we all too often misconstrue RACIAL discussions, with being RACIST. We shouldn't be afraid to talk racially, and I think this misunderstanding is at the heart of a lot of issues.

Alex Bolton

I am really excited to give this one a listen, as someone who misses fireside chats so much, this feels like it could be like one of those episodes! Thanks Colin for always building and improving this brand, I'm so glad to see it continue to grow and thrive.

Andrew Christensen

This made me think, that maybe developers should shift focus on putting female protagonists in video games (as I think we can pretty much agree that their are very few female pc/console gamers), and start putting in more BLACK leads in games, as in my own limited orbit, I can honestly say that every single one of my black friends are gamers, and if this is even remotely indicative of the greater reality, black characters need more representation in protagonist roles.... I cannot think of many black protagonists, and I think that's a shame.

Patrick Dougherty

Not all the way finished with the episode, but thank you and Mama Micah for having this conversation. I do not personally agree with much of what you say on this topic Colin, but I do think conversation is an important way forward for everyone (plus, we are all entitled to our opinions and have things to learn from one another ) I find this a really enriching episode and I hope more folks across the country engage with each other. Hats off! :)

Alex Bolton

She better be a Bruins fan!!! If she's on this Patreon, I'd love to chat with her about the comeback of the NHL playoff season

Toren R. (KESA)

Fellow Bi-Racial gamer, who also went to an otherwise, entirely White prep-school and works in a likewise industry - and I can just say, that when you're the only Black person, especially a bi-racial one, in most of your social circles, it can be extremely difficult to feel comfortable, or even qualified, to speak up on race. This is especially true if you have or choose to highlight positive experiences. So for Micah to step up to the plate, especially this Month, is beyond impressive on it's own. I don't follow anyone on twitter, really, but she's got a new one in me, and I've also subbed to her YouTube. Big Ups, Sis🙌🏽

Michael Ferrari

Wow, she was an awesome guest! I loved this episode. She needs a bigger platform for sure. I'm so tired of the voices we hear mostly just being the extremists on both sides looking to just pander or stir the pot. Already subscribed to her on YouTube, I hope she comes back on in the future.

Michael Maneage

Thanks for doing this Colin. Honest discussion and listening to one another is what we need.

Toren R. (KESA)

OH wow, I didn't know that Laura Bailey was cast prior to Nadine's final design...I was never mad at it, but I did feel confused about it at the time. That said, I do remember being let down that Romeo, the Black member of ODST was voiced by Nolan North, which is admittedly completely inconsequential - but just to provide contrast. lastly, Barret in FF7 Remake is also a mixed bag...I dont mind him being cartoonishly Black in the original game...but now that the story is so much more fleshed out and handled in a more, hmm, thoughtful way...his characterization sticks out to me in a way breaks the tone...I think there's a way to be very aggressive, or capable of aggression, in a manner that would have been more tonally consistent, ie, Denzel In Man on Fire. (I wish....you had....more time.) PS in FF XII, Fran is Black and Reddas literally Samuel Jackson in a pink blouse

Drew Sleezer

A really great conversation! It's nice to hear introspective conversations, along with a positive/open tone about a very serious topic. I would gladly welcome more content like this if the opportunity arises!

Drew Sleezer
>>38748025

The reaction to Miles Morales starring in his own game was overwhelmingly positive from every person (in my experience). I wouldn't be surprised to see more follow in its wake.

Zibi Majewski

I love her silky smooth voice. Great podcast.

jettxjordan

Some amazing black characters in video games: - Marcus in Watch Dogs 2 - Marlene in Last of Us - Lee in Walking Dead - Miles Morales in Spider-Man - Shaq in Shaqfu - Bayek of Siwa in AC Odyssey - Eddie Gordo (Brazilian,) but a black/brown character nonetheless in Tekken - Jacqui and Jax in Mortal Kombat - Nadene in Uncharted - Parappa the Rapper - Jaleel White as Sonic - KEITH DAVID AS SERGEANT FOLEY in Modern Warfare

Stewy108

Fantastic episode! Great conversation with informative points. Now who's pitching in with me to get Hockey tickets so we can send these two to a game. (Whenever it comes back).

German Efficiency

Hi Colin, as a one of your former Fireside Chat guests with a mixed racial background I was very much anticipating this conversation with Micah. I have to first of all say thank you for having her on and state that she did a fantastic job! After listening, I had a few thoughts that I thought would leave here. Colin, you named this episode: "The Black Gaming Experience" and the easiest way for me to summarize how I feel is just by demonstrating what happens when you change the title of this episode. Imagine you named it: "The Black American Gaming Experience", "The Half Black Gaming Experience" or even "The Mixed Racial, Female, Raised in a poor income but Mostly White neighborhood Gaming Experience" My point: We ("Black Gamers") are not a monolithic block of people. This is not a criticism of you as I feel within the larger industry you point that fact out most frequently and markedly treat people that look different from you with respect and show an interest in what they have to say (as long as they don't piss you off for their "reasons" that is.) Both Micah and I grew up in a mixed racial home, surrounded by mostly white people. I can probably relate to many of her perspectives for that very same reason. It's also for that very same reason that she and I much like you will inherently have blindspots about peoples perspectives who were not surrounded by white communities on a day to day. My point is: We are shaped by our life circumstances not purely by the color of our skin. And Yes I acknowledge that for many people especially in the leading developed and considered free country of the world (USA) the experience of being a minority leads to an overall worse treatment of them as a person. The viscious circle so to speak and something I hope will change for the positive as peoples mindsets evolve. Lastly, I agree with both Micah and another person who wrote in for this episode: I am always mindboggled by the fact that some people inherently expect of me to have this completely different persepective on video games. I grew up with SNES RPGs (Terranigma, Secret of Evermore!), one of my favorite relaxing games IS Harvest Moon, and I do get annoyed when people want to have minorities on their shows JUST for the sake of this supposed different perspective. I often times feel that the people who ask for that do not think that giving a POC a space just so they can show how supposedly "different" they are, when they probably have many if not all of the same interests as the non-POC, just puts a spotlight on the POC to be once again singled out for being "not different enough." I am glad POC are getting more exposure but I would have wished it happened because people took a chance on someone new rather than being told it's the right thing to do for this "moment" we are in. As many times with Black people acomblishments, it kinda comes with this subtext of having to be thankful to the other side for allowing this moment to happen. Once again, Micah was fantastic and I agree with her perspective a lot. Stay safe, and congratulations on your success! -Sean P.S.: Apologies in case this is a duplicate post, Patreon seem to have killed my first one after an edit I made.

German Efficiency
>>38750827

Bayek is in AC Origins not Odyssey, but from that list above he was my favorite to play as. :)

Chad Lewis

This is one of my favorite works you’ve done. You continue to set the example of how to have constructive conversations.

Anonymous

Colin - you need to hire her! Would love for her to be another co-host of the podcast. Or maybe you can make a new podcast. Her voice is so fresh and you guys have great chemistry.

Mark Zebro, Jr.

All around great conversation between you two. Loved hearing Mama Micah’s perspective on these matters. Also, just subbed to her channel. She makes some really wholesome content.

Anonymous

As a person who aspire to be a creator I would love seeing more black people or POC because that’s what I aspire and I can bet you that it isn’t easy to get in that space and it’s even worse cause of my skin color. I promise that representation is key. If a company doesn’t know how to write for a POC then they need to hire people that do. They hire ff or everything else.

Garry

Just finished the podcast and Micah was brilliant, articulated her points really well she is definitely someone who I would like to se back just to talk about games in General.

Anonymous

I loved Micah but I really felt like you should’ve brought someone else on like Parrish. Constructive conversation was had but no good points were hit on for including black people or even why I would like to see someone that looks like me to be the hero in said video game or movie. Bring someone like Parrish on

Tyler Floyd

Loved the show and Micah, but seems a little backward that she cancels her Last of Us 2 preorder over the story leaks. Feels odd hearing that while in the next few sentences talking about black characters and stereotypes and representation. Still a fan of hers but was a little disappointing to hear her opinion on the leaks

KingKeiffer

Total Fireside 2.0 vibes coming in strong. Mama Micah is intelligent and easy to listen to!

JD
>>38754712

Based on Twitter, this Parris dude hates Colin and celebrated when PAX cancelled the SS panel.

Anonymous

Oh ok.Messier I didn’t know that but still feel like someone else should’ve been on

D'Ante Almo

As one of your black supporters. Thank you for this Colin. She’s really cool and made great points.

Taylor Laduron

Just finished the episode. While I loved the episode and hearing Micah’s perspective on the black experience in the gaming community, I would’ve liked to have had Colin’s views challenged a little bit more on the subject of George Floyd’s murder. I agree with Micah on the fact that some folks have been focusing on the riots and looting of the recent events and not spending enough time talking about police brutality and the unchecked power most of these departments seem to have in our society. I think it warranted a little more than just a mention within the first 10 minutes of the podcast. I understand that it’s not at all what the podcast was centered around, and time was short, but I would’ve liked to have heard Colin challenged a little more on that front. While I’m a fan of Colin’s (have been and will be), I do criticize him a bit for making entire Twitter posts or hours on Twitch streams dedicated to talking about how rioting and looting isn’t helping, but mentioning in a small aside that police brutality is bad. I just think conversation should MOSTLY be examining the latter, rather than the former. Just want to reiterate that I’m a fan of Colin’s, long-time patron, and I LOVED this episode. However, I felt somewhat dissatisfied with that portion of the conversation and thought it could’ve been a little less soft ball. Maybe this would be a worthy topic to invite Micah back on the speak about in a follow up conversation? Just my two cents!

Ross Joseph

Loved this episode. Mama Micah is always a joy to watch on YouTube. Always positive vibes. Hearing her here, was good to hear a different perspective on gaming.

Romeo

I'm Puerto Rican too, just like Yulián. In fact, he's my friend. There is something very particular that I have to go through as a "white Puerto Rican". I do know who I am and I know that I have black, taino and many other genes in me as any other Puerto Rican does, but something has always bothered me. I grew up with my aunt. Mom and dad died when I was a baby. She took care of me, and worked very hard to have everything she has today and everything we had. Grew up in a tiny house with a zinc roof. I still remember the banging of the rats running around the ceiling at night, or having to run away every single time a hurricane came because our house was in a "barrio" close to sea and the roof could also fly away. I grew up being bullied and having kids make fun of my dead mother just because they could. This of course has affected my self-esteem. The only reason why I could study in a small cheap private school was because my mom (aunt) was using the small social security check she got from my dead father to pay for my education. I currently work my ass off and earn 8 dollars an hour (pretty common in PR) while still studying because a lot of different situations in my life have led to me not graduating yet. I have anxiety, OCD and a few years ago got diagnosed with ADD (I'm 28). And yet, here's what bothers me: I've been called privileged because I'm fairly white and heterosexual, and a lot of people have assumed that I'm always speaking from a "place of privilege". Not only that, but if I recognize my nationality and who I am as a Puerto Rican (mixed genes), I'm often "remembered" by black Puerto Ricans on the left that I am, in fact, white and thus, privileged. Then, if I decide to identify myself as a "white Puerto Rican", I'm told I'm a racist for "ignoring" the rest of my genes. This is something I don't ever talk about because almost nobody can understand it. I've had people who I considered friends make fun of me when I talk about it. Race should not be this fucking complicated. And it should never be a reason to assume things about people. When we say we all bleed the fucking same, it includes ALL of us. Saying I've never experienced racism for being white, and then assuming my skin tone makes me completly fucking inmune to the world is actually racist, even though a lot of ideologues will make you believe that to be a racist you need power, and thus a black person can't be racist.

desperateLuck

Regarding racism in America generally, I do think a lot of people (including Colin) softly downplay racial issues in America by focusing on individual experiences/responsibility rather than the broader statistical outcomes. Obviously the black demographic has substantially worse outcomes than other groups in America, and historically there are social and institutional reasons for this. I know Colin leans toward the responsibility of the individual to pull themselves out of that, but its simply not fair to expect that. Liberals focusing on promoting minorities are attempting to change these statistical outcomes. This might not be fair in some individual cases, but neither is being born to a race with far less generational wealth/social cachet. It's obviously a selfish stance to be content with 'normalcy' when you have already been born into a massively advantageous position.

Anonymous

Great on Mama Micah! A permanent Sacred symbols member in the making?? Do it Colin!

Anonymous

Strongly disagree with Micah on so much glad to hear from her but at the same time its disappointing hearing her opinion on so many issues that aren't really issues.

Keith W
>>38758866

The obsession with equality is in itself left wing morality. To be right wing is to accept that no man is equal to any other man, nor is that man even his own equal on different days. We are all wonderfully diverse and different from one another, with different strengths, weaknesses and skills at different magnitudes. Disparate outcomes are neither a problem nor an item of concern. The only concern is are rules just and uniformly enforced. There can be improvements in this area absolutely, and much of the outcomes could be due to past uneven treatment which can be rectified by fixing application of law, but the disparate outcomes we see are not in themselves a concern. It’s not our job to help others out. I will treat everyone with respect, but nobody owes anyone else anything but courtesy and to leave them be.

Philip Andersen

Always when someone brings up the skin color of voice actors etc. I always think of Kratos in God of War. He's voiced by a black man and my thinking is never the color of someone's skin for me it's just... Damn, Christopher judge did a amazing job. :P

Marcus Brown

This was great! I for sure hope for her to return.

Kendrick Calles (Ca-Yes)

I loved this episode. Micah was so chill and well spoken. Articulated her thoughts so well. Now I gotta follow her channel. Hats off.

Anonymous

Micah is AWESOME! She gained a new fan fantastic listen please have her back on again in some capacity

Raymond keys

I loved this episode! Much respect to Micah. I enjoyed hearing her perspective. As a black man, I definitely related to her when she said people thought just because she was a female she was suppose to play a certain type of game. I can relate, as black male, I enjoy RPGs in and more niche games and Jrpgs, but still enjoy my black culture and I guess what you would consider the “stereotypical” game a black man would play (nba 2K, Madden). It doesn’t happen to be one or the other. I hope she gains a bigger audience after this! Looking forward to her return. Thanks Colin, for doing a show like this, I have been following you for years, your willingness to have these type of shows and content is why your show is unmatched!

Marius Skarsem Pedersen

Good episode, and very interesting conversation. I was surprised you didn't get more into the police brutality vs looting, which seemed to be the linchpin of why this episode came about. Overall I got a Fireside chats feeling, which is much appreciated. ❤️ It would be interesting to have more perspectives on this topic from black people with a different background.

Dom posa

Watch dogs 2 was one of the best Ubisoft games this gen and it’s always forgotten. Maybe something to do with the protagonist being black, I don’t know. Damn good game.

Jeff Pollard

Really enjoyed this episode!! Hope you have Micah on again soon!!

Miky Sh

My heart melted when they mentioned last of us. I've been avoiding spoilers and we're so close to the release LOL

David Portnov
>>38775567

I love Watch_Dogs 2! It was definitely a game where I thought it was way more interesting having a black protagonist than just another white guy. It would have been good either way if the gameplay remained the same, but it was a refreshing decision on Ubisoft's part.

Travis Stockton

Colin, a correction on your comments about minority hosts for Beyond, PS I Love You XOXO and Sacred Symbols. The new run of PS I Love You XOXO is co-hosted by Blessing Adeoye Jr. (@BlessingJr) and has been since it's reinstatement in KF's lineup of shows. Not sure if you misspoke or just were not aware.

Luke Silletta
>>38754931

I accidentally saw the leaks and people are not upset for any stereotype or representation reason. I'm very much for more representation in games and the leaks have me worried as well. I'm still getting it day 1.

Grabilicious

Good conversation that I’m glad you had. But echoing some comments, didn’t feel like enough talk about looting v police brutality. I say this as a big fan Colin, but I really worry when people seem to turn a blind eye to police brutality. Much like Sam Harris’s podcast recently, it’s really odd when people put out there that it’s tacitly acceptable for police to act in the manner we’ve seen to curb looting or even in the process of general arrests. Looting is bad, institutional violence is so much worse. Sanctioning it by passive acceptance, because ‘the police have a hard job’ as someone like Harris puts out is at it’s basis defeatism. We would not accept a soldier committing a war crime due to stressful nature of their occupation. Anyway, I enjoyed the podcast and glad you reached out to someone offering good natured criticism. Too few will, and this has always been a thing I respect about you.

Will Hahn

Such a wonderful episode. Micah is fantastic!

Big Swingin' Rick

This was a great chat, you guys had a great, organic back and fourth and I can't help but secretly ship you two. I know that's reductive but it's meant lightheartedly :D

Juan Paolini

Loved this episode! I miss Fireside chats and this gave me those vibes.

Liam Fagan

This was a really great episode. Made me miss fireside chats. Why not do these as fireside chats? Even if there is just a handful a year.

Russell Garrett

Serious Fireside Chats vibe from this. Loved it.

Empty Symbol

Half way through the podcast. And I gotta say this Chick is dope! Something she said made me think though, Most of the channels I watch are primarily white people but it's not a concious thing im looking for. I mostly click on thumbnails that interest me, but I just noticed that YouTube isn't reccomending me channels led by Black people or any other minority unless I am already subscribed to them. This is , now that I think about it, very wierd.

Empty Symbol

Maybe you could put this up on YouTube or make it free for a bit like you did for the ps5 controller episode. I think more people really should see this especially with everything going on right now

Anonymous

Micha, what you described is probably the most fundamental principle of social psychology; we constantly look for similarities and familiarities, either good or bad. You crying, wishing to see more families like yours, is beautiful and quite explainable :)

Dave Carsley

Colin, in my opinion, you need to put this up on free feeds. People need to see REAL examples right now of how folks who are of different races, genders, and political views (none of which *should* matter at all, even though we all know in 2020, it does) but who are bound by just a simple ideal or two -- in this case, the love of video gaming -- can and do have productive and respectful conversations and can even learn to understand and teach one another through such exchanges. If you think about it, it's almost a parallel for the ideal of America-- people who are bound by almost nothing other than a scant few common ideals can build the most prosperous nation mankind has ever seen. BUT ONLY IF THEY REGULARLY EXCHANGE Ideas. If they don't, it's all over. As a long time Patron, I'm personally more than happy to be the one who paid for this content so it could be heard by everyone who didn't.

Raymond keys
>>38772246

I agree, even a different black person will give another perspective. It’s not even always about police brutality but sometimes people forget about racial stereotypes some police officers have. I have never been beaten up by a cop, but I have definitely been harassed simply because of some cops stereotypes of a young black male. I have had friends who have been harrassed and even pulled over by the cops just because he was a black guy driving a nice car passing through a white neighborhood.

Anthony A.
>>38793713

Well said. Colin, I agree with everything this gent said. It should be up on free feeds.

Jake Z

I'm surprised Colin never thought of going into the arts as a luxury. It's well known historically that education in the arts was for the aristocratic class.

SLtheFMA

I really enjoyed this episode. Reminds me of something that would have been a Fireside Chats episode

Caleb Greer

I’ll say Microsoft seems to have a lot of black protagonists: Del in the new Gears trilogy is a huge protagonist, Cole Train, the black Agent who headlines the Crackdown series, and Sgt. Johnson in Halo...

BettyAnn Moriarty

I really enjoyed this episode. Micah and Colin seem to have a great rapport (not easy to do when you don’t ‘know’ one another and further, are not in the same room). The conversation was interesting, and Micah was so very introspective and frankly, charming - that I wanted more. Thank you both for taking the time to meet and chat honestly and openly.

MostlyCharlie

Bravo! You need to have her on more.

Anonymous

Bring her back, she was amazing.

Watch Ergo Proxy

"Has your perspective been painted at all by being a black woman?" - "Honestly, it hasn't really come up." Great talk

Anonymous

I've never written in before...but man, thank you so much for doing this episode 🥺👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Kevin Tuber

They threw rocks at her mom. Heartbreaking. 🥺😔😤😡

Anonymous

Micah was excellent! This is my favorite episode of SS+ - I love it when Colin brings on individuals that disagree with him. Would love to see more of this. Keep up the great content!

Anonymous

For real?

MikeLee

Micah was great, it's always good to hear insight from people who are closer to certain issues than many of us.

Erik Peterson

One big omissions racism of blacks against 1st gen African immigrants. Also kinda bummed Micah didn't go into the dynamics of her parents more. Having dated several black women ive had more animosity from black people including my partners family than any white people or in comparison to my female counterparts that have dated black men. The fact this was never broached under the currently well trafficked idea that 'black ppl can't be racist". Overall good discussion though.

LastStandMedia
>>38749823

Yeah, Barret is an interesting one. He's cartoonish in a way, but that's also his character. I just feel like they could have done a little more with him in FFVIIR.

Anonymous

Oh wow Colin just replied. He never mentioned that people disagreed with this podcast in the recent sacred symbols podcast I thought that was his was of just dismissing how I felt but he at least replied I can get behind that.

Anonymous

Oh but Colin,Parris is a guy he’s connected to KF some how idk but he called you out sometime last year about how you shouldn’t post your disputes with publishers on line. It happened on Twitter. https://twitter.com/vicious696/status/1094678163425132546?s=21

LastStandMedia
>>38770854

Yeah, it's too bad that people are treated stereotypically. I think it's awesome that all sorts of people are into all sorts of different games!

LastStandMedia
>>38980829

I mean, we always talk about the people who disagree with us... Your opinion is the minority one! That's why it didn't come up. The response to this episode has been overwhelmingly positive.

King0fChickens

Fantastic episode, just caught up with it now. I just loved how level headed everyone was and spoke like normal people. Reading comments I noticed this thing that happened with Parris, man that sucks, I do think he's a cool dude but this isn't his best moment (especially when he done the exact same thing he complained about you for) I hope that's the end of the issues with him because seeing his older tweets, he loved your Joe Rogan podcast about the hypocrisy in the games industry. Damn, twitter is a mess on times, bloody annoying.

Barrel Titor

So Colin being a fellow listener of WeTheFifth, and I'm not sure if you are a also a fellow patron to them, but this episode reminded me of Kmele's recent rip on Juneteenth pseudo authoritarian "Reflections". It is at the hour and twenty five minute mark Kmele jumps in. My question or comment, to get to the point. Are we going to see the same kind of shaming to developers who don't agree with this new ethos of judgement/forced reflection? I don't picture this as people on the right getting outed, but more a mass push to Orwellian standards. Perhaps in a hard push move to shaming white people over all. Micah is cool, you should have her on to talk IT, speaking as someone else in the IT field. Maybe some stories on interacting with IGN's IT. I've been pretty curious how public media companies in general handle their internal IT departments.

JusticeSoulTuna

Interesting discussion. One of my favourite black characters in games, in recent memory, was Briggs from Splinter Cell Blacklist. He's not a stereotype, he's educated, he's almost Sam Fisher's equal and he does some BADASS stuff by the end of the game. That's a black character done right; he's just a character, that happens to be black. We need to stop worrying SO much about skin colour, sexuality etc and just tell these stories with interesting people from around the world.

LastStandMedia
>>39036631

I don't know what's going to happen in game dev. I think we can see for sure that complaining from the right doesn't really matter (just look at TLoU2's historic sales performance). Complaints from the left seem much stronger in arts and entertainment. I'm glad you liked Micah! I thought she did great.

Steven Camilo

Late to the party, but let's recap what happened here: *Someone politely reached out to Colin on Twitter to challenge his views/stance on a sensitive issue *He proceeded to invite them on his platform *They had an empathetic, nuanced discussion on race, representation, and games Bravo. Fucking bravo, sir. Micah was excellent and has earned another fan.

Greg Wallace

Colin I loved this episode and I’m glad to see that you’re responding to the comments and reading each one as a fairly new patron. This is also my first Patreon. I had one gripe about this episode and that really stems from Micah’s experience so I can’t necessarily say it’s a criticism on the episode. I don’t think that Micah really speaks on how a lot of black people experience their life and their hobby gaming. I don’t dislike Micah or what she said, but I felt I couldn’t connect with everything she said. Like her I am of mixed race, but unlike her I have lived all over this fine country and have seen and experienced racism first hand. I grew up going to mostly white schools but my father had me go to an almost all black school for high school and in college I lived in an all POC dorm. I bring this up because I feel like Micah growing up in a fairly accepting neighborhood that put her mother in the papers to celebrate the first black person in the town...well that just isn’t the experience that most POC receive. I’ve been unjustly harassed by police, had to listen to my white friends who thought it was ok to make racist jokes in front of me, dealt with black people who wouldn’t accept me because I was lighter than they are, etc. Friends of mine have been falsely accused of crimes they didn’t commit and I even knew a guy that got whipped for trying to steal a candy bar. I feel like I’m getting a bit long winded here, but I want you to understand a couple of things. First not all black people experience the same things (obviously). Secondly our experiences change how we look at certain activities. While Micah may not necessarily know why she feels that connection with black characters in video games, I know I want to see more people like me doing things that don’t have to be sports or gangsta shit. I think part of that stems from the prejudice that I’ve seen and received. Mass Effect is one of my favorite games because I can make Shepard black and he doesn’t have to act “black”. That shit is amazing. I don’t think it’s possible for you to really understand how that feels because there are so many white people in video games and white people can do EVERYTHING in media. You know how disappointed I am that there’s another fucking slave movie coming and Will Smith is starring in it? Like goddammit Will you’ve done so much to show black people don’t have to be slaves or rappers! I love the show Colin and despite my grievances I loved Micah as a guest. I will check out her content at some point soon. I wish you the best and hope to see some more content that tackles tough topics like this in the future.

Eli Aboukassam

Just wanted to say that I highly admired how genuine and respectful you both approached this discourse. Extremely well done. I also briefly tuned into to Micah's YouTube channel and her delightful personality instantly put a smile on my face. Keep up the stellar work you 2!

Nokeystothecity

Great episode. Thanks for making it free. This felt like a Fireside Chat, which made me miss that series a little...

Anonymous

Loved this episode

Charlie

Micah was great, really enjoyed hearing her thoughts and perspective on these challenging topics. And she knows her games! Sign her up Colin!

Charlie
>>39122793

Also, Marcus the main protagonist from Watch Dogs 2 was a cool character!

LastStandMedia
>>39084118

Hey Greg, thanks for your feedback! Obviously, race and racial injustice is a gigantic topic; everyone is going to have their own unique experiences and outlook. Micah represents just one of those perspectives. No more, no less. Thanks for listening!

Anonymous

Colin, Chris & Micah. I can see it now. Great job mate.

Gene

It’s great to see that Micah is a fan of the Tales series!!

Jeremy

Wow! This episode was AWESOME! First of all, thanks Colin for making this conversation happen, it is very important and nice. <3 Great job to Micah who was very well spoken, and brought a very interesting subject on this show. I've said for so many years now that there is such a lack of black protagonists in Gaming, and I absolutely want (and hope) to see many more of them. Which is why I'm so excited that Miles Morales is getting his own game! :'D Anyways, one of the best Sacred Symbols + episodes yet, and I hope you either bring Micah back, or even add her to Sacred Symbols since it would make for an even more interesting show for the best PlayStation podcast! Much love Colin! <3

Michael Granger

Going through the backlog now I am a Patron that gets SS+. Shocking how still relevant this conversation is and unfortunately how racist the world is but we are improving. Both of you were awesome on this and really nice to listen to this knowing how this friendship grew 🙂

Tonys_Always_Write

Like Michael above I am listening through the backlog. After listening to the Tales of Arise spoilercast, this one jumped out at me because Micah was in it. Seeing this, and where you two are now is amazing. I am glad you were able to find each other.