Why is the Word “Sambo” Racist?
[Editor's Note: This article was originally published on our sister site, InfoAddict, on September 17. Somehow it sneaked by us and we didn't carry it then. Coming across it now, we still feel it's important to post because of the questions and issues it raises.]
The Nintendo DS game Scribblenauts finds itself in the middle of a racism charge, though the designers (5th Cell) insist they are innocent and that no offense was meant.
The deal: Scribblenauts allows players to input words that spawn objects within the game. With over 30,000 words in its dictionary, players have a lot of options. One of those options is “Sambo”. Typing the word Sambo spawns an object that looks like a watermelon.
Most people under 30 probably have no clue that Sambo is considered a racially insensitive word. 5th Cell insists the word can be defined as a “fig leaf gourd” that just happens to look like a watermelon in the game because of the re-purposing of artwork. Creative Director Jeremiah Slaczka claims he had never even heard the word Sambo used as a racial term, which isn’t that hard to believe, as the word hasn’t been around for a number of years.
So, what is it about the word Sambo that has people upset?
It started in 1899 when a children’s book was published called The Story of Little Black Sambo. There was nothing about the book that was inherently racist, but that didn’t stop people from adopting the word Sambo as a derogatory term. People had problems with some of the illustrations, uncomfortable with how dark Sambo’s skin-tone was. Later editions of the book softened the tone, but the plot never changed because the story was not racist.
None of this controversy prevented a chain of restaurants opening in the 60s and 70s called Sambo’s. It used characters from the book as promotional items and chugged along with nearly 1,200 restaurants until people started complaining once again about the racial insensitivity of the character’s depiction. This controversy mushroomed until Sambo’s was forced to close every restaurant, with the final door closing in 1982.
That was pretty much the end of the Sambo controversy…until now.
High Voltage Hot Rod Show ‘basically finished’
Filed under: News, Interviews, WiiWare
Even though it’s the most recent High Voltage game to be revealed, there’s a good chance High Voltage Hot Rod Show will beat both The Conduit and Animales de la Muerte to market. In an interview with WiiWare World, producer Josh VanVeld has revealed the game is “basically finished,” and discussed the racer in quite a bit more detail.
The games that influenced Hot Rod Show are enough to make us excited for the project; VanVeld namedrops the likes of R.C. Pro-Am, Micro Machines, and Racing Gears Advance (while criticizing the likes of Excite Truck and recent versions of Mario Kart for “losing some of their focus”). In Hot Rod Show, close quarters racing and the long-forgotten art of memorizing tracks will be the order of the day. Typically for a High Voltage game, loads of attention has been paid to the controls. VanVeld reports that we can use a horizontally positioned Wii Remote (as in Excite Truck), the Classic Controller, a GameCube controller, or add a Nunchuk and use the thumbstick for steering.
After the disaster that was SPOGS Racing, there’s definitely room on WiiWare for a cheap, well-made racer that can be enjoyed with friends (VanVeld says four-player splitscreen “could be the best experience you’ll have with the game”); we can easily imagine High Voltage Hot Rod Show being that game.
Gallery: High Voltage Hot Rod Show
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High Voltage announces new WiiWare racer
It would appear that High Voltage made a pretty penny or two from their last WiiWare release, Gyrostarr, as the company has announced they’re working on a new game for WiiWare. Titled High Voltage Hot Rod Show, this game will be hitting WiiWare this fall and features a “unique stunt system” that gives players “multiple ways to build boost.” The game will utilize the company’s Quantum 3 engine technology and has support for up to 4 players via local split-screen, features 5 racers, and has 6 different tracks.
After checking out the trailer above, be sure to hit up our gallery below, which has screens from the game, as well as some promo art and wallpapers!
Gallery: High Voltage Hot Rod Show
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