For the past few months, Marvel Rivals has had to deal with quite a few racism allegations being thrown at it from it's rather large black community, and I don't really disagree with them. While the game has struggled to cater to its black community for a while, things got more intense when its Egyptian-themed season rolled around and ignored all the game's black characters, most notably Storm.
It was during this time that Storm's controversial swimsuit skin was added to the game, which was criticized for being lazy and a last-minute addition, which I also don't necessarily disagree with. Couple that with black characters like Blade and Black Panther getting nothing but scraps when it comes to the skins department, I can't say I blame people for throwing the term "racist" around.
You'd think with so many allegations thrown at it, Marvel Rivals would be careful not be insensitive on that front, but it's arguably made its biggest blunder yet with Emma Frost's new Egyptian-themed skin.
We'll gloss over another white character getting an Egyptian-themed skin, as the biggest problem lies with the skin's spray. It features Emma Frost lying down on a bed with the shadows of two men looking over her shoulders. Instead of the normal color that you'd use for silhouettes, the color is more of a darker brown and the silhouettes have outlines of their muscles, making them look like two black men doting on Emma Frost as she lay in bed.
To be fair to NetEase, it has been pointed out that this spray is a reference to the poster for the movie Cleopatra, and the men over her shoulders are Julius Caeser and Mark Antony. It is also apparent that these are supposed to be silhouettes rather than faceless black men, but this should have been done better, especially after all the controversy over the last month.
Several people have pointed out how dodgy it looks, and one person on Reddit even demonstrated how the exact same spray could be made without it looking horribly racist.
Do I think NetEase is being intentionally and blatantly racist in front of its entire fanbase? No. Do I think that NetEase should be far more aware of how the things it makes can be viewed as problematic? Absolutely, because I honestly can't fathom how that spray made it past several people and into the game properly. Hopefully, there's a teak down the line to make the spray less racially insensitive.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/marvel-rivals-fans-angry-racist-emma-frost-spray/
