From: bodom@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Brian Odom)
Subject: Re: Racism in SF2?
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 03:13:52 GMT

In <1992Nov16.022738.28275@leland.Stanford.EDU> inkblot@leland.Stanford.EDU (Thomas Calvin Cannon) writes:

>In article <1992Nov15.235400.19644@midway.uchicago.edu> alee@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>>Hmmm, could there be perhaps a bit of racism in SF2? On the CE version,
>>when it goes the demo version, it will show a blond white guy facing
>>a black guy (who can only be seen by his back). The blond guy then
>>punches out the black guy, and then "Street Fighter II" appears on the
>>screen... Could this be a bit of racism?

>Before you guys start flaming this guy to a crisp, take a look at other
>aspects of SFII.  Namely, the endings.

>Ken:  Left his girlfriend to fight in the tournament.
>Guile: Deserted his family to go after Bison
>Ryu: Doesn't like ceremony; looks for the next fight.
>Honda: Keeps on training, being all he can be.  =)

WHAT!?!?  I don't get what you're trying to say here.  

Honda:  Leaves disciples to go fight in tournament, joins his students again.
Guile:	Leaves family    "  "   "     "    "      ,   "    "    family again.
Dhalsim: same thing 
Ken:	get married after fighting in tourney....  
Sagat:	goes after Ryu for leaving him with scar (I don't know if this is right
	or not)

basically, they all leave whatever they were doing to fight in tournament or
do some bragging  (Vega, Bison)

>IN GENERAL, the 'Americans' in SF2 are cocky, arrogant, and not all-around
>nice people, while the Japanese characters are focused, dedicated 'warriors.'
>There's a definate polarization here.  Don't believe me, check out the nintendo
>cart...

I think that the Americans are more family oriented (Ken [gets married], Guile
[reunites with his family], I haven't seen Balrog's ending yet), while the 
Asian characters don't have a family (Chun Li [avenges father's death], Ryu
[just walks away, but whereto?], Honda [goes back to sumo school])

Since there are only 3 americans and 3 "oriental" (for lack of a better word)
characters, this sample is not big enough to make overall conclusions about
the characters and where they came from.

>1) In the manual, Ken abandoned his master (sheng long) to go lounge with his
>   girlfriend on the beach after SF1.
>2) One of Ken's 'I won' sentences is, 'Get up, it's too early for you to be
>   defeated.' 
>3) One of Ryu's 'I won' sentences is, 'Pretty good, but you'll have to 
>   practice more to beat me.' <---that's a paraphrase

I haven't seen the manuals or any endings, so I can't answer this.

>There's other stuff, like the Capcom version of the 'American Dream' as told
>be Balrog in his ending. All these politics have nothing to do with the
>playability of the game, but they _do_ give a bit of insight into the minds
>of the game's creator(s).  So what's the verdict?  Is this a legit finding, or
>are all these coincidences??

>>-- 
>>Typical news read   Computer: NFS server wakinyan not responding still trying
>>at the U of C -     Computer: NFS server wakinyan not responding still trying
>>Don'tcha love it?   User    : God dammit! Not again! Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!!!!!!

>---
>T. Cannon
>(who likes SF2 desipe all this political cr@p)

I like SF2, but I hate political correctness.

-- 
Brian T Odom

"We are all manufacturers -- some make good, others make trouble, and still
others make excuses."
Newsgroups: alt.games.sf2