June 2022 - last edited June 2022
I got the werewolves pack and was excited to play. My werewolf was really angry, I clicked on the ground and my options were go here “savagely” or mark territory. As an Indigenous person I was extremely disappointed, immediately stopped playing didn’t bother saving.
The word “savage” has been used against Indigenous peoples in many countries to justify land thefts, “residential schools”, 60’s scoop, millennium scoop, “Indian Day schools”, theft of culture, languages and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples.
The word ‘savage’ didn’t start out meaning ‘bad *’. Colonizers weren’t calling indigenous people ‘savages’ as a term of endearment to describe how 'badass' they were. In fact, in the Declaration of Independence, indigenous people are referred to as, “merciless Indian savages.” The word was used to dehumanize indigenous people and justify genocide. Continuing to use this word is disrespectful and disregards the systematic oppression and racism that indigenous people still face today.
Solved! Go to Solution.
June 2022 - last edited July 2022
Hi @JSmithh013,
While I can appreciate that your aim is to make The Sims a better and more inclusive place, the word you're taking umbrage with has been part of the English lexicon since the 1200's meaning undomesticated or not under human control and has no direct connection with indigenous peoples across any part of the world.
Nevertheless, I will forward your feedback to The Sims team for further investigation.
Update: Thank you for flagging this issue to us @JSmithh013. The Sims team are looking into updating this verbiage in a future update.
June 2022
Savagely means "in a fierce, violent, and uncontrolled manner."
Savage means "a person belonging to a primitive society".
The word used was Savagely not Savage. Besides there is nothing racial about savage as you yourself point out it has been used all over the world for indigenous people of different races.
June 2022
June 2022 - last edited July 2022
Hi @JSmithh013,
While I can appreciate that your aim is to make The Sims a better and more inclusive place, the word you're taking umbrage with has been part of the English lexicon since the 1200's meaning undomesticated or not under human control and has no direct connection with indigenous peoples across any part of the world.
Nevertheless, I will forward your feedback to The Sims team for further investigation.
Update: Thank you for flagging this issue to us @JSmithh013. The Sims team are looking into updating this verbiage in a future update.
June 2022 - last edited June 2022
Hi, @EA_Cade!
Let me say that I absolutely believe that there was no intent to be offensive or racist! Unfortunately, one of the privileges in white privilege is the privilege to not think about racism. Trust me, people of color would love to stop thinking about racism for a while! But because of this, non-POCs can sometimes unintentionally offend POCs.
Of all the definitions given for "savage" here, many people have left out one that I got from Merriam-Webster.com:
savage
nounDefinition of savage (Entry 2 of 3)
June 2022
It is true that it says savage poo on the toilet but I think you will agree that this does not reference a person so we must instead look at the definition for using it as a verb,
Definition of savage (Entry 3 of 3)
June 2022 - last edited June 2022
I’ll put it this way.
There’s “The animal ran here savagely,” and then there’s “We’ve based a lot of our werewolf pack visuals and lore on Twilight, but instead of having all our werewolves be explicitly Native American we’ll just tag all werewolf actions as being ‘savage’ or being done ‘savagely.’” One is clearly not a reference to Native Americans and the other….
Not intentionally, of course, but the tropes are hungry.
June 2022
Could you please point me to where you saw that announcement from EA especially the part about werewolves being Native Americans. I haven't seen such an announcement.
June 2022
Boozhoo (Hello) @xochiquetzl_xkvn
I want to say Miigwech (thank you) for trying to understand the perspective from an Indigenous person of the Americas. I did not know about the toilet action because I did not play long enough to check out the whole pack.
I did try to talk about the adverb of it and how it’s still harmful to Indigenous peoples. As well the relevance the Declaration of Independence has with EA headquarters being in USA.
Some words that could be used instead of one’s that are triggering for Indigenous peoples are ruthlessly, viciously, brutally or destructively.
Again…
HAPPY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES HISTORY MONTH! 🧡
June 2022
Oh, thank you! of course! Thank you for taking the time to speak up and educate us. I genuinely appreciate it.
There was some discussion in the Jewish and Muslim representation thread where someone asked how it was possible that a US-centric game produced in the US had no Native American/First Nation representation, and I thought of that comment during the conversation here.
I sincerely hope that the Team considers using a different, less loaded word--one without such an ugly role in US History.