Jodieparkinson
05-30-2020, 12:06 AM
With the current political climate, I’m shocked that Just Dance hasn’t evolved to become less obviously white-centric and appropriative.
The only dance I’ve ever seen that clearly features a person of color is Stromae’s “Papaoutai,” since the dancers are obviously supposed to represent the characters from Stromae’s music video. I can point to several other dances in which the dancers are people of color, but their skin is literally whitewashed for the gameplay. Considering the Papaoutai dance in which Stromae’s skin color was left alone (and rightfully so), it seems odd that so many other dances would appear to feature white people when that is clearly not appropriate.
Take, for example, the “Beware of the Boys” dance. The song is by an Indian artist and the dance is influenced by the Indian style of Bhangra, yet the dancers appear to be white! Why?! In addition to this, portraying the dancer to Ariana Grande’s “Into You” as a Japanese geisha is so incredibly unnecessary and disrespectful.
In short I really like your game, but I’m baffled at these blatant marks of ignorance and insensitivity. It makes me wonder if you have any people of color on your graphic design team or executive board. Seems to me like this definitely could have been avoided from the beginning, but it’s continued for years.
The only dance I’ve ever seen that clearly features a person of color is Stromae’s “Papaoutai,” since the dancers are obviously supposed to represent the characters from Stromae’s music video. I can point to several other dances in which the dancers are people of color, but their skin is literally whitewashed for the gameplay. Considering the Papaoutai dance in which Stromae’s skin color was left alone (and rightfully so), it seems odd that so many other dances would appear to feature white people when that is clearly not appropriate.
Take, for example, the “Beware of the Boys” dance. The song is by an Indian artist and the dance is influenced by the Indian style of Bhangra, yet the dancers appear to be white! Why?! In addition to this, portraying the dancer to Ariana Grande’s “Into You” as a Japanese geisha is so incredibly unnecessary and disrespectful.
In short I really like your game, but I’m baffled at these blatant marks of ignorance and insensitivity. It makes me wonder if you have any people of color on your graphic design team or executive board. Seems to me like this definitely could have been avoided from the beginning, but it’s continued for years.