Animal Crossing is racist.

[prime_timer]

Or at the very least, 14 copies of it are.

On Wednesday afternoon both MTV Multiplayer and Kotaku posted stories detailing how they had received copies of Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS from Nintendo. Because these carts were meant to show off the character importing feature of Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii, the DS carts were already opened and had saved games featuring a ton of money and bonuses. Both Multiplayer and Kotaku discovered one unexpected twist, though: a strong racial slur repeated during conversations with in-game character Baabara.

We contacted Nintendo regarding these reports and received the following official response:

"Previously played copies of the 2005 DS game Animal Crossing: Wild World were sent to 14 members of the media to demonstrate the ability of players to transfer items to the new Animal Crossing: City Folk for Wii. We regret that an offensive phrase was included without our knowledge via a wireless function that allows user-generated catchphrases to spread virally from one game to the next. This version is limited to 14 copies created for media review purposes only and is not available at retailers. We sincerely apologize for the incident and are working with media who received the game cards to return them to Nintendo immediately."

This is a surprising slip-up from the family-friendly company with what is perhaps their most family-friendly game, but at least they admitted to their mistake immediately. 1UP also received a copy of the DS cartridge and has been requested to return it, as stated in their response.

found here

I kind of lol'd

[MR EPIC]

Well for God's sake what was the racial slur?!

[Tanooki]

I saw that and got a laugh, but also I did wonder since there's a double standard in the states, had Baabara the sheep had black wool instead of white would anyone care?


EPIC: it says N-i-g-g-a (n with the tilde to get by the sensor)

[SpaceOddity]

ahhhh! ahhh! where is it?!

oh there it is:

[cubeenigma]

and thats why so many japanese people bought it

[Nismo]

Didn't the GameCube one have it, I totally remember that retarded sheep saying it back in 2002. O how things never change!

[MR EPIC]

N-I-G-G-A is not a racial slur, but whatever.

[DEATHSTAR]

^ It's not?! Just because it's spelled differently and a few entertainers use it regularly (some black folks with one another no less) somehow it not a slur anymore?

And please don't tell me you're buying into that Tupac-ish explanation that "it's a term of endearment" that we used to express love to one another!

The word is a racial slur no matter how you spell it and no matter how many people try to justify the context or who's using it. Case in point, if white people still aren't granted 100% license to openly use either word in the presense of African American's.... it's a racial slur.

[Darc Requiem]

Well you pretty much said everything Deathstar. You could have left me something to say you know

[Hottotty]

War room! haha

Between the sheep and the dog who insists on anti-establishment fat-cat rhetoric, Nintendo has become quite the hate machine.

[MR EPIC]

I indeed moved this thread to the War Room because it's not a subject I'll go quiet about, even if the opposing parties are black and feel that they by default are in the know. Do you really need me to spell out the difference between N-I-G-G-A and the other N word? A word is deemed harmful by it's intent and not only has that world been oked to say by blacks and virtually every other race, NOBODY uses the former spelling with intent of a racial slur. Most here are probably ignorant to the situation and might see my side of the argument as naive or simply wrong, but I've spent too much of my life around black people, rough areas, the hip hop crowd to understand the usage and the intent of both words.

Now I'm not saying that intent justifies the usage of a word alone. I realize that if somebody were to say the true N word without knowing what it meant it would still be deemed a racial slur but perhaps the user would be forgiven on the grounds of his or her naivety. But the N word ending in A was first of all created by blacks to use among one another and was quickly shifted to usage among hispanics, whites, and anybody who was comfortable using it as part of the urban or hip hop crowd. The people who actually think it's a racial slur are the ones who are truly ignorant of the word.

[cubeenigma]

half of my residents in city folk say that >_>

[Darc Requiem]

I really don't how its spelled. Pretty much ever ethnicity etc. has some sort slur that if they can say to each other, but they would get offended if someone not of their creed said to them. Does it make right? Nope. Does it mean that (insert slur here) is no longer offensive? No. If some stranger says "Hey (blank)" to me and I gonna try analyze the pronunciation? No. I am gonna give them the step the f**k off look and if they don't we gonna problem.

[HGW XX/7]

I get it. We can take any racial slur, yet if we modify it with an A at the end it's cool. Y'know. We're jus' bein' casual and cool about it.

Clerks 2 showed how you can't exactly "Take Back" a racial slur.

A certain aspect of the population might be cool with it, but there's always going to be a segment just as large that finds it offensive. It varies from person to person.

For Example: I don't care what anyone calls me. I'm white, I'm not religious, There's no kind of background there, so really, you can't say anything that I'm going to take as some slur against me.

My black co-worker doesn't care if people say N-I-G-G-A. In fact, he's insisted I say it on occasion. It doesn't bother me to, because I know he's fine with it. Does that mean I'd use it around ANYONE (regardless of race) else if I wasn't 100% sure they were fine with it? Of course not. That'd just be ignorant on my part. I don't go out of my way to not offend people (sometimes quite the opposite), but I know when a certain word is definite no-zone.

[MR EPIC]

Originally Posted by HGW XX/7

A certain aspect of the population might be cool with it, but there's always going to be a segment just as large that finds it offensive. It varies from person to person.

You make a fine point sir and one that I'm willing to agree with. So just the same as you can't say that the N word (which ends in an A) is 100% not a racial slur, you also can't say it 100% is a racial slur. I wouldn't feel comfortable using it around an 80 year old black woman nor would I expect her to understand my intent, but I would definitely feel comfortable using it around young to middle aged black men whom I'm working on music in the studio with. Hell, a lot of them would probably consider us stiff and nerdy if we used anything but that word to greet them. Again, it's only a racial slur if the recipient is naive to it's meaning and/or if the user has bad intent behind it.