Homefront: The Face of Xenophobia & Video Games

By Edward | Wednesday, September 8, 2010 | 41 Comments

Thanks for visiting 8Asians, a blog about Asian American issues. If you find this interesting, subscribe to the RSS feed, visit our Facebook Page or add us on Twitter!

Several days ago, I got an audition for an internet ad campaign called “The Journey” where they needed Korean men. At first, I was extremely excited and also because the gig paid $300 a day. But then when I looked closer, I realized that the internet ad campaign was for the upcoming video game Homefront.

Homefront, we meet again. The last time I saw you was several months ago, when I was a North Korean marching soldier for the E3 2010 convention promoting your game. The story of Homefront takes place in the near future, in a world where North Korea takes over South Korea and all of Asia, then proceeds to invade America. It’s basically the premise of the Red Dawn remake that’s coming out next year but loftier (and written by the original Red Dawn scribe John Milius).

Even before its release, this Internet ad campaign and the game itself will bring incredibly troubling depictions of East Asians, especially Koreans, for the mainstream video gamer consumption. Phil Yu of Angry Asian Man was awesome enough to cover this story when I first gave it to him on the condition of the source being anonymous. After much consideration however, I asked myself why I was afraid of revealing myself. Am I afraid of being blacklisted? Am I afraid of being that “critical Asian?” Not really. I strive to tell the truth as it is, with no hidden alibi, to the public masses and share my own honest opinions and thoughts.

Therefore, I want to make it public because there is something that I want to contribute with my own thoughts, especially to all the East Asian actors here in Los Angeles who got called for this. Down below is an audition slide for the Captain role I was called for. The second side after that is another side I found that gives you a good idea what kind of game Homefront is (WARNING: strong language ahead):

This surburbia has gone to rot with overgrown lawns, garbage and decay. A large army truck is in the background and a ragtag group of AMERICANS are getting on it, carrying ratty suitcases. KOREAN SOLDIERS oversee the operation.

It’s evident that the camera is hidden and recording from an unseen vantage point.

The camera shifts and zooms in as two KOREAN SOLDIERS are pulling a dirty HOMEOWNER out of his broken down house.

HOMEOWNER

I’m staying! This is my house. I paid for it! Get your fucking hands off me.

The soldiers pull the man into the street and then hold him as a KOREAN CAPTAIN runs up to the altercation.

CAPTAIN (IN KOREAN)

What is the problem, soldier?

KOREAN SOLDIER 1 (IN KOREAN)

He refuses to leave his home.

CAPTAIN (IN ENGLISH)

American comrade, you are being relocated to a better place where you will have food and shelter.

HOMEOWNER

Fuck you, I ain’t no comrade! This is my home. This is America. I can live where I want!

The homeowner spits on the Captain and struggles against the soldiers holding him. The Captain wipes the spit from his face, calmly pulls a pistol from his belt and shoots the American in the head.

The soldiers walk back to the truck as the body bleeds out.

—- Here’s the other side —–

The Korean hostage sits against a concrete wall between two masked American resistance members. He wears a Korean army uniform that is dirty and torn and has bruises on his face.

His left arm lies broken in a dirty sling. When he speaks he is emotionless, almost as if he’s reading from a script.

KOREAN HOSTAGE

My name is Lee Yang and I am a solider of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. My blood type is A+. I was captured five days ago by brave American freedom fighters.

RESISTANCE FIGHTER

What was your personal mission?

KOREAN HOSTAGE

I was sent to Montana to make sure that the Americans who lived here did as they were told. It was also my personal duty to help oversee and supervise the loading of train cars filled with minerals for shipment to San Diego.

RESISTANCE FIGHTER

What do you think now?

KOREAN HOSTAGE

I know what Korea is doing is wrong. I understand that I was a bad person, a bad soldier. I wish nothing more now than to help the Americans by telling them everything I know about army movements and what we are doing in the area. Long live America.

RESISTANCE FIGHTER (TO CAMERA)

America is fighting back. This will be the fate of any Koreans who try to stop us. We will take as many hostages as we can. Save yourself. Get out of our country. Long Live America!

I looked at the sides over and over again to try to see if I can make a three-dimensional human out of the Captain. I just couldn’t and after several hours of mulling, I sent an email to the casting director that I would be “out of town.” It was a hard choice, even though the casting range is way beyond my awkward goofy quirky casting that I nail completely. The Captain role pays $300 per day and in this economy, money is no joke. This role would’ve paid a good portion of my rent. At this point in my life though, I know I’m not a starving artist because I have a job that helps with paying the rent and food so I have the luxury of turning this role down.

I know that where I am in how I see myself, I choose how I want to be seen and if it means turning down a role that makes me feel sick to my stomach, I will uphold that integrity. I am aware of that fortune that I have, a fortune that cannot be shared with many actors here in Los Angeles. There will be Korean actors, East Asian actors, who will take these roles even if they know they will be the face of xenophobia simply because they want to have a paycheck and to be able to eat and pay for their electricity bill. I cannot judge them for that because in this cut-throat business, you do what you got to do in order to stay alive and move ahead.

But in my personal opinion, to be in this Internet ad campaign is like having a huge banner sign over your head saying that all Koreans and Asians are not to be trusted and that in the end, you are a dangerous foreign yellow menace. From these audition sides and intention of this game, I am reminded of WWII propaganda where the American government posted flyers of Japanese people as inscrutable dangerous beings and in turn was one of the major reasons why over 120,000 Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps.

And that’s what this game reeks of. Propaganda to promote American superiority doused with fear and paranoia of the Asian foreign menace (whether it be North Korea or Muslims). People may brush this aside and say that I’m being too negative and pessimistic over a game. Relax, they say, it’s just a video game. But in this day and age, you cannot underestimate the influence of video games and, more importantly, the power of human stupidity. Media depictions of minorities, especially violent ones, often paved way to hate crimes as people are unable to differentiate between fiction and reality. If the media says so, then it must be true.

To all the East Asian actors in LA who are struggling to make ends meet and have been called in to audition for this Internet ad campaign, the choice is yours. You do what you believe is right and nobody, let alone a dude blogging about protesting over an internet ad campaign for a video game, can stop you.

But ask yourself, is it worth it to be the face of xenophobia?

Categories:

Current EventsDiscriminationObservationsPoliticsSouthern CaliforniaVideo Games

NOTE: 8Asians.com is a community, and we thank you for being a part of it. While we welcome and appreciate differences in opinion, if you're rude or you're promoting spam, we have a right to edit or delete your comment. Read our comment policy for more information.

If you see a comment that violates the 8Asians.com comment policy, you may flag the comment by mousing over the comment and clicking "FLAG."

Facebook Comments (Beta)

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/ZEXGOXRQNRAP724NWRZ7POTR54 Blipblopblapbloobybloo

Well, this game is based on historical facts. Remember that time when white americans were taken out of their homes and placed in internment camps? Don’t you notice all the Korean military bases set up all over the United States? Don’t you read the news about asian military members stationed here in the U.S. raping little white girls?

Oh wait…actually, it’s the other way around. But who the f(*&& cares? Whites can change history any way they like. Asians aren’t people in a white person’s eyes.

Funny how some people will argue that this is just a video game and people are smart enough to know the difference. It’d be nice if that were true, but a person’s feelings about someone else can easily be swayed by how that someone else is portrayed. Advertisers know this. Hollywood knows this. Greeks knew this. Hitler knew this.

The next time a white guy doesn’t like you for no reason, you can bet there’s some sort of subconscious influence that occurred.
johnminh

Edward, I applaud you for turning down this role.
http://DeadAmericanDream.blogspot.com AngryBroomstick

great post. Eddy, you are brave for going forth to write this and turning down the role. I agree with you about the strong hint of American Arrogance in this game. it does nothing except spew more anti-Asian racism and portrays East Asians in a very negative, cruel light. It doesn’t help.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_E344FPSQYPCVDDR2H6UE3RZRYQ Brian R

This just makes me sit here and repeatedly say “OH MY GOD.” I can’t believe they can do crap like this under the guise of “it’s just a game” which probably what their defense would be, should anyone poke into it.

I’m so glad you had the dignity to reject the role but if it were me I would have said a lot more than “I’ll be out of town.”

The Bush administration ordered the Pentagon to draft plans for the use of nuclear weapons against at least seven countries including Russia, Iraq, North Korea, China, Libya, and Syria. The government also outlined in their national security strategy that it was their wish to have “permanent US military and economic domination of every region on the globe, unfettered by international treaty or concern.” (and they published that to the public. rather shameless, eh?) Maybe its time USA started getting portrayed as the beast in some war video games.
http://www.blasianbytch.com BlasianBytch

This makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable, I’m wondering if in this game every American is White I notice that more and more that American is just another word for white.

This makes me feel post 9/11 nervous again. I remember feeling of being the enemy I don’t want to return there.
http://twitter.com/jameskchou jameskchou

Will Yun Lee will take those roles!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Cr-Deathknight/100001562683370 Cr Deathknight

North and South East Asians should check out Tomorrow When The War began. And the Asian Stereotypes:AM/WW RelationsCruel Invading Asian ArmyJust Great, We are always in the spotlight one way or another, they can’t leave us alone can they.Tomorrow When The Yellow Peril Beganhttp://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s3004650.htm
JohnSGalt

Only idiots will think that, like the controversy that lets you play as the taliban in the new Medal of Honor game, or that other game that was coming out. How it showed the reality of war but was canceled, it is a game for entertainment, look at all the WWII games that have come out with nazis and the bad guys.
DankJemo

Whoa! Ease it up, there. This is nothing more than a scenario played out as if the US were invaded. I don’t see the writer getting pissed off about the fact that the Russians, Germans, and plenty of other nations have been turned into villians in video games. Yes, this also includes the United States. This isn’t anymore racist, or Xenophobic than any other war game out there… Or real war, for that matter. I don’t see the writer getting worked up over The Modern Warfare series, or the Bad Company games. If you’re going to get pissed off about Xenophobia in video games you can’t conveniently single out one game of which has a race of people you’ve descended from as the bad guys. I have quite a bit of German in me, but I don’t flip shit because another game about killing Nazis or Nazi zombies has been released.

Also, this isn’t TOO far from what is actually possible. Has anyone been paying attention to world news lately? North Korea has been increasingly more aggressive and has been making threats to nations around the world for years. In fact, if Korea were to be re-unified in the near future it would most likely be, because of a bloody, violent war where NK is the aggressor.

It’s not like this is a new topic, stuff like this has been coming up since war movies have been getting made. People are always worried that they are going to make their race, or nation look bad. Here is a hint, no one cares. As an actor, this guy should understand that perfectly. It’s not personal, it’s a “what-if” story being told that has a unified (and clearly fascist.) Korea as the villains.
Pingback: The Sunday Papers | Rock, Paper, Shotgun
CuriousThought

Edward, I respect your right to feel uncomfortable about this game and about playing a role in promoting it. This post has me thinking: if casting Asians as the villains in a game is racist, who can be cast? Are developers really at a point now where they must make up fictional countries and ethnicities to avoid being cast as racists? Even then, people will find draw parallels between these fictional characters and real events and claim racism (see http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/is-enslaved-video-game-racially-insensitive.php) So how do we solve this dilemma?

I find the second scenario in that casting sheet far more interesting than the first. We have people we presume are American citizens with a captured Korean soldier in a video ripped straight from the Taliban. With the Americans playing the part of the Taliban! If the first scene is an over-the-top attempt at saying “Hey! These are the bad guys!”, the second seems to be a sly question of “Before you scream bloody murder at the Taliban, how far would you go on the unethical scale if you felt your home was being invaded?*”

I also wouldn’t mind hearing from any Asian members of the development team.

*The above statement does not in any way condone or endorse the activities of terrorists, the Taliban, communists, facists, or whoever we’re throwing in Guatanamo today. Please don’t arrest me.
dogsdespair

North Koreans were also the enemy in Crysis. If anything, you should be flattered. North Korea is now, apparently the only credible conventional threat to the US.

“I’m wondering if in this game every American is White I notice that more and more that American is just another word for white.”

I’m wodnering that too, but it’s unlikely. They’ll be missing a trick if there aren’t sympathetic Korean characters in the game. Wait and see.

But your second point is bonkers. Simple demographics mean the US will have a white minority within the next twenty to forty years, depending on whose figures you believe. Obviously Korea, and Asia in general, is renowned for the open immigration policies and the embracing of other cultures.
Gvaz

I think you’re jumping the gun quite a bit :
Momemo

Amazing display of hypocrisy and biggotry in these comments. Especially by BlasianBytch with just that name alone. What is the world coming to? We can’t portray anyone in a negative light in fiction or it’s racist. So please tell me, do you just want caucasians to be the one’s displayed as evil? Noone had a problem with it when it was russians in modern warfare. The double standards at play here are rediculous and you all end up being more racist/biggoted than anyone on the Homefront development team. Oh and for the record I am what I guess should be called dark skin, as I don’t want anyone to think I’m racist for saying black.
HerpaDerp

“I am reminded of WWII propaganda where the American government posted flyers of Japanese people as inscrutable dangerous beings and in turn was one of the major reasons why over 120,000 Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps.”

And your so called army outright murdered millions of people in cold blood, not in military engagements, because they were brainwashed. They were portrayed as they behaved. They may not have known it as such during the war, but they sure as hell found out afterwards what “nice” people the japanese were.
TylerP

I am an American Airforce member currently stationed in South Korea. I’ve only been in Korea for a few months but I am quickly falling in love with it. I found this transcript is disturbing. Not because of the Americans being killed on their own soil, the “From My Cold Dead Hands” self righteousness and paranoia displayed by the Americans, or the cold blooded execution in the face of dedication to the ‘American Dream’. It is the Korean POW.

I have been through Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training many times. SERE training teaches one how to react and behave, as well as what to expect if one is captured or forced to evade enemy forces. It goes into detail the processes of how one is broken down and extorted for information or to be used for propaganda. An obvious example is Vietnam, where POWs were tortured until they signed letters stating that they were being treated well or to make recorded statements admitting to false war-crimes.

This Korean POW who has most likely been drafted into the military or joined willing due to the indoctrination that is already evident today has most likely been tortured in some form or another and is being forced to humiliate himself and his cause for the use of propaganda.

“I was a bad person, a bad soldier”. This is one of the most degrading things one could force any soldier to say on public record, true or false.

We are seeing horrific acts on both sides of the war and no one is being portrayed as good. Everyone involved in this is a cartoonish monster. Could this game actually be good? Could it actually espouse a message of anti-propaganda, anti-jingoism and show that both sides of this war are really saying the same things? That they are both brainwashed by their own culture, leaders and by nationalism and will commit atrocity after atrocity in order to maintain the zeitgeist. I could only hope.

Chances are its going to be another third person over the shoulder camera cover based shooter revolving around killing hundreds of the opposing enemy forces between scripted set pieces depicting “hardcore” “gritty” or “horrific” acts where the only lesson learned are just phrases un-ironically misinterpreted from propaganda posters.
8/10 “IT WILL BLOW YOU AWAY” – IGN.com
CharlesGreen

So let me get this right. You took a job that you morally disagree with, and now are blogging about it in the hopes of quashing a game about a fictional future?

OK, have fun with that.
tam

@HerpaDerp The author of this article is presumably either KOREAN or KOREAN American, and Korea happened to be one of the countries that suffered the most at the hands of the Japanese in WWII. So if you don’t want to come off as a moron, I recommend learning the difference between Koreans and Japanese.
CharlesPhipps

The irony is that Homefront has a whole level devoted to killing guys who are racists against Koreans. John Milinus apparently hated the whole demographic of Red Dawn that loved his movie for the xenophobia element and spent a lot of it talking about how anyone who hates Asians just because of the (fictional) war is a psychotic jerk who needs to be put down.
skyrien

@HerpaDerp The issue with the WWII anti-Japanese American sentiment is due to it’s specific targeting of American citizens because of their ethnic background.

I suggest you learn to be able to distinguish the “enemy” and not displace your anger against common citizens because of their background. It’s a level of intercultural awareness that I hope we as a soceity acheive someday, and not jump to reactive comments such as yours.

I don’t recall campaigns against German-Americans due to their connection with Nazis.
Pingback: Pwn Palace » Culture Club: Racism in Homefront
JavanSantiago

@HerpaDerp No it wasn’t Japanese people that did that, it was the Imperial Army. Same can be said about the American Goverment who killed millions of Native American and stuff them into camps, the same government that firebombed a city of people and hung them because of the color of the skin. So basiclly Americans are no better.
CharlesGreen

Well as a follow-up to your first post I applaud you for standing for your convictions this time.

However why can’t a game (or a movie for that matter) not be just a game?

In today’s massively overly-politically-correct era lets all just remember that fantasy is just that, and not take everything so personally.

First rule of good mental health.

1. Nothing is personal unless you make it so.

Good luck with your acting. I hope you find roles you can support.
JavanSantiago

@CharlesGreen wel you have to remember that It’s the lack of representation or stereotypes. Then also that the First-Person Shooters stimulate reality and more and more games are becoming more realistic.
CharlesGreen

@JavanSantiago Well as someone who worked extensively on this game, I assure it’s just a game. Almost all games have a bad guy and a good guy. The other side is almost always shown to be viscous, cruel invader. Pick your game, I’ll show you a place, country, or people who can complain they were misrepresented.

IT”S JUST A GAME!
JavanSantiago

@CharlesGreen I never said it wasn’t. Just that some do stimulate reality.

As in media in general that majority of the time White People (not all) or American are depicted as good guys while foreigners or non-white are always depicted as villians (Germains, Russians, and Middle Easterns.)

Also believe me that there are a lot of games (media in general) like that depending where it was made and who made it.

But I would like to see a game or movie where America is the villain.
mwei

@CharlesGreen @JavanSantiago so you have a Cherokee grandma, I take it?
JavanSantiago

@CharlesGreen It’s always the Race decent person to justify Xenophobia. If they haven’t mention it in the game it wouldn’t make a differance. Also no matter if you include other race, majority of the default is white.

To you last part of you statement, you make it sound like it’s a real thing. If it’s just a game why are you so protective of it. THQ don’t care if you support it or not. As long at they have you money.

Side note: Mention that you have some Ethnic blood in you, don’t help in the argument only hinders you.
CharlesGreen

@mwei @JavanSantiago Both (1/4) from my grandmother, and some from my grandfathers side (about 1/8th). I guestamate 1/3 due to that.
CharlesGreen

@JavanSantiago How so, I’m part American Indian, and proud of it. That has nothing to do with what side of Cowboys and Indians I played on as a child.
JavanSantiago

@CharlesGreen Well Cowboys was cow hearders, so the proper term will be Gunslingers and Warrior (more badass that way)
mwei

@CharlesGreen so on your grandfather’s side, did he have a Cherokee grandma? the reason I always ask is becuase nobody seems to have a Cherokee grandpa.

also, how often do you connection with the Cherokee nation and go to the PowWows? do you fill out the census form as “part” Native-American and fought against the Governator’s attempts to tax tribal gaming?

the reason is that I’ve seen too many of these “I’m can’t be racist because I have a Cherokee grandma” arguments way too many times already.
JavanSantiago

@mwei @CharlesGreen See that why I said the mentioning that you are part something will hinder you
CharlesGreen

@mwei On my grandfathers side, I have no idea as that branch falls away due to the “Trail of Tears” match.

I do identify myself as “mixed race” with the box’s of “Causation and American Indian checked. My Grandmother was registered on the rolls and we do maintain loose affiliations. I do not live in Oklahoma anymore so no I do not participate in most tribal functions, however I do get to vote for tribal leaders. I am (as are my kids) eligible for Federal Grants/assistance for our heritage, but have not used those benefits as I do not need them. I do not take assistance unless absolutely needed. Even when I was in the military and eligible for food stamps for my family we never took them. I do not accept tribal money from the casino/bingo halls the own/license.
CharlesGreen

@JavanSantiago @mwei Again, the fact that I am part Indian has never hindered me that I am aware of at all. I do not believe it ever will.

Remeber rule 1.

Nothing is personal.
CharlesGreen

@JavanSantiago @mwei Again, the fact that I am part Indian has never hindered me that I am aware of at all. I do not believe it ever will.

Remeber rule 1.

Nothing is personal.
JavanSantiago

@CharlesGreen @mwei No i was saying that if you say that “I’m part *blank*” in a Racial, political, Nationalistic discussion, it will comeback and bite u in the butt. Trust me I seen it all the time and it ends in fail. But this detrails the discussion
mwei

@CharlesGreen cool. please define “loose affiliations”

what’s your tribal registered name? that’s easily verifiable.

somehow I guess you didn’t grow up on the reservations though, am I right in assuming that?

I don’t think it’s going on a tangent as it’s verifying legitimacy to talk about certain racial issues.
mwei

@CharlesGreen @JavanSantiago I’ve always heard that “the personal is political”
CharlesGreen

@mwei As I do not know anyone here from beans, I’ll refrain from posting additional personal info. Thanks.

To be honest I’m a little concerned about your persistence on this issue. What are you attempting to prove/gain?
mwei

@CharlesGreen that your reliance on the “I’m also an ethnic minority with my Cherokee grandma means I have just a right to voice opinions on racial oppression by the white majority as any of you people of noticeable color. I’m not offended by this game and neither should any of you be.”

which I feel is really disingenuous.

going by your photo, if that’s you, then my feeling is that you have never been treated like a Native American who actually grew up on a reservation with the poverty and alcoholism.

8 Asians