WoTC Removes 7 Magic the Gathering Cards for Depictions of Racism
The company has made another step toward supporting the community that supports them by removing several cards and initiating a review of everything they’ve printed.
The call to remove certain cards due to racist imagery or text is not new, it’s been a request from players for several years. Zaiem Beg’s (editor in chief of the popular MtG blog ChannelFireball) letter that speaks of his experience with the company on Monday plus the mass push for actual change seems to have made an impact on WoTC.
Wizards of the Coast purports to be inclusive and diverse when in reality they have a long history of racially discriminatory behavior, avoiding accountability through a culture of secrecy and fear.
They are an unequivocally racist company:https://t.co/yNWHKMILQm
— Zaiem Beg (@zbeg) June 8, 2020
Today, we will be changing the multiverse ID and removing the Gatherer card image for the card Invoke Prejudice, originally printed in 1994. The card is racist and made even worse by the multiverse ID it was unfortunately codified with years ago. There’s no place for racism in our game, nor anywhere else.
But to that point, it should never have been published nor placed in the Gatherer. And for that we are sorry. The events of the past weeks and the ongoing conversation about how we can better support people of color have caused us to examine ourselves, our actions, and our inactions. We appreciate everyone helping us to recognize when we fall short. We should have been better, we can be better, and we will be better.
The seven being immediately banned from competitive play:
- Invoke Prejudice
- Cleanse
- Stone-Throwing Devils
- Pradesh Gypsies
- Jihad
- Imprison
- Crusade
Their images will be replaced in the database with the following statement:
“We have removed this card image from our database due to its racist depiction, text, or combination thereof. Racism in any form is unacceptable and has no place in our games, nor anywhere else.”
MtG VP Aaron Fosythe made the fact that these are banned from official events very clear.
For clarity: yes, all seven of these cards are heretofore banned from sanctioned constructed play. https://t.co/zaZPayvDIN
Advertisement— Aaron Forsythe (@mtgaaron) June 10, 2020
The company has also announced that they will be reviewing all cards, and that that review process will be ongoing and not just a single pass.
We are starting a review of every card we have printed. This first pass isn’t meant to be an exhaustive catalogue of every problematic card in Magic’s history, and we will continue to take actions on similar cards in the future.
Subscribe to our newsletter!Get Tabletop, RPG & Pop Culture news delivered directly to your inbox.By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) June 10, 2020
Hopefully, this is just the start and this work will continue beyond just reviewing cards and into making events more welcoming to players and hiring BIPOC designers and artists to improve the game with more voices and vantage points.
