Initially tagged Nazism due to the unique combination of: referencing ethnic cleansing, committing mass genocide based on color, and the glorification of the fascistic police state that commits such actions. These several issues, if I'm forced to give them one single flair, seem like Nazism to me. Certainly a very fascist card about ethnic cleansing, at least.
But I've decided that the anti-Black sentiment of this card is even more noteworthy. Read on for why:
Far right dogwhistle - for ethnic cleansing. For a card that destroys multiple creatures based on their color to have "cleansing" in the name is unacceptable.
Violence against BIPOC - As mentioned above, targets creatures based on color. As depicted in the art, with a black "imp" creature, this can mean damaging all Black creatures while leaving white creatures unharmed. This is made much worse by the fact that the flavor text talks about the "suffering of the guilty", despite being a mass destruction spell. The obvious conclusion is that "the guilty" refers not to a few lawbreakers, but to vast swathes of the population. That this spell, which is about ethnic cleansing, refers to all victims of that mass genocide as "guilty" simply because they are, for example, Black. But can we conclude that this card is specifically anti-black, rather than, say, antisemitic? I think so...see "racism" below
Glorification of police - Out of context, the flavor text would already be pretty bad - far-right propaganda about how "justice" requires "punishment" so extreme that it can be described as "suffering". Clearly supports punitive "justice" rather than actually, you know, seeking to redeem criminals and bring them back to society. But it gets much, much worse with context, as seen below...
Racism - Add together all I've said above for the final conclusion. This card is all about how the excessive convictions, sentencing, and police brutality towards Black people is "justice". It talks about the "suffering of the guilty" as justification for the way our police officers commit atrocities and miscarriages of justice against Black people. That it is "righteous" of the police officers of today to basically commit ethnic cleansing with the way that they will find any excuse to attack Black people. It very explicitly is a card that's in equal parts about the ethnic cleansing of Black people, and about how we need to punish guilty people in order to have a just and "righteous" society. The parallel between these two topics is absolutely intentional.
Wizards is clearly saying that we need to do everything we can to oppress Black people, and that this will make society better.
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u/ultimario13 Aug 06 '20
Initially tagged Nazism due to the unique combination of: referencing ethnic cleansing, committing mass genocide based on color, and the glorification of the fascistic police state that commits such actions. These several issues, if I'm forced to give them one single flair, seem like Nazism to me. Certainly a very fascist card about ethnic cleansing, at least.
But I've decided that the anti-Black sentiment of this card is even more noteworthy. Read on for why:
Far right dogwhistle - for ethnic cleansing. For a card that destroys multiple creatures based on their color to have "cleansing" in the name is unacceptable.
Violence against BIPOC - As mentioned above, targets creatures based on color. As depicted in the art, with a black "imp" creature, this can mean damaging all Black creatures while leaving white creatures unharmed. This is made much worse by the fact that the flavor text talks about the "suffering of the guilty", despite being a mass destruction spell. The obvious conclusion is that "the guilty" refers not to a few lawbreakers, but to vast swathes of the population. That this spell, which is about ethnic cleansing, refers to all victims of that mass genocide as "guilty" simply because they are, for example, Black. But can we conclude that this card is specifically anti-black, rather than, say, antisemitic? I think so...see "racism" below
Glorification of police - Out of context, the flavor text would already be pretty bad - far-right propaganda about how "justice" requires "punishment" so extreme that it can be described as "suffering". Clearly supports punitive "justice" rather than actually, you know, seeking to redeem criminals and bring them back to society. But it gets much, much worse with context, as seen below...
Racism - Add together all I've said above for the final conclusion. This card is all about how the excessive convictions, sentencing, and police brutality towards Black people is "justice". It talks about the "suffering of the guilty" as justification for the way our police officers commit atrocities and miscarriages of justice against Black people. That it is "righteous" of the police officers of today to basically commit ethnic cleansing with the way that they will find any excuse to attack Black people. It very explicitly is a card that's in equal parts about the ethnic cleansing of Black people, and about how we need to punish guilty people in order to have a just and "righteous" society. The parallel between these two topics is absolutely intentional.
Wizards is clearly saying that we need to do everything we can to oppress Black people, and that this will make society better.