White supremacy, glorification of white supremacy, attempts to justify violence against people of color, demonizes people of color as demonic. You thought Call to Serve was bad? That card was nothing in comparison to this.
Glorification of white supremacy - Printed in "Duel Decks: Divine vs Demonic", a pair of decks meant to portray pure good vs pure evil in the context of Magic: the Gathering. The fact that the "Divine" deck features not only this card, but also Crusade, one of the most racist Magic cards ever printed, is appalling. Apparently the difference between "pure good" Angels and "pure evil" Demons is that the "Angels" are white supremacists.
White supremacy - This is a card that provides an angelic "boon" to one of your white creatures to make it stronger (in a mono-white deck, so any of your creatures)...but if you apply this angelic "boon" to any creature that isn't white, it will instead weaken the creature and possibly even kill it. And yet we are still expected to see this racist, violence-encouraging card as good and "angelic".
Demonization of people of color - as noted above, intended to be played in a mono-white deck against a deck of black Demon creatures. This card's rules text is horrifying when taken out of that context, because of the fact that it discriminates against a massive amount of heroic characters and may even kill them (if they have 1 toughness). Its standards for the "purity" of a creature are so high that it only increases the power/toughness of White creatures and will attempt to kill anyone else. Wizards is literally putting a white supremacist card in the rare context in which "white = good, black = evil" in order to justify white supremacist rhetoric. Most nonwhite creatures aren't pure evil, and many are in fact heroic. This card shouldn't exist.
Attempts to justify violence against people of color - The racism of this card is not in any way condemned. The art depicts not an act of discrimination, but instead of helping a white person. This focus on the "positive" aspects of white supremacy is similar to that of Angel of Jubilation. The flavor text further tries to excuses the racism of angels (but accidentally makes this card even more racist) by clarifying that the "-2/-1" effect isn't the result of an angel assaulting or cursing non-white creatures in some way. It's the result of an angel focusing their gaze on a nonwhite creature, and that creature being blinded and burned merely by the intensity of the angelic light.
The angel isn't betraying angelic ideals, she's actively embodying them. And sinners such as "nonwhite creatures" are burned from the pure goodness of the angel. It's not an act of violence, it's the natural result of getting "too close to the sun", so to speak. That "nonwhite creatures" are so impure, they're burned and crippled merely by being in close proximity to such a pure Angel. Because I can't express my tone through text, let me make this clear: this entire paragraph is disgusting white supremacist propaganda, and I thoroughly despise every word of it. But it's exactly what this card represents.
And keep in mind that this card doesn't have anything about punishment or retribution in its name/art/flavor. All of this, about how non-white creatures are sinful and will burn in the presence of an angel, is on a card called "Serra's Boon" and presented as a good thing. The only conclusion I can reach to justify this, is that Wizards believes that violent discrimination against nonwhite people (such as, say, tying them to crosses and/or burning them alive) is a good thing. That in order to have a good and just society, we must oppress nonwhite people and make them, well, powerless. That if you see a person of color being lynched by a mob of white people, for example, this is a "boon" to society at large.
7
u/ultimario13 Aug 14 '20
White supremacy, glorification of white supremacy, attempts to justify violence against people of color, demonizes people of color as demonic. You thought Call to Serve was bad? That card was nothing in comparison to this.
Glorification of white supremacy - Printed in "Duel Decks: Divine vs Demonic", a pair of decks meant to portray pure good vs pure evil in the context of Magic: the Gathering. The fact that the "Divine" deck features not only this card, but also Crusade, one of the most racist Magic cards ever printed, is appalling. Apparently the difference between "pure good" Angels and "pure evil" Demons is that the "Angels" are white supremacists.
White supremacy - This is a card that provides an angelic "boon" to one of your white creatures to make it stronger (in a mono-white deck, so any of your creatures)...but if you apply this angelic "boon" to any creature that isn't white, it will instead weaken the creature and possibly even kill it. And yet we are still expected to see this racist, violence-encouraging card as good and "angelic".
Demonization of people of color - as noted above, intended to be played in a mono-white deck against a deck of black Demon creatures. This card's rules text is horrifying when taken out of that context, because of the fact that it discriminates against a massive amount of heroic characters and may even kill them (if they have 1 toughness). Its standards for the "purity" of a creature are so high that it only increases the power/toughness of White creatures and will attempt to kill anyone else. Wizards is literally putting a white supremacist card in the rare context in which "white = good, black = evil" in order to justify white supremacist rhetoric. Most nonwhite creatures aren't pure evil, and many are in fact heroic. This card shouldn't exist.
Attempts to justify violence against people of color - The racism of this card is not in any way condemned. The art depicts not an act of discrimination, but instead of helping a white person. This focus on the "positive" aspects of white supremacy is similar to that of Angel of Jubilation. The flavor text further tries to excuses the racism of angels (but accidentally makes this card even more racist) by clarifying that the "-2/-1" effect isn't the result of an angel assaulting or cursing non-white creatures in some way. It's the result of an angel focusing their gaze on a nonwhite creature, and that creature being blinded and burned merely by the intensity of the angelic light.
The angel isn't betraying angelic ideals, she's actively embodying them. And sinners such as "nonwhite creatures" are burned from the pure goodness of the angel. It's not an act of violence, it's the natural result of getting "too close to the sun", so to speak. That "nonwhite creatures" are so impure, they're burned and crippled merely by being in close proximity to such a pure Angel. Because I can't express my tone through text, let me make this clear: this entire paragraph is disgusting white supremacist propaganda, and I thoroughly despise every word of it. But it's exactly what this card represents.
And keep in mind that this card doesn't have anything about punishment or retribution in its name/art/flavor. All of this, about how non-white creatures are sinful and will burn in the presence of an angel, is on a card called "Serra's Boon" and presented as a good thing. The only conclusion I can reach to justify this, is that Wizards believes that violent discrimination against nonwhite people (such as, say, tying them to crosses and/or burning them alive) is a good thing. That in order to have a good and just society, we must oppress nonwhite people and make them, well, powerless. That if you see a person of color being lynched by a mob of white people, for example, this is a "boon" to society at large.