Why not ask the question why the person was typing the word in the first place.

Sambo is also a Russian martial art.

The pics of the gourd look a lot like their drawing. If a monkey had appeared it would be something else entirely.

@apd09: Well, if you believe th explanation given by the 5th Cell guy, there was never any racial connotation meant by it - presumably, the person who programmed the part didn't even know it was an old timey racial slur. I certainly didn't know that was one interpretation of it.

He's right though - the gourd does look like a watermelon.

"Wikipedia has Slackza's back"? Are you kidding? Give me ten minutes and Wikipedia will authoritatively say that the earth is flat.

How old is this slur? Also, when will the day come that people stop looking for racism in everything around them?

@mythago: [Citation Needed]

Funny that this should come out. Years ago we used to wonder abouut the dog tag on Scooby Doo. It is a diamond shaped tag with the capital letters SD in it. It bares a striking resemblance to the German Security Service symbol of the Nazi era, the SD (Sicherheitsdienst).

@Pandrogas: I would also assume that this game's target demographic would have no idea about racial slurs from the 30s and 40s. [en.wikipedia.org])

I think it's an innocent misunderstanding. The game's full of relatively obscure foreign terminology - try spawning "lutefisk", "balut" or "durian" for more examples of international delicacies reusing other objects' art.

This whole thing is a massive overreaction to an unfortunate coincidence.

@Pandrogas: When people stop being racist

External (non-Wikipedia) confirmation of the "sambo as a fruit" thing: [craigiest.blogspot.com]

@Pandrogas:

Sambo's used to be a national restaurant chain that had great pies. Yummmm.

@mythago: If you can make it say that for 10 minutes I would be terribly impressed. Please. Go prove yourself.

Just a misunderstanding is all. Sometimes things are taken way out of proportion. Isn't there implied racism if you see it where it shouldn't be in the first place?

@semanticantics: And the lesser known cousin of Rambo.

I put in Cracker... and a white saltine appeared.

I was mortally offended. (And yes, I do know that the term "Cracker" isn't about the food as people today think it is, but the sound a whip makes.)

@saigumi:

I am offended by your Cracker reference as I am quite white and do not condone racist slurs! How dare you sir or madam! How dare you!

@Pandrogas: At least 1899 I would think: [en.wikipedia.org] "The story may have contributed to the use of the word "sambo" as a racial slur."

Looks legit to me...just one of those "weird coincidences".

I have a friend nicknamed Sambo. His name is Sam. And at some point, someone mashed together Rambo and Sam to get Sambo. I think I need to inform everyone that we are horribly, horribly racist now.

Or that we love vegetables.

Stop fanning the flames Phil. The gourd in question does look very much like a watermelon, and furthermore, why on earth would a company deliberately and maliciously include a racial slur in their game? Putting morality and ethics aside for just a second, it's bad for business.

Has anyone searched for "macaca"?

I think there's enough real, blatant racism in the world that we don't need to look for subtle, possible, probably unintentional incidents of it and draw attention to them. I also think most people wouldn't even know what "sambo" refers to.

@drizzt380: Your friend's nickname must immediately be changed to "Gourd". The internet demands it.

This is completely a misunderstanding and people are way too uppity anymore. As soon as it gets out what happens when you type in Jesus and Satan in the game, religious zealots are going to be all over this no one's business.

Besides, 5th Cell? They can do no wrong. Just look at their portfolio for crying out loud!

@mythago: OK, you're on.
Ten...
Nine...
Eight...
...

The wonderful thing about Wiki is if you see an article you don't like, FIX IT! :)

I'd think that you, of all people, would grok the whole Open Source, Egalitarian, Hive Mind intelligence thing, Mythgo. :D

@fnool:
I agree. Some of the suggestions are things I've never heard of and appear to be food. This is all a manufactured controversy.

I have never ever heard the word Sambo before in my life. I therefore know no ill connotation of the word and think it's perfectly fine. Maybe that's just me though. When I hear someone ask for a cracker I don't think he's a racist cannibal. Some things are only racist when you make them so.

@What The Geek:
Gourd is not going to like this.

I had never even heard of that term at all, as a martial art, gourd, or restaurant. The only place besides wikipedia I could find the word was in a "GLOSSARY of JAMAICAN or ARCHAIC TERMS"
To me it's just a cute, fun game.

Eh, I'm 29 and haven't heard that term much, in fact the only reason I probably have heard of it is because there are baby pictures of me in front of a Sambo's restaurant, which was in Tampa in 1980.

I'm not saying there is no chance that was was a racist intent, but I figure the people who looked up words and assigned art to them, were probably my age, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they have never heard that word until this controversey came up.

@semanticantics: And the name of my brother's Labrador.

I still have my copy of "Little Black Sambo" from when I was a kid somewhere in my attic. I stumbled across it a couple of years ago. I kept it for sentimental reasons but no, I won't be bringing that down to read to my kids. I can just picture it now -- "Hey, teacher, guess what book my Daddy read to me last night?" followed by a phone call home...

@mythago: can you get it to say that the autumnal equinox is a federal holiday? after this nightmare of a day, i desperately need tomorrow off. X(

@mythago: That's why it's always good to check the sources at the bottom of the page.

BTW: look up the term "fanesca" on Google and you'll see the word used as a synonym for "figleaf gourd". Wikipedia checks out.

Sounds to me like Consumerist is just looking for a story. I like you guys here, but this isn't the first time I've seen you guys knowingly leave out facts and start steering the story in a different direction in order to make it some sort of controversy to make everybody look evil.

Everybody: please read the full article after the link. It's painfully obvious that neither the company nor any of it's employees meant anything racist by this.

[www.joystiq.com]

@fnool: This is entirely a misunderstanding. If they were trying to be racist, you'd get something like a black person, or a person in blackface, at which point outrage would be more than justified.

I'm quite surprised that the game contains balut, however. That stuff just freaks me the hell out.

I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that people don't know that "sambo" is a racially-charged word.

@drizzt380: you don't have to call him gourd. you could go for the alternative:

fig leaf

this was covered by kotaku last week. im with 5th cell. never heard of sambo as a racial term. but thank kotaku and consumerist for another one to add to my list.

@semanticantics: Is that you, Fedor?

@What The Geek: Have you ever seen the Target Racist Soda? There is a "white" buck toothed child" eating watermelon on one side, and a "black" child doing the same thing on the other. Then then stoke outrage by showing an "ol' timey" racist pict, then the Target soda, which of course makes an immediate connection take place.

@madog: Yea I'm leaning towards this...

Never heard the word before (other than in martial arts) and was unaware it was a racial slur. Of course ignorance is not always a valid excuse but in this case I don't think too many kids would know the sambo connection.

@Trai_Dep: should I do that at work? cause I will dammit.

@thomas_callahan:

Well, there's some good news if you like the basic story--it's been re-published as "Sam and the Tigers" Racism-free!

@thomas_callahan: It's an oops, sure, but actual racist intent? Nah.

There's plenty of re-used art in the game, particularly amongst anything botanical, and a few very regional and very obscure words. Hell, there's over 22,000.

Sambo isn't a slur thrown around these days, and it's easy to see how it slipped through. Besides, were it intentional, I'd imagine they'd have had a child running around a tree.

@zekedms: Also, maybe I'm not remembering right, but I don't remember the book itself being racist. A little archaic in the fact it's an Indian boy being labeled as black, but wasn't the point of the story that he outwitted the tigers?

I don't see how a book gets banned because some ignorant people decide to take something out of context.

@zekedms: "I don't see how a book gets banned because some ignorant people decide to take something out of context. "

You've got to be really niggardly with your assumptions, you don't know what'll happen.