So somebody posted a message on reddit awhile ago accounting an incident where he/she was wearing a Boros Legion shirt in public where a woman thought it might of been inappropriate due to inciting racism:
The Boros Guild symbol does have connotations of being a white power / white supremacist symbol of some type. People have tattoos of this symbol, pins, collectible items, and this symbol appears on every Boros foil. Of course this was a symbol that Wizards of the Coast designed for MTG long before the Black Lives Matter Movement became a thing and now they might have to take it back. They're not the only game with a fantasy element that militaristic police oriented and you throw on top of it that Boros is kind of a police state where they do have images of beating up goblins and people while arresting them. A lot of the images of Boros arresting are them shooting fire at criminals.
The Boros Guild is found to be a fascist police state where they believe in stamping out any diversity. MTG has always been very segregated, it's a lot like the economy of a spaceship game that was very popular called EVE where people sold their ships for a lot of money online on eBay back when you were allowed to do something like that. When they sold these ships on eBay they would trade, sell, and there would be real cash like hundreds and thousands of dollars would go into one ship and that was a micro economy. So you could learn about economics via manipulating this environment and World of Warcraft had something very similar to COVID-19 which was showcased in an episode of YouTube's Game Theory:
So what happened in World of Warcraft that MatPat explained in that episode of Game Theory is very identical to what's happening today but on a much bigger scale.
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So somebody posted a message on reddit awhile ago accounting an incident where he/she was wearing a Boros Legion shirt in public where a woman thought it might of been inappropriate due to inciting racism:
The Boros Guild symbol does have connotations of being a white power / white supremacist symbol of some type.
Does it, though? A raised fist in iconography is very heavily connoted with the Black Panther Party and BLM itself uses it today. White power movements have tried to co-opt it (it's a symbol of meeting oppressive institutional forces with force of your own, so it's most frequently used by underclasses and groups like socialists to portray their will to literally "fight the bower" and white supremacists tried to tap into that), but honestly I don't associate it with them and your question confused me at first. Like, the protests after George Floyd's murder literally use that iconography today.
There's an argument to be made that the Boros Legion is depicted as an abusive police force, particularly against the Golgari who are frequently depicted as a disenfranchised underclass. Vraska's backstory is a great example. Though the Boros and Azorius are framed as the bad guys in those scenarios, so it's not as if the game is promoting abusive behaviors of the state, if anything the game is critical and frames the underclass being abused as sympathetic. WotC will likely try to avoid such scenarios in the future but they could also lean into it, if they wanted to.
the legion itself takes in all types, its not uncommon to find a huge array of races in its ranks. its not restricted to just humans, and its not restricted further by skin colors. viashino, goblins, humans, minotaur, angels, giants - they've all been depicted in the legions ranks. that's pretty diverse.
as has been mentioned the raised fist symbol is used by many groups. yes, people outside of magic can misinterpret that on a t-shirt, however that doesn't make the boros legion inherently racist. it arguably means the symbol should change because of how some people might interpret it, but even that is kind of a maybe.
they're also never depicted as perpetrating anything racially motivated, that is they're not exclusively policing any particular race. you mentioned beating up goblins, but if you look at the boros cards... well boros beats up EVERYONE. it doesn't matter what race or skin color they are.
if anything, they could be used as an example of an oppressive police force, but racist? that one's a genuine stretch outside of the symbol and even that's not the strongest case for racism.
not sure why you bring up covid and wow at all. the blood plague bug is years past and was legitimately used to study the spread of diseases in a population because of how quickly it spread through the game's playerbase unchecked. how that relates to racism, or the boros, or magic at all you've failed to explain so what was your point?
what's the point in bringing up eve transactions? how does that relate to your argument that the boros are racist, or even to magic? your points are all over the place.
i think you'll also have to explain how "magic has always been segregated" too. explain how you mean, because the varying creatures, or races, on magic cards are often shown working in conjunction with each other just as much as they're shown warring with each other. additionally, its never really been one skin tone of humans vs. another and pretty much always something like vampries vs. humans, or merfolk vs. crab people, you know, things that humans aren't. within hose specific races we also get varied skin tones and sexes. we've seen more and more racial inclusion depicted in the art of humans over the years too. go a little deeper on what you mean please.
i suppose you might be able to make the case that phrophecy touched on racial tensions, having the keldons invade jamuraa, but that wasn't really racially motivated, and it didn't glorify the keldon perspective in any way. many nations joined in those battles and the kipamu league along with its allies were pretty racially diverse, so i'd argue that book was more about the atrocity of war that was to come with the phyrexians, and demonstrating how dominarians could work together to try to overcome a foe. but now i've gone off on a thing that isn't entirely relevant to your point either.
edit: oh, and there doesn't seem to be much support for your argument in the thread you linked either. there's some similar anecdotes about people misinterpreting t-shirts, but that's kind of... it?
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No. They are a multi racial guild, both considering race in the real world sense and the fantasy sense. They are quasi fascist at their worst. Like all the guilds, they are presented as having good aspects and bad. The are generally dedicated to keeping the peace and defending the innocent, provide a military force to serve Ravnica as a whole, actually defend the guildless, etc. They are driven, as a whole, by the desire to do right by the rest of Ravnica. On the other hand, they are also prone to zealotry and can be overly heavy handed, particularly against certain guilds (although the Gruul and Rakdos are destructive enough to warrant it the Golgari actually do suffer unfair treatment). There are also corrupt elements within the guild. On the balance, the Boros are still portrayed as one of the "good" guilds, though with some elements that aren't.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/heom7z/psa_do_not_wear_a_boros_legion_shirt_in_public/
The Boros Guild symbol does have connotations of being a white power / white supremacist symbol of some type. People have tattoos of this symbol, pins, collectible items, and this symbol appears on every Boros foil. Of course this was a symbol that Wizards of the Coast designed for MTG long before the Black Lives Matter Movement became a thing and now they might have to take it back. They're not the only game with a fantasy element that militaristic police oriented and you throw on top of it that Boros is kind of a police state where they do have images of beating up goblins and people while arresting them. A lot of the images of Boros arresting are them shooting fire at criminals.
The Boros Guild is found to be a fascist police state where they believe in stamping out any diversity. MTG has always been very segregated, it's a lot like the economy of a spaceship game that was very popular called EVE where people sold their ships for a lot of money online on eBay back when you were allowed to do something like that. When they sold these ships on eBay they would trade, sell, and there would be real cash like hundreds and thousands of dollars would go into one ship and that was a micro economy. So you could learn about economics via manipulating this environment and World of Warcraft had something very similar to COVID-19 which was showcased in an episode of YouTube's Game Theory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTGHSpgp5mc
So what happened in World of Warcraft that MatPat explained in that episode of Game Theory is very identical to what's happening today but on a much bigger scale.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
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Does it, though? A raised fist in iconography is very heavily connoted with the Black Panther Party and BLM itself uses it today. White power movements have tried to co-opt it (it's a symbol of meeting oppressive institutional forces with force of your own, so it's most frequently used by underclasses and groups like socialists to portray their will to literally "fight the bower" and white supremacists tried to tap into that), but honestly I don't associate it with them and your question confused me at first. Like, the protests after George Floyd's murder literally use that iconography today.
There's an argument to be made that the Boros Legion is depicted as an abusive police force, particularly against the Golgari who are frequently depicted as a disenfranchised underclass. Vraska's backstory is a great example. Though the Boros and Azorius are framed as the bad guys in those scenarios, so it's not as if the game is promoting abusive behaviors of the state, if anything the game is critical and frames the underclass being abused as sympathetic. WotC will likely try to avoid such scenarios in the future but they could also lean into it, if they wanted to.
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the legion itself takes in all types, its not uncommon to find a huge array of races in its ranks. its not restricted to just humans, and its not restricted further by skin colors. viashino, goblins, humans, minotaur, angels, giants - they've all been depicted in the legions ranks. that's pretty diverse.
as has been mentioned the raised fist symbol is used by many groups. yes, people outside of magic can misinterpret that on a t-shirt, however that doesn't make the boros legion inherently racist. it arguably means the symbol should change because of how some people might interpret it, but even that is kind of a maybe.
they're also never depicted as perpetrating anything racially motivated, that is they're not exclusively policing any particular race. you mentioned beating up goblins, but if you look at the boros cards... well boros beats up EVERYONE. it doesn't matter what race or skin color they are.
if anything, they could be used as an example of an oppressive police force, but racist? that one's a genuine stretch outside of the symbol and even that's not the strongest case for racism.
not sure why you bring up covid and wow at all. the blood plague bug is years past and was legitimately used to study the spread of diseases in a population because of how quickly it spread through the game's playerbase unchecked. how that relates to racism, or the boros, or magic at all you've failed to explain so what was your point?
what's the point in bringing up eve transactions? how does that relate to your argument that the boros are racist, or even to magic? your points are all over the place.
i think you'll also have to explain how "magic has always been segregated" too. explain how you mean, because the varying creatures, or races, on magic cards are often shown working in conjunction with each other just as much as they're shown warring with each other. additionally, its never really been one skin tone of humans vs. another and pretty much always something like vampries vs. humans, or merfolk vs. crab people, you know, things that humans aren't. within hose specific races we also get varied skin tones and sexes. we've seen more and more racial inclusion depicted in the art of humans over the years too. go a little deeper on what you mean please.
i suppose you might be able to make the case that phrophecy touched on racial tensions, having the keldons invade jamuraa, but that wasn't really racially motivated, and it didn't glorify the keldon perspective in any way. many nations joined in those battles and the kipamu league along with its allies were pretty racially diverse, so i'd argue that book was more about the atrocity of war that was to come with the phyrexians, and demonstrating how dominarians could work together to try to overcome a foe. but now i've gone off on a thing that isn't entirely relevant to your point either.
edit: oh, and there doesn't seem to be much support for your argument in the thread you linked either. there's some similar anecdotes about people misinterpreting t-shirts, but that's kind of... it?
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STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!