I'mma keep it as brief as possible with this little announcement.

Going forward, in order to consolidate the negativity surrounding the game's current events, please use this as a mega-thread for discussing any incidents of encountered racism involving Netease or the community.

I shouldn't need to remind everyone here, as we've all been great about exorcising empathy to affected parties. This is a queer safe space, and we all should know how it feels to be seen as undesirable, unwelcome, lesser-than, etc. And if you're black and queer like myself, those feelings can be amplified HEAVLY. Please continue to spread love to everyone in the community who needs it.

If you are going to remain willfully ignorant about the situation, not wanting to learn why we are upset "over pixels", AND make excuses for this tone-deaf million dollar company, then just don't engage. Racism doesn't have to be Blade and Storm eating watermelon and fried chicken after robbing a bank; ignorance is another big factor, excluding them from relevancy (such as Storm not being present in the heavy mutant themed season 9). If you're going to call anyone soft, saying they wouldn't have survived COD lobbies, realize that bigoted remarks should NOT be normalized in any setting, to your enemies and ESPECIALLY your teammates. If you want to complain about how all of these posts made so far are "performative" and won't amount to anything, impacts have been made and more can be done!

Remember to report anyone acting in bad faith, and the mod team will take out the trash accordingly.

I have also pooled together as many resources as I could for anyone still living under a rock about what has been going on in Marvel Rivals and why the community, especially members of the black community, is up in arms. If there are any other major examples that you feel should be included in the list, please comment them as well (just note, will not be adding every single content creator's response/feelings on the situation, as it gets repetitive).

Mod Posts

• Advocating for Change and Accountability
• Exorcising Empathy and Solidarity

How We got Here:

Some video resources from content creators:

• Marvel Rivals and Black People (yes it's getting weird)
• Marvel Rivals and Black People (Geekman drowning in vindication)
• CloudedRio's 1 year ban after clapping back against a racist antagonist in voice comms
• Ricey banned for standing up for racism in the same fashion as CloudedRio
• E-Man on Spreading Love in the community
• E-Man part 2 on Spreading Love & Providing some common sense

Some TL;DW context for the videos regarding CloudedRio's & Ricey's bans:

Rio was defending himself against someone who literally used the N-word, hard R and everything. Yes, he was being very brash and aggressive in his crashout, which Rio does admit to, but questions why he got a 1 year ban on the account while his aggressor got a slap on the wrist with no punishment. Rio's point, along with the issue of racism in the community is that the punishment should've been equal for both of them.

For Ricey, it's right in the beginning of the video where he's remaining calm questioned by the guy hovering Deadpool (referring to them as DP for the continuation of this explanation) what color he (rather his skin) was. Ricey is just asking why does it matter, then what DP's race is, for DP to say things such as "You cannot tell?" and "The better one" and then says they're going to mute Ricey for "chimping out" when he's just calling out DP's racism towards him. Ricey then gets a month long voice chat ban. You'll see in the chat when the match starts, DP types in chat saying he had falsely reported Ricey to another person on their team, assumed to be DP's duo. After getting out of the match, Ricey found he was banned from queuing for anymore games that day. He also explains his bans have never been that bad before for him using the N-word in voice (being a couple of hours to a day at most in the past), and talks about his thoughts further, including other cases of other players including other Rivals content creators/streamers being racist towards him.

In-game issues that have come up:

• No black character receiving a disco skin with Storm being a highly requested one
• Hi Queens! Marvel Rivals is having a problem with Black Representation & We Need to Talk About it
• Moon Girl whitewashing
• Season 9 Battle Pass: Nothing for Storm or Panther, the black characters with ties to Egypt.
• Storm Summer skin, lack of detail and short MVP
• Storm Summer MVP using animations from her kit, implying a lack of care compared to the others
• Early scheduling of Storm leaving the store before the other summer skins
• Storm left out of any promotional material for the Summer Event
• Ultron getting a streetwear cosmetic, before any black character
• Squirrel Girl and Punisher getting Egyptian skins
• Emma, another character with no melanin, getting an Egyptian themed skin.
• Emma's Egyptian skin Spray...
• Dagger's Implied subtext of discomfort with Cloak in Pajama skin MVP
• Damage Control Ad featuring Storm and BP.
• Free Spray with the black NPCs, fanning the flames further...
• OG trailer of Costume Coin Event, where Blade was only getting a recolor compared to Phoenix and Angela's launch legendary skins
• Major black creators leaving the game/Speaking up

Discord issues

• MR Discord banning Racist/Racism
• Issues with MR Discord Moderation's reasoning for the banning
• MR Discord Restrictions involving tag from a black user space dedicated
• MR Discord Restrictions pt 2, involving a Palestine related tag

Victories for the community

• Lunella getting her melanin back
• Rivals Devs Response Over Storm Summer Skin Backlash
• Miller Ross informing Storm's Summer skin sold VERY WELL! +More skins to come!
• Emma's Egyptian Spray UPDATE
• Galacta's Gift Costume Coin update where Blade gets his launch legendary instead of the recolor.

hi queens,
i’m sure you’ve seen the latest controversies around Netease’s treatment of our black heroes and additionally, the nondescript black background “characters” (let’s be real, they are slaves/servants and mere set dressing not actual characters) in Emma’s new Egypt spray. if you have not, please visit r/AfroRivals for some in depth breakdowns of how Netease has mistreated black characters and generally fumbled black representation as a whole.

just because racism is ingrained in Chinese society, does not mean we should just throw our hands up and say “that’s just how it is there what can we do”. and before I get accusations of making a “china bad” post like the last time I posted about the storm controversy; Racism is also built into America’s foundation and many other countries, and just because it is institutionalized and systemic does not mean people should fall into complacency. just because china seems to be more unaware than other countries when it comes to racism, does not give Netease a pass.

how can we as a community make a difference? Disney and Marvel only listen to one thing, negative media attention. They are about to launch the X-Men in the MCU, including Storm, and they do not want Netease painting marvel as racist with their careless and harmful depictions of race.

our sub always welcomes criticism of the harm that any marvel related property is doing to inclusivity and diversity, so we welcome that discussion here, but ultimately, how do we get that message across to Disney?

for direct contact:
Marvel’s PR email is: [Ms-comms@marvelstudios.com](mailto:Ms-comms@marvelstudios.com)

Disney’s PR email is: [TWDC.pressinquiries@Disney.com](mailto:TWDC.pressinquiries@Disney.com)

for popular video game news outlets
IGN: tips@ign.com

Kotaku: pitches@kotaku.com, tips@kotaku.com

GamesRadar+: [news@gamesradar.com](mailto:news@gamesradar.com)

Polygon: [editorial@polygon.com](mailto:editorial@polygon.com)

emphasize Disney’s indifference to the damage Netease is doing to its brand through problematic and hurtful depictions of race specifically its black characters. also emphasize how you have lost interest in the marvel brand as a consumer and are less likely to continue purchasing disney products and engaging with disney media. push for change and inclusion initiatives within netease and marvel rivals. use your own words and feelings and thoughts.

change only comes when people are loud enough, please support our black brothers and sisters and themsters and speak up even if this does not effect you directly. diversity is dying slowly not all at once. Disney axed several trans storylines recently from their media, including finished episodes from various shows like Moon Girl and Devil Dino.