#I’d choose single Rory in a heartbeat

[anxiouspotatorants]

With genuine respect to those who like and root for this character I have officially become a Logan hater

[maxwellbromont]

Choices and Race: Schrodinger’s Brown Friend

posted it on reddit so i figured i’d post here too

TLDR: Race-variable love interests are problematic and flawed attempts at diversifying Choices.

This is Part 1 of an ongoing series on race in Pixelberry's Choices game.

So there's a thought experiment known as "Schrodinger's Cat", where (in a short explanation by someone who is not a physicist) a theoretical cat is placed in a radioactive box, and the cat is simultaneously alive and dead, because you have no way of knowing one way or the other. You have to rely on deductive reasoning, which can't be proven because again, the cat is in a box and out of your view.

In Choices, there are a number of love interests whose ethnicities cannot be known for sure, because it is always variable. You cannot argue that a character is black, because for someone else, that character is white, and vice-versa--well, not always.

At the time of this post, Pixelberry has made 22 love interests that are race-customizable. This is an interesting way to work around the "diversity issue", because it means that players can directly choose how many people of color are in their game. In effect, it's a way to put the responsibility on the player, and not the company, but we'll get to that later.

I've noticed recently that for almost every single race-variable love interest, there's always a white or white-passing counterpart, but there is never a guarantee that a different ethnicity will be included. Here is a list of every race-variable love interest, and their ethnic options:

Adam McIntyre, America's Most Eligible-Latinx, Black, White

Mackenzie Harris, America's Most Eligible-Latinx, Black, White-Passing

Simon/Ava Montjoy, A Very Scandalous Proposal-East Asian, Black, White

Clint Covington, Baby Bump-White, East Asian, Black

Adrian Raines, Bloodbound-White, Black, Latinx

Edward Mortemer, Distant Shores-East Asian, White, Latinx, Black

Rory Silva, High School Story: Class Act-Black, White-Passing, Latinx

Marco Di Vicenzo, Hot Couture-White, Black, East Asian

Ava Lawrence, My Two First Loves-White, Black, Latinx (NB: Although she is not a confirmed love interest as of posting, common theory is that she will be, so I have included her)

Mason Jennings, My Two First Loves-White, Black, Latinx

Noah Harris, My Two First Loves-East Asian, Black, White (NB: There is a theory that Noah is white-passing, and not white. I will be continuing this post under assumption that he is white)

Sam Dalton, The Nanny Affair-Latinx, Black, White

Nik Ryder, Nightbound-White, Black, East Asian

Hayden Young, Perfect Match-East Asian, Black, White

Ian/Ina Kingsley, Queen B-East Asian, Latinx, White

Logan, Ride Or Die: A Bad Boy Romance-Latinx, White, Black, East Asian

King Liam, The Royal Romance/Heir-East Asian, Black, White

Hunter Fierro, The Royal Masquerade-White, East Asian

Kayden Vescovi, The Royal Masquerade-Latinx, Black

John Somerset, The Unexpected Heiress-White, Latinx, Black, South Asian

Dakota Winchester, With Every Heartbeat-Latinx, White, Black, East Asian

Cassian Keane, Witness: A Bodyguard Romance-White, Latinx, Black, South Asian

When you break down the race options, it's as followed:

White/White-Passing: 21 out of 22 (offered 95% of the time)

Black: 20 out of 22 (offered 91% of the time)

Latinx: 14 out of 22 (offered 63% of the time)

East Asian: 12 out of 22 (offered 54% of the time)

South Asian: 2 out of 22 (offered 9% of the time)

In all but one single case, every love interest can be white or white-passing. However, that's not the case with every other romantic option. Over 40% of the time, East-Asians are cut from the ethnic choices. South Asian representation has only been included 9% of every romantic option we have. People who are Middle-Eastern or Central Asian, such as myself, are not even included. Realistically, everyone knows that there is no feasible way for PB to include every single ethnicity option that their fanbase may be a part of, but if that's the case, why is it that almost aways, a white or white-passing option is included at the expense of a minority?

By choosing this model, Pixelberry allows for the option of diversity at the cost of an option for white uniformity. This allows the company to bill itself as all-inclusive, while still catering to the tastes of those who would prefer a majority-white cast, either consciously or unconsciously. They can focus most of their efforts on appealing to the interests of their white audience, while still giving fans of color content they cannot easily find elsewhere.

In effect, a white character is white until they are not, and a brown character is brown until they are not. This means that when someone claims a story has racist tropes, PB can point at the race-customizable love interest and argue otherwise, while still advertising that character as white. This character is Schrodinger's Brown Friend--simultaneously white and a person of color at once.

Race-Variable Love Interests are featured in 25 covers. Of those covers, 19 feature the love interest as white or white-passing. 9 feature a visibly non-white love interest. The 9 that do are:

America's Most Eligible, book 2

Distant Shores

My Two First Loves

The Nanny Affair

Perfect Match

Perfect Match 2

Ride or Die: A Bad Boy Romance

With Every Heartbeat

Witness: A Bodyguard Romance

Of those nine, 4 feature a brown love interest. 3 feature an East-Asian love interest. 1 features a black love interest.

This means that out of 22 race-variable love interests, only 41% are actually advertised as people of color, versus the 86% of love interests that are advertised as white or white-passing. Essentially, love interests of color are secondary to themselves.

So how do we fix this? Pixelberry has multiple options to go forward with, if they want to change this: 1. Decrease the number of white race-variable love interests. 2. Increase advertising and covers of non-white race-variable love interests. 3. Allow for the inclusion of more racial options in love interests. 4. Create more love interests of color who have the narrative importance of white love interests in other stories.

My personal favorite option is the last one. By doing this, Pixelberry creates a truly more diverse story setting, and allows people of color to have concrete and deeply written representation. But ultimately, any of these options could help close the racial gap.