Wizards of the Coast ban racist cards from Magic: The Gathering
Response to #BlackLivesMatter protest and beyond.
Following a wave of global protests and awareness to the injustices faced by people of colour, Wizards of the Coast are removing the images and text descriptions of a number of cards that are deemed racist and banning them from sanctioned play.
Liftoff! is choosing not to publish images of the cards.
The cards banned feature images of what appear to be KKK clansmen, use outdated language to describe the Roma, attack certain colours (black) while promoting others (white) within the game, and, in one case, a problematic card’s identifying number is associated with white nationalist movements.
This card–feature KKK inspired imagery and a colour-based power–is coded with the number 1488. This number is listed as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League, as the “14” evokes a popular white nationalist phrase, while the “88” subs out for “Hail Hitler”. It seems unlikely this is coincidental despite Wizards describing it as having an ID “it was unfortunately codified with years ago”.
Critiques of the card date back a number of years with at least one player calling out the practice in 2013. Reddit has seen irregular postings on the topic ever since.
The bans follow a slew of bans and adjustments for balance reasons earlier this month.
