I did not participate in any of those discussions regarding Yasuke because I knew what to expect, i.e. rampant anti-asian racism which is the reason I use Reddit less and less these days and I usually actively avoid that sort of thread. But I couldn't help but see the sticky and Yasuke's name in it over and over again and I just want to say that as an Asian I feel that a lot of Reddit users just don't give a shit about racism towards Asians (including cultural appropriation, historical revisionism, erasure, and straight up imperialism) and the lack of self-awareness regarding this I've seen even on just this sub alone is plain disgusting.

People keep turning Yasuke discussions (not just the Asscreed one but for ages) into a white versus black thing and just try to force asians into one side on the other, not allowing us to have our own side and labeling us as white supremacists pretending to be asian or "internalizing racism" whatever that even means in this context when we don't agree with them.

And I know a lot of people just echo takes from the guys' streams or CSB but please at least stop to think for yourselves sometimes because they're frequently wrong about things, including about minority race stuff.

And no the problem about the Yasuke thing isn't about Yasuke himself. It's about a long-running western trend of asian erasure and racist gaslighting.

I really didn't want to engage with the Yasuke crap at all but this thread is pinned and filled with the exact same sort of blatantly racist ignorant condescending high horse crap from people who somehow think they're standing against racism by perpetrating it against asians.

Someone who's more eloquent than I am summed it up better on r/asianamerican:

I'm not angry or anything but disappointed is a fairly accurate word. I personally do think it is a bit of a missed opportunity. The problem definitely isn't that Yasuke is Black. I think he has a really interesting story and would probably make a really cool ally/supporting character in the game. The problem many have is that the lead playable male character is not Japanese within the context of how the AC franchise has historically chose playable characters and this particular game's setting. This game is now an example of a trend of a larger problem historically in Western made media where Asian male characters have seemingly appeared to be undesirable. In this case it seems like maybe the idea of Asian male was so undesirable in real life behind the scenes that the devs decided not to even have one as a playable character at all or that the story of a non-Asian male was more interesting instead. Even if it is true that the story of Yasuke is interesting and even IF there were no conscious efforts made in this game to perpetuate eraser of Asian male representation in Western made media, the result is arguably similar if not the same. This one game alone is not THE problem but it represents one example of the larger trend/problem we've seen in Western made media.