While Ashcraft nervously waves his hands and cautions about slippery cultural slopes, let me issue a more blunt response to Alejandro's claim that LocoRoco is racist: Alejandro's argument is that of a reactionary imbecile.

Please look at the image to the right. Depending on who you are, you might see:

1. A tarantula
2. A black octopus
3. An evil dust bunny
4. Majora's Dreadlocks

But Alejandro sees a leering, big-lipped minstrel character.

So who's the racist here? LocoRoco's creators, who innocently designed some visually appealing character abstractions for a charming game? Or Alejandro — a guy who sees something that just happens to be black and immediately envisions a hideous Gollywog belching between bites of fried chicken and singing about its Mammy. Don't show him the Mr. Men books: his head might explode.

To be fair, I don't think Alejandro is racist, but I do think he is making himself out to be one of those knee-jerk reactionaries who measures his own importance by his ability to be self-righteously offended. Not only is his argument silly and worthy of derision (LocoRoco as a metaphor for white flight? In a game about yellow amorphous blobs?), but it demeans the struggle against actual racism.

Look, it's your God given right to be offended, but let's remember something: even for the most level headed of us, being offended is the natural consequence of walking out our doors every morning. One right you don't have, though, is the right to never be offended. Especially when you see a horrifically racist stereotype lurking in the most innocuous of child's drawings. Florian Eckhardt

Just Plain Loco [Alejandro's 1Up Blog]