- Hi my name is Shawtane Bowen of Astronomy Club.
- I'm James the third, also from Astronomy Club.
And we wrote,
- [Both] Bodegas and Dragons.
- Yeah.
- We wrote it together, in a small cubicle in New York.
(upbeat music)
- How did the idea come up, Shawtane?
- I was on the train and I said--
no, I'm messing with you, no.
No, it was just like I used to work with this guy
I'd be like, "Hey Dave, what's going on?"
Like, "Where you headed after work?"
And he was like,
"I'm going to my Dungeons and Dragons group."
And I was like, "What is that?"
- (laughs)
- And he's started to explain and I'm like,
that sounds boring.
- Good morrow, my fellow Comptonians.
I, schoolboy Reggie, have called this quest.
- This is a sketch that Shawtane came up with.
It was just really funny to us, like,
why don't we put black people in a kind of
Dungeons and Dragons world?
That world is typically very white.
I mean, I'm not saying but you've seen
Game of Thrones, you see a lot of white people
all the time, you know what I'm sayin'?
So we were like, you know why don't we put
some Black people in it?
- My big mother is in need of ingredients
for her hood famous cheese grits.
We must journey to the Crenshaw bodega.
- A bodega is a convenience store
where you can get anything you need, usually at any time.
- You can get anything. - Everything.
- Everything. - Anything you think of
- Juice, milk - is at the bodega.
- eggs, loose cigarettes.
- Insulin.
- It's, oh my God, the bodega insulin,
is the best insulin. - It's the best insulin.
- No one should die.
- Okay.
- This sketch itself, it combines Dungeons and Dragons
kinds of characters
but make them very stereotypical black, like, (laughs)
- Yes.
- Archetypes.
- Who's with me?
- I, Darius, Black athlete of Compton,
blue chip prospect, stand with thee.
- I, Yolanda, drug dealer of the block
and high priestess of heroine hath got thy back.
- And I Tanisha the thickest.
- As I was like pitching the idea like,
as it was coming out of my mouth,
I was like, this kinda, this is a little iffy.
You know?
This is like skirting the line of like, stereotypes.
Then I started working with James
and we were trying to figure out, like,
what's the messaging on this?
And we kinda came up with you know, a lot of times,
they'll be like marketing campaigns
or you know corporations will put stuff out
and it'll be racist and you're like,
"How did it make it past all those fucking people?
"There's so many people."
- And still - And still.
Still these things make it to posters, they make it to--
- Posters
- They make it to advertising. - Yes.
- How did we let this get to market?
This game is one of the most racist things I've ever seen
and I went to Duke!
- People who run these corporations, who are on top
they're always like,
"How can we get to the urban community?
Or like, "What do we think they want to see?
Or, "What do you think they represent?"
And then you get this terrible version
that's not realistic.
- The sketch itself, like without that element
you might be like, "Oh, I'm cutting this off,
"like this is racist" (laughing).
- There's like a twist that kind of like cleans it all up.
- How did we miss this?
We're ruined!
- I tried to tell y'all!
I sent 285 emails!
Look, cracker, look!
- Watching James the third lose his mind
at the bosses after having tried to warn them
several times - Oh, God.
- it connected with me.
And I think most people, maybe even in this room,
you can sometimes be in a situation where you feel like
I told y'all this wasn't gonna work.
Or anyone could've seen this,
but y'all don't ever listen to me.
And then when it hits the fan everyone is like,
"I don't know how that went wrong."
And I'm just like, people were telling you
"Hey, don't do this, it's inappropriate."
(screaming)
- The art department made a game.
They made a game, and it like goes from
the couch to the bodega and like the board pieces.
And I actually played Dungeons and Dragons,
and they let me have the dice.
And I used the dice that we used in the sketch
and I'll play with those dice,
- If you go in.
- every other week (laughing).