Hello fellow humans and transhumans. You may recognize me from the critically acclaimed video-game, Deux Ex: Human Revolution. My name is Adam Jensen.
Recently there's been a complaint that I'm a racist or have in some way engaged in behaviors that may be construed as racist. I'm here to assure you I'm not at all racist. In my game you can witness my many indiscriminate acts. My primary concern is objectivity and truth; my only acts of extreme prejudice are against an obstructed path.
I did not ask for my "gifts" or the present situation, but I am not upset by them. In fact, I had little choice but to embrace my situation and move forward. When my accident happened I knew that "normal" life would become my distant past. It would be a lie to say there is part of me that does not miss what was, but the linearity of time offers no respite for those who linger in the past and cling to the false hope of a return to normalicy. Someone doesn't get beaten to death and reconstructed against their will, only to have the the complex gravity of social direction embedded in an epistemological / nihilistic narrative wherein any outcome is very grey, perspective based "evil" and expect "normal" to factor back in to their daily life.
In context to these current accusations, "racist" was the very least of my immediate concerns, yet at the forefront as well. We are all the same race: human, and all else is categorically a sub-race with no value. People will forever have their flaws despite physical changes and evolutionary progression; the mind can be shaped, swayed and altered, but our soul is what makes us "human" – it is what we do with who we are that determines how we progress.
Though I'm no longer human in a strict sense, mine is a story of a struggle for racial identity, hanging on by a thread to remain a part of the human race. On the outside I may look like a slightly above average "white" guy, but underneath this military grade weaponry, endoscopic armor, optic enhancers, re-breather, and built-in sunglasses, I'm just a guy looking for the truth and my humanity.
That's why I'm speaking out to you now – for truth.
See, I think that in the end the world deserves to know the truth and make a choice about direction on their own without conflated propaganda and divisive agendas that benefit corporations or individuals only. Believe me, I've had to struggle to get to the bottom of things and could write books about my trials and tribulations. I could have chosen the easy route and let Sarif lie, let Taggart lie, or killed myself in an explosion to bury the world in ignorance. The difficulty in bearing the truth does not justify a lie, the difficulty in acting upon truth does not justify inaction, and the difficulty in paving a way doesn't justify following a predetermined order. My belief in these gave cause for me to make the tough choices, and I choose truth and integrity in spite of the challenges set before me.
It would be easy for me to deflect the accusations made against me and refer to my treatment in Hengsha and the numerous times I was called a "gwilo". "Gwilo" is a racial slur for "white person" and I was called that more often and for a longer period than the total speaking part of Letitia back in Detroit. In contrast, it would appear the implication could be rerouted to state racism isn't part of American society in the future. Although divisive and prejudicial behaviors still exist in 2027, they are on a much less superficial basis.The riot which broke out in Detroit against the augmented was spurred by fear and hate, not unlike many of the racial tensions between ethnic groups during your 1960's, and similarly facilitated by the propaganda of a few individuals to propel personal and political agenda. Apparently this point was lost and not the primary focus of my accusers.
Like augmentation, skin color is not an inherent causality; people do not act a particular way because of of them – people may re-act in a particular way because of them but that evidences the qualities lacking in those who do. More to the point, Letitia spoke as she did, not because of her ethnicity but because she's obviously uneducated, presumably homeless, and an established drunk. It was clear she was a "CI," or confidential informant with whom I dealt extensively during my tenure the police force. None of her behaviors are specific to an ethnicity or sub-race and I admit a bit of confusion as to why anyone would make such an association unless it was their self-image on public display that caused discomfort. Perhaps I've been accused of being racist because of my own skin color?
I would lighten the mood by stating "I'm not racist, I'm Black from the waist down" if it weren't also true.
Before I continue, let's examine the definition of racism. Racism is, "the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races."
So as some of you in the public point your bent fingers toward my direction, clamoring for "justice" and making hollow accusations of "racism," question whether the portrayal of Letitia was a play at labeling ethnic people a certain way but also question whether the behavioral characteristics are confined to a single ethnic group. It is entirely possible for people of the same ethnicity to have opposite spectrum behaviors and people of different ethnic backgrounds to share common behavioral characteristics. For example, another former associate named Jenny Alexander was an undercover police officer dressed as a prostitute to lure criminals. She was also am ethnic woman that shared my passion for justice and truth. If we suppose that the portrayal of Letitia exampled all members of the same ethnicity negatively, why does Jenny not equally portray them positively? I can only assume the motive of my accusers, but there lies a deep suspicion that they choose to see only what they want.
Many people calling me racist, do so under the false pretense of being underground social civic leaders and instigators of change; they claim their cause is just and their fight a moral one – that no person be treated unfairly. I would implore that these same people consider what a leader does and how and what a leader behaves. Does a leader respond or react, and in that, have these self-proclaimed leaders responded or reacted to something they do not understand? I say they have reacted and in poor taste without first thinking beyond their own prejudices and in turn ask if their actions evidence the message of their words.
My name is Adam Jensen and I thank you for your time.