Hired Henchmen

[Yodaking]

Did we change the card art and mini selection to something new from 1.0? It looks like we still using the same white dudes with guns to me. If the card art and mini aren't referring to modern black culture within the US, then it's not offensive. The art and minis we use for the Hired Guns could be contentious if it were used for the Street Thug card, but we're not doing that here, nor should we.

Urban Dictionary (Thug 2016): (1) A thug is typically referred to a male or female who commits crimes for personal gain through stealing, selling drugs, but especially violent crimes such as robbery and assault.
(2) One with no place in civilized society. Highly aggressive mannerisms, tone of voice, and behavior. Makes you nervous to even be in the same room as that person. Highly likely to rob you or commit acts of violence.

Merriam-Webster (Thug): (1) A violent or brutish criminal or bully.
(2) A member of a group of murderous robbers in India's past whose activities were suppressed in the early nineteenth century.

Spoiler Alert!

The word's original and ongoing use to refer to criminals is still very much present in the culture at large, however, and use of thug by a white person to refer to a Black person is generally understood to lack the nuance the word carries when used by a Black person, and to instead be an offensive insinuation that a Black person can be assumed to be engaged in criminal behavior.

Dictionary.com (Thug): (1) A violent, lawless, or vicious person, especially one who commits a crime such as assault, robbery, or murder.(2) One of a former group of professional robbers and murderers in India who strangled their victims.

Spoiler Alert!

Usage note for thug
In American English, the word is disproportionately applied to nonwhite perpetrators of violence or crime. White teens disturbing the peace at a party with loud music are more likely to be called troublemakers or hooligans. Their Black peers are more likely to be labeled thugs for the same offense. And following this common racialized usage, thug is used by some and interpreted by many as a code word for Black. In extreme cases, thug is chosen as a dog whistle to imply that Black people are generally prone to violence or criminality.

Because thug has many implied connotations that may change depending on who is using the word and who is being described by it, it’s important to critically consider the context and tone around each particular instance of its use to truly understand what is being communicated.

Vocabulary.com (Thug): A thug is a bad guy or a bully, especially a violent one. A thug might break into someone's house, push its owners around, and steal their TV.

It's hard to reason with thugs, since they'd rather intimidate and physically hurt people than talk. A playground bully is one kind of thug, and an armed robber is an even more dangerous one. The noun thug may have its oldest roots in the Sanskrit word sthaga-s, "cunning or fraudulent," and it's definitely related to the Marathi and Hindi thag, "cheat or swindler." The earliest use of thug, from 1810, was "member of a murdering gang of robbers in India."

We are using the word correctly and within a non-racial context here.

I'm nay on changing the name of this card.

[japes]

My attempt with art was to match the existing minis many of us had...if you can find the art from the 1.0 card I'd love to use it. I could not.

As to the name change...

1. Henchmen is just more fitting...so fitting that the name of the mini is...wait for it...Henchmen.



2. I'm not one to make huge leaps to avoid offending people...but this is such low hanging fruit why make a fuss about it. It's an easy switch. A lot of our common squads are getting name changes BTW. Hand Ninja already did, Crime Ally Crooks likely will as well as 5th street beat cops. So if anyone wants to get those arguments out of their systems go for it.

3. Naying it is your right but naying something that is not based on Mechanics, Gameplay, or theme etc, seems a little aggressive.

[Karat]

Originally Posted by Lord Pyre

I personally rather drop the "level" from their name and just go Street Henchmen, as that's a bit of a meta name that comic readers would say, but they probably wouldn't in-universe. But minor point.

I like this actually.

[japes]

Originally Posted by Karat

I like this actually.

Yeah I'd be for that as well.

Fits on the card better.

[Ericth74]

Works for me

[IAmBatman]

Street Henchmen is OK. Still a bit of a mouthful. Would Street Goons be worth considering?

I’ll try to look around on comic art. Not saying I could do better, just really not a fan of what we have now, and I’m usually pretty easy to please on art stuff.

[Lord Pyre]

Probably something in a Spider-Man or Batman comic somewhere.

[IAmBatman]

We found some options

[japes]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Street Henchmen is OK. Still a bit of a mouthful. Would Street Goons be worth considering?

I’ll try to look around on comic art. Not saying I could do better, just really not a fan of what we have now, and I’m usually pretty easy to please on art stuff.

As I'm putting the card together for the Maggia Goons...I'm thinking Street Goon isn't a good fit.

[Ericth74]

We have Maggia Goon and I'm assuming at some point the Joker Goons, we have enough Goons right now.

[Splash]

I do wanna say personally, I'm very glad for the change here.
The Street Thugs, along with the Hired Guns in particular, are like one of the only questionable things that stuck out when I was initially getting into the project, but I took into account that it was an early design and the mini/art choices on Thugs and gave the benefit of the doubt (I also love that the group repurposed that one Heroclix mini that is straight up racist as a regular civilian dude). I usually have a hesitancy to step into social groups in general and am super glad I did here, since C3G is an amazing and supportive community of folks.

I do think the name could be slightly better. Hired Henchmen is a fun alliterative name that might fly better off the tongue. And they are being payed after all.
I could also maybe see Street Enforcers working here.

[Lord Pyre]

Alliteration is always good by me.