Statement on Card Bannings

Like many, the Old School Pacific Conference (OSPC) has spent a long time thinking about Wizards’ decision to ban several cards for their depiction of racist or other prejudicial themes. On one hand, several of these cards are obviously inappropriate and should never have been printed, but on the other, they were printed and have been a part of Magic for 25+ years. Our conversations have been intense, emotional, and at times deeply personal, but always in good faith, because one of the driving factors in our community is our friendship with each other. Additionally, abhorrent behavior by a few individuals with ties to Old School, including one Facebook group admin who changed its banner image to Invoke Prejudice’s art and several other players taking this opportunity to publicly edgelord the community, complicated our discussions.

In the end, after careful deliberation, OSPC has decided not to ban any of the cards Wizards has banned from the PAC format. We reserve the right to revisit this decision, and are paying particular attention to Invoke Prejudice, which is heinous to a degree far beyond the other cards. We also note that (as has always been the case) individual tournament organizers within OSPC are free to apply these policies as appropriate on a per-event basis. But while these cards are at best in very poor taste and at worst completely vile depictions of hate, we think taking action against these cards focuses efforts at addressing bias and exclusion in the wrong direction. The cards are not the problem; people are the problem.

We will instead focus, as always, on our players and their behavior. Old School has a tradition of managing our community based on what members do and how they treat each other. Use of these cards in a tournament to provoke others, generate conflict, demean others, or otherwise act in bad faith can and will result in players being ejected from tournaments, suspended, and/or banned as appropriate. This was true before Wizards’ announcement and remains true today. Wizards’ decision in no way increases or decreases our commitment to having a healthy, supportive, uplifting community; this has always been our goal.

In the end, again, Magic cards are not the problem. People playing the cards are the problem. Old School is small enough that its governance as a format has always been by personal relationships and social pressure to do the right thing. Unlike mainstream formats, which often can do little to players who deride others, make others feel uncomfortable, angle shoot, or otherwise act in harmful ways, but stop short of violating WotC/CFB rules, Old School tends to ask such people politely to leave. Old School is largely run by people who volunteer their time and money for charity and for love of the hobby, and we apply our community standards to players and try to lead by example. Players are the agents that make the community what it is, not the cards we play with.

We do want to address Invoke Prejudice specifically. This card is clearly the worst of the bunch. However, Invoke Prejudice is already a card seldom played in Old School, specifically because its artwork is objectionable. It does not take a banning from on high to address this card showing up in the format; it’s already rarely played, and when it is played, it is for its in-game effect, without malice or other ill-intent. These aspects of Old School may not be apparent to those outside the community, but playing Invoke Prejudice and smirking about it is a great way to earn one of those polite invitations to leave the community. Incidentally, players who have taken to social media to rub Invoke Prejudice in the noses of the community in the wake of all this will also find themselves receiving such invitations.

Lastly, we want to stress that systemic racism and other forms of intolerance are very real and run very deeply in this world, particularly in America. OSPC has absolutely no tolerance for any form of bias, exclusion, or persecution on the basis of someone’s race, gender identity, sexuality, nationality, disability status, religion, culture, or any other aspect of who they are. We also recognize that Old School unfortunately lacks a lot of diversity. Some of that is due to the nature of the format, which happens to appeal particularly to people who were young and playing Magic in the early/mid-nineties, namely white men who are now in their 30’s or 40’s. However, we also know that we can be better Allies to the minority community and foster a more diverse environment for this wonderful format we love.

To that end, PAC is committing to take several steps to improve our diversity and support our communities as a whole:

1. For the foreseeable future, we will dedicate our fundraising activities to support organizations who work for social justice causes, in particular focusing on those who are driving for racial equality and equity.
2. OSPC clubs will work within our local communities to find organizations we can support with our time, for example by working with youth programs to build Old School decks for kids and teach them to play Magic.
3. OSPC is investigating the idea of creating an annual award to celebrate members who have a positive impact on their communities, especially regarding social justice causes. More on this to come soon.

All clubs in the OSPC would like to stress to people curious about Old School that as long as they are not an asshole, they are welcome in our community. Our clubs already feature people of many different racial, ethnic, gender, religious, and sexuality backgrounds, and we would love to share our format with absolutely anyone who wants to check it out (well, except assholes). Please do not judge us all by the actions of a few loudmouths on social media.

Thank you for your attention,

The Old School Pacific Conference

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