Years ago there was a post on my dash — something like “friendly reminder that Kaidan Alenko is Latino because his face actor is” — and I made a whole response to it.
I can't find it now (Tumblr search is spiritually allergic to accuracy), but I still think about that exchange occasionally. And since I’ve had a few more years of social awareness, media literacy, and “oh wow younger me really walked right past the point didn’t she” moments…
…here’s the updated and hopefully better articulated version of what I meant to say and what I missed.
1. Back then I argued that Kaidan isn’t Latino. Canonically he’s Ukrainian-Canadian, full stop. If the writers wanted him to be Latino, they would've made him that way, as they made Vega or Cortez. They wanted to represent a minority community that’s actually big in Edmonton, where BioWare calls home.
And I still stand by that part: the game text positions him as Canadian first and as part of an implied Ukrainian diaspora second. That’s his in-universe identity. He is not written with a Latino cultural background — and that part is crucial to representation.
2. But I also thought the face actor's identity was irrelevant. I noticed they lightened his skin tone and I didn’t see a problem with that.
This is the part where I now wince at myself.
I did point out the skin-tone shift — and somehow still managed to say, essentially, “¯\_(ツ)_/¯ aesthetics happen.”
No. That was whitewashing, and I should have called it what it was. I approached the point and then made a biotic charge away from it.
So: I’m sorry I lacked the sensitivity to recognize the problem then. I see it clearly now.
3. And at the same time: my argument back then wasn’t about whether Kaidan not being Latino was good or bad representation — just that we shouldn’t impose an identity on a character that already has an explicitly stated one. Because "What does a Canadian look like?"
4. But here’s the nuance I didn’t articulate well before:
BioWare was trying to portray a future, post-racial Systems Alliance — one where humanity is diasporic, mixed, and not confined to our current racial categories. In that context, using a POC face actor to create “future human” aesthetics was meant to be aspirational.
In 2007, that read as forward-thinking (and very Canadian, might I add).
In 2017, it read as whitewashing and erasure.
And I honestly hope that in 150 years this really won't be an issue, you know?
5. And personally? I admit bias. Kaidan being Ukrainian-Canadian always mattered to me.
As a Slav, I almost never see my people portrayed as kind, stable, heroic, soft-spoken, principled men. We get mobsters, traffickers, Eastern European henchmen #4, and cleaning staff.
BioWare lightened him and erased the actor’s heritage — and that’s a real issue worth naming.
So when fans said “he’s actually Latino,” a part of me felt attacked and reacted like, “please don’t take this one crumb of representation away from us.”
But framing it as a zero-sum fight between minorities? That’s not helpful and not necessary. We can share.
6. Today, my take is this:
Kaidan is canonically Ukrainian-Canadian. His ethnic background was never explored in-game, and I honestly think that omission was deliberate and meant to be aspirational.
But it didn't land. His face actor is Latino. And BioWare whitewashed him to create Kaidan.
These truths don’t contradict each other. They describe different layers of how fiction is made, and they can absolutely coexist.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
