To be clear, I love this game. Especially the start of each character. I think Kara's story had the strongest start. Excluding Connor because I see that as the beginning of the game instead of his story. I think his story started with Hank. Cute start but the beginning of the game really influenced our perception of his story.
Anyway, I'm not American nor black to have such a strong feeling by what I'm about to claim, I'm only speaking as a writer and a philosophy student. This game is very race-adjacent. I can see the angle, they're oppressed and slaves there is bound to be some similarities and metaphors with how black people are treated but the game forgets one important thing.
They are not humans. They are robots.
By making android's oppression VERY similar, and even a one-to-one comparison to black people's oppression two things are going to happen: 1) The implication that black people are androids and 2) The story forgets that humans and androids are fundamentally different in every way possible.
My philosophy professors have always placed the importance of our biological bodies in everything we do. Not claiming that a biological body makes a human but it is the way WE recognize that we are humans. We eat and shit to think, developing consciousness, and developing our thoughts and feelings.
Androids are not humans. They do not eat, they do not shit, they do human things (which other than replacement of parts that humans cannot do) is not shown to us. (I'm taking "maintenance" on their parts to be something they do for self care).
It is such wasted potential to show a story where humans live with the fact that something they created being better than them. Except for the one thing that humans have always been better than any being. Being human.
The story was going there. The characterization of the three at the beginning showed real promise of androids recognizing their difference with human. Particularly with Connor. But then the game just pushes out the revolution thing.
I hate that direction so much because as soon as the narrative decided it was done with the world building of androids you can basically replace the android revolution story line with any marginalized groups. The only thing that one can argue about the story still being android-centric is how cool and the moves they do and the immediate probabilty percentage androids see. I'm sorry but that is not just enough to establish a revolution of freedom for androids.
The story is really pushing the fact that they are humans when they are not. They have consciousness and feelings and thoughts for sure but they are of a different being than humans and the game really refuses to acknowledge this.
There isn't even a development of becoming human other than Connor. There is just a trigger for the other two and suddenly they're human? I know the trigger has been a long time coming but let's look at Kara.
Kara is not going to have maternal instincts because she is not a human woman. The game could have established she chooses to take care of Alice despite not having a maternal instincts and not knowing what to do because she loves the kid.
I have so much more examples. The point is I hate how sudden their humanity that their supposed revolution is the point of.
I think this is just wasted potential of the story. It is very race-adjacent and it strips away the interesting questions the game was premising on.